Creativity in business model generation

Addressing some of Australia’s leading Tech and Engineering thinkers, I was asked “How do we shift business models and deliver value to adopt to changing technologies in marketing "

As I was stood there, it made me think of how much I rely on Google traffic maps to get anywhere on time! I’m very mindful of my symbiotic relationship with technology and the fact I take it for granted. The beauty (for me) is in the fluidity and integration of technology.

As a marketer we aim to create moments, even if they’re miniature WOW for customers. Sometimes, we don’t even realise how WOW they are until we have a bad one.

Value = Proposition + Experience

Brands getting it right are the one’s who understand their customer’s perception of value – combine improved experiences with a sprinkle of value dust to deepen the brand relationship. It’s about truly understanding our customer values, behaviours, the challenges and annoyances of their daily lives – and coming up with better solutions.

Image courtesy of Una Laurencic @ Pexel

As technology helps fuel new opportunities, it’s also fuelling the pace of change, consumer expectations and a more empowered, experimental consumer. Marketers have always needed to deliver the right balance within the marketing ‘mix’ – technology is increasingly putting us under greater pressure to perform. We need to deliver better value, better experiences, typically at lower costs and quicker (agility in technical terms).

A question was posed the other day on LinkedIn “is technology reducing marketers creativity” – for the good ones I think it’s making us more creative – we have to be to keep on top of the game!

Create your own play-book to ‘shift’ the model

I don't believe there's one answer to "shift a business model". I get excited to see the creativity in business model generation – we see niche becoming mainstream (think Net-a-Porter) mainstream becoming more niche (Lego pick a brick) innovation built around select customer segments (think giffgaff with its community supported mobile network) and Lulu.com linking writers with publishing dollars. Models and the way we make money are becoming much more fluid and creative - we all have our individual pathways to achieve this.