How do you come up with the ideas for a new product? Or for a new advertisement?

Most of us take the “grip it and rip it” approach. We start with writing a first sentence, and we charge ahead, writing whatever seems to logically follow it.

That gets the job done, but it doesn’t always get it done well. Stepping back and thinking about alternatives often (usually?) produces better results than charging ahead with our first thought.

We can improve our results by being “systematically creative”. If we ask ourselves probing questions about what our clients need and how we can fill those needs in a new and better way, we will come up with better solutions.

For the last 50 years, Edward De Bono has been one of the leading teachers of thinking creatively. His most famous book is Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (Perennial Library)

Just a few days ago Shelli Walsh created a slide show on creative thinking for marketers, called How to Have Ideas.

In the slide show she refers to many of De Bono’s concepts.

This is a quick read and will give you a lot of useful ideas for improving all your marketing tasks.

See it here: How to Have Ideas.

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