I often meet people or brands saying everything has been done and there’s no room for innovation in their bransch.

Never, no, not in a million years! There is always room for product innovation.

Sometimes all it takes is looking at your business from a different perspective. What the iPhone has done to the mobile business is of course the obvious example. However, Mr. Singh’s Bangras Sausages that I found on the dieline is a more fun and almost better example.

What these guys have done is innovated a business that haven’t seen any innovation besides size and taste for the last 100000 years. They’ve created sausages that are “branded” with an edible henna skin. As often before it’s new technological innovations that drives the change. In this case the possibility to print the henna on the sausage and then cover it with a thin sleeve. I can only start to think what will happen to hot dogs positioned towards kids…

The best way (apart from staying curious) to force your brand into thinking different is asking the question; ‘what would happen if our customers…’ and then ad some kind of phrase that creates a momentum. The answer usually puts your products or services in a new perspective.

Here are 35 ways to help your brand thinking different. The list could go on and on but I had to go take care of the kids that woke up.

What would happen to our products/services if our customers:

1. were as big as King Kong?
2. were as small as a mouse?
3. were rich as Bill Gates?
4. didn’t have any money?
5. could breath under water?
6. could fly?
7. slept at day and were awake at night?
8. were religious?
9. didn’t believe in a god?
10. were secret agents?
11. had to make people laugh all the time?
12. didn’t have any brain?
13. were as smart as einstein?
14. had no sense of location?
15. didn’t need food?
16. didn’t have any ears?
17. didn’t understand how to use a computer
18. had no hands
19. could all sing like hummingbirds
20. switched to the competitors products
21. never left their homes
22. all lived on the country side
23. all lived in the city
24. were paralyzed by color
25. were threatened by aliens
26. were aliens
27. smelled like fish
28. were movie stars
29. loved animals
30. were afraid of dogs
31. had kids
32. had no kids
33. had constant access to the internet
34. didn’t have any internet
35. were kings and queens!

Linus Omark, the 6th most viewed video on YouTube this week.

The 6th most viewed video worldwide on YouTube this week is a video showing Swedish hockey player Linus Omark, drafted 4th by the Edmonton Oilers, scoring in a friendly exhibition game against Switzerland.

Linus does what every innovator would do – he dares to do different.
And differentiation is what earns him fame.

If you’re into advertising, marketing or any kind of business for that sake you have so much to learn from this. Hell, if you’re looking to achieve anything there’s everything to learn.

In the end of the 80s I was privileged to be taken on as a member of the Swedish national snowboarding team. That’s when I first realized what differentiated the people who made the it in life and people who didn’t – the people in the team didn’t care what people thought of us, we did our own thing no matter what. I especially remember a snowboarding camp in Valfjället, a small ski resort (hill) in Värmland, Sweden. About 70-80 teens had gathered for a half pipe camp arranged by Greger Hagelin who later founded WE.

Me, years later piloting Greger Hagelin and WE co-founder David Hedman for a trip in a Piper PA-28 to Gotland.

It rained every day, yet early every morning before the lifts opened up a small group of us started to hike the pipe. Then once the lifts closed down that same group still hiked the pipe, the rain still poring down. Not much of a winter experience but for us it was all about passion. In that group we were all part of the national team or soon to be. The others practiced for an hour or two before getting pissed about the weather and leaving for the warm cabins. Once we got in later in the night we were told how stupid we were for staying out there all day soaking wet. We didn’t care.

If you wanna achieve something big. If you want your advertising or marketing activities to reach further. You’ve gotta do things differently and also be prepared to make a fool out of yourself. Don’t care what people will say if you fail. Get up and try again. Do your own thing.

So, when Linus, currently playing for Lulea HF, gets out on that ice and decides to try something he’s been practicing for hours, hours and more hours he feels sure of himself. He will win. However if he would have missed I’m sure he would have tried again.

Are you prepared to stick your nose out? Or do you play it safe?

The Lamborghini Miura – A timeless car

What makes an object timeless? Why in some cases do we all end up liking something so much so it rises from being just another thing to instead becoming culture? Certain designs and certain objects has that little extra, they’re like an open fire – we can’t stop staring. And what’s even more strange is that often are these timeless objects simplistic, clean and not very complex in their structure. One would think we would grow tired of them but no, we grow more and more fond of them every year. One things for sure, it’s not about luck! 

Darth Vader – A timeless charachter

In order to create something timeless you’ve gotta set your goal right from the beginning. It has to be bolder, bigger, better, different from any goal that has been set up before. I call it Megagoals. Basically, you wanna be the best in the world.

Helvetica – A timeless font

Megagoals are set up by people and brands who strive to create something unique, something that will change their category, they don’t take no for an answer and their way of thinking is out of the box. On top of that they’ve got a strong sense that their idea is the right one, not matter what people say. Only by thinking like this can you change history and make your brand timeless.

The Concorde – A timeless aeroplane

If you wanna create timeless things – accept failure. Accept that you won’t always reach your goals, but the sheer fact of setting a goal 10 times higher than your competition will put you ahead of the pack and leave a mark that your grand children’s kids will tell people about.

The Eiffel tower – A timeless structure

So, think about your brand and your products. How can you create the next timeless object. The thing, the gadget, the icon and innovation that will define your brand for centuries to come?

Apple – A timeless brand

Whatever it is, make sure you aim to be 10 times better than the existing competition.

And hey, don’t come telling me that it’s a risk – that’s the price we pay for greatness!

I just got back from reading a post on Autoblog about Saab 9-3X and 9-5 officially confirmed for 2009 rollout. And the post is accompanied with the image above.

Here lies the SAAB problem. This image is probably number 200490934782 in line that i’ve seen the last years promising me that SAAB is about to release something that will kick ass. And then when they get a car on the market it’s a disappointment.

I have no doubt in my mind that SAAB has the competence to build one of the best cars on the market, a car that people will love, a car that will be known worldwide for unique ideas and solutions. After all, if we look back in time SAAB has a history of inventing great things for everyday cars.

SAAB’s problem is really not that different from any other brand. What SAAB has got to do is rise to the occasion. It’s time to step up, skip the internal politics and make that vision come alive again.

In many way’s they have some of that uniqueness that people crave from a brand that leads the way, but then on the other hand the car is filled with stuff that makes you go blah. SAAB has a future, but it’s not mainstream, it’s about being unique and launch cars that fill a space in the market that no one else does. You have to get back to building your brand on innovations and differentiation…for real!

B ut until you do, please stop telling people about these fantastic conceptual cars that never make it to the market. Set peoples exceptions right and outperform instead of vice versa.

Danish Brewery, Jacobsen Brewhouse has released the most expensive beer in the world. This little drug is called Vintage Nr. 1. The price tag is €261.

It’s funny. Neil French, legendary copywriter created a campaign for Singapore Press Holdings that was to prove to clients who believed that beer could only be advertised on television, that press was a viable medium. Neil created one of the cooler campaigns ever. Instead of conveying the obvious message in ads he created a product – in this case a beer brand, to prove that press indeed worked great when you needed to advertise beer.

Neil and his team went against all percieved rules. The beer was dark, extremely strong. No classical pouring shots, no male bonding, no status symbols, no babes and the ‘product’ named XO (cognac classification) was designed to look like a mix between a bottle of champagne and beer. Basically Neil broke all rules that could be broken.

The result was an incredible success. Demand for this non-existent product went through the roof and local bar-men were assaulted for not stocking it.

So, when Jacobsen launches the Vintage in a limited edition consisting of 600 bottles the odds are good. The fact that the brewery commissioned Danish artist, Frans Kannik, to create a series of four lithograph labels for the bottles makes the odds even better. Last but not least, the Vintage Nr. 1. has been aged in Swedish and French oach casks for six month.

Last but not least. Never, never stop innovating your brand.