Use these creative marketing ideas

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I haven't tried to make this site a comprehensive manual of 'everything you need to know about sales and marketing'. You will always need to create new marketing ideas of your own. I'm sure you have creative ideas all the time about your business, products, services and customers. Sometimes the day-to-day pressures make it difficult to find the time for new ideas. Here are some kick-start methods for coming up with new creative marketing ideas:

1. Random word

Edward de Bono, the founder of lateral thinking, apparently used a similar method to invent the 'picture in picture' TV concept some years ago. His creative idea was based on the following approach. Take a dictionary. Pick a number between 1 and 20. Open the dictionary at a random page. Count down to the word corresponding to your chosen number. Then pick the next noun (object or thing) listed after that.

Now write your random word at the top of a blank sheet of paper. Underneath, down the left-hand side, list as many words as you can think of connected with the random word. Be as wild and obscure as you like with your links. Now against each one, make a link with the problem you are trying to solve, or the idea you are trying to create.

Here's an example:

• Problem: How to increase response to mailshots
• Random word: Pigeon

Then take the most useful ideas and use them! It's just a way of stimulating the creative process, focused on what you want to achieve.

2. Reverse thinking

Take a blank sheet of paper and list all the ways to achieve the opposite of what you want. Reverse each of those and you will have some positive and creative ideas, some of them very unexpected.

Example: If you're trying to identify the benefits of your products or services, answer the question “What are all the things that could happen if they don't do what I want them to?”. Simply reverse those to identify the benefits to them.

3. Twenty answers

Take a blank sheet of paper and write the question “How can I …” (whatever you need to do to solve your most pressing problem or burning desire) across the top. Down the left hand side write the numbers from 1 to 20. Then think of every way you could possibly answer the question. Be wild, be outlandish. Some crazy creative ideas can produce some sensible ones if you think about them for a while. Don't criticise the ideas as you go along, just write them down. Don't stop until you have the full twenty. Then evaluate each one more fully.

4. Creative unhappiness

Try this one if you're trying to think of new ideas for products or services. List all the things that really 'bug' you or make you unhappy. If you think of ideas to solve your own problems, you can bet there are millions more people out there who would want it too. Here are some of my pet hates: flies, wasps, road rage, poor service. Solve these and I'll beat a path to your door!

5. Mind mapping

Tony Buzan invented the mind map and has written many excellent books on the subject. See any of his books for more detailed explanations and uses.

The mind map is a pictorial way of listing your ideas. With a normal list, you can only add to the end, or insert ideas within the linear list. A mind map lets you add to any part of a diagram, not just to the end or middle of a list. In this way, you can group related ideas together, rather than jumping all over the place. Here's an example based on “planning a business trip”. Just click on the picture for a larger image.

To use the mind map creatively, just let your mind wander from the central subject, associating ideas as you go. Pretty soon you'll have a full sheet of ideas and connections.

Here are some more mind map examples and instructions to get you started. Also check out

(Tony Buzan's latest book including mindmaps - August 2007).

A Low-cost Action Plan for Generating Creative Marketing Ideas

1. Decide what is your most pressing problem or burning desire at the moment. Select one of the methods above and give it a full half-hour of your attention. You'll be surprised what you come up with.

2. Select a second method and give it another half-hour. This will give you more practice and enable you to compare the two methods.

3. Try all the methods over a period of time, and use your favourite ones regularly to keep in practice. Soon you should be able to generate a bunch of new creative marketing ideas with a few minutes of concentrated thought.

Finally, here is an assortment of additional creative marketing ideas to get you going:

• Zero-budget creative marketing ideas
• Marketing methods I would never use
• Other creative marketing ideas
• Creative ideas for success management
• Good business ethics
• Strategic thinking