Ideations
A Retail Publication
Break-away Thinking
At the top of a new year, a new decade
in fact, thoughts run naturally to fresh
beginnings. Businesses in search of
ways to respond to the shifting economy
and its changing values will be urged
“to innovate” or to “value innovation.
”They’ll meet with consultants and
creative agencies that use the “i” word
indiscriminately (“We innovate!”)
reducing it to a tired buzzword that has
something to do with being creative.
Before any meaningful effort can be
made towards finding a bold new way
of competing, there needs to be some
clarifying of terms. “Innovation” means
simply “doing something in a new way.”
In business, that translates to “the
conversion of a new idea into revenue
and profits.” Something customers want.
There is a growing acceptance around
the term “design thinking” based on the
success of companies like Apple and the
consumer preference for products with
a sophisticated aesthetic.
But “creativity” —the birth of those new
ideas—has gone missing in the forest of
jargon. Maybe that’s because the word
itself, with its faint air of mystery and
association with renegade non-corporate
types, still doesn’t seem at home in the
world of commerce.
According to Bruce Dybvad, president
of Interbrand Design Forum, business
leaders who have been taught to rely on
established procedure and knowledge
to achieve their goals need a better under-
standing when it comes to contracting
for creative services to generate improved
business performance.
“I see a positive trend towards deciding
to bring creativity to the table, but a
counterproductive tendency to buy
creativity by the pound,” says Dybvad.
“Procurement officers are trying to get
the best deal on creativity, as though
it were a commodity. It’s not. Yes,
creativity is a process but few people
know how to bring about the environ-
ment, the chemistry and the provocation
that net the great, disruptive ideas that
are actionable—that can actually move
your business to a new place.”
A lifelong jazz aficionado, Dybvad points
to an intriguing case study recently
Issue 1 • 2010
published by Harvard Business School
professor Robert D. Austin, “Kind of Blue:
Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis.”
Non-musicians—such as managers who
aim to spark and sustain innovation for
competitive advantage—can learn a lot
of new notes from this story of creation
and innovation.
Since it hit the airwaves half a century
ago, Davis’s jazz compilation, Kind of Blue
is the most commercially successful jazz
album ever which, beyond the beautiful
music, makes it worthy of examination
in a business context.
As professor Austin tells it: We conceived
the study to get at questions about how
the creative process “detaches” from past
successes enough to leap to new levels
of success. You might call this “jumping
to the next S-curve,” the pattern that new
innovations typically follow. At first, early
adopters use them. Then more people
jump on board. Finally, the innovation
saturates the market. Often companies
have trouble getting a new S-curve going.
Artists do, too. People want to stay with
the thing that has brought great success.
Miles Davis defied the critics who
thought he had peaked with his previous
compilation, Milestones. But Kind of Blue
was a dramatic break from his past,
very successful style. Davis himself is a
fascinating example of a “manager” of
creative people and processes. His ability
to nurture talent is legendary. Finally,
the process that led to Kind of Blue is an
example of pushing boundaries and taking
experimentation right up to the edge of
failure in the pursuit of something new;
Davis pushed his musicians “to the
edge,” but he did it in a way that effectively
managed the risks. This might be some-
thing we can learn from in business as well.
Davis was looking for ways to break out
of a straitjacket. He wanted to more fully
realize the incredible potential of his team—
John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill
Evans. How could he give them more
freedom, more empowerment? Maybe
he realized that radical simplicity was one
way to create great music in a very short
time. He forced the musicians to approach
the music without any expectations or
preconceptions, often by giving them
minimal sketches and sparse instructions.
Maybe he realized that this recipe could
be improved further: get good songs,
simplify them as much as possible, get
the best players in the world, and force
them to listen to the music by not telling
them what to do.
One of the big problems in innovation is
how to free yourself from preconceptions
As in conversation, everything in jazz is
about the interaction between the players.
The legendary recordings of jazz are the
result of superb individual performances,
great listening and interactions within a
small number of improvisers. To make this
work, the players adhere to a set of shared
codes—almost like language—consisting of,
among other things, key, tempo, groove,
rhythm, song form, tradition, and harmony.
The “business” version of that might be:
get great materials, simplify the task to its
essentials, put your smartest people on it,
and force them to listen—to each other, to
the interaction between the company and
its customers, and to the market.
Miles Davis was known to have a
preference for first takes. Kind of Blue was
recorded in two short sessions of only
five and three hours, respectively. Short
sessions help musicians’ creativity to
flow and first takes often have a magical
quality that only exists when musicians
are approaching something without an
overly detailed plan. Working with a very
loose script forces you to listen intensely
to ensure that your contribution is
contextually relevant to what everybody
else is doing in the moment.
A simple framework that
allows for the unexpected
“This is a fascinating example of leadership,”
says Interbrand Design Forum’s Dybvad.
“Davis did the opposite of what the music
world expected him to do. He turned
away from his previous success. I look to
it as further validation of our own creative
teams who tend to be contrary in a
purposeful way.
“It’s an eternal challenge to reject the
norm, to push and be provocative without
scaring the client to death. It’s all how you
frame it. We create an environment, a
culture, for new ideas by giving ourselves
an oasis, a bubble away from the usual
analyses and methods. A liberating
approach with a loose structure that
engages and puts people at ease, so they
can look at things inside out.
“We work in short creative bursts that tend
to bring out the magical, playful qualities of
creation, not long drawn-out sessions that
mentally fatigue. And yes, the quality
of our talent can’t be overstated. Much of
the process is based on chemistry, an affinity
for staying in tune with one another. That’s
why not all creative teams are equal. The
definition of ‘creativity’ is simply ‘something
derived from the imagination.’ If you’re
searching for creative consultants, search for
those who know how to imaginatively frame
questions, consider multiple perspectives and
celebrate instinct and intuition.”
Austin’s findings seem to agree: One of the
big problems in innovation is how to free
yourself from preconceptions, to get outside
your expectations and normal tendencies,
so that you can create something really new,
without creating more risk than benefit. It
can be risky to push people or a process to
“the edge.” But what we’ve seen in various
cases is people, teams, and companies
coming up with strategies to get to the edge
without suffering serious damage. We see
people getting really clever at experiments
with cheap parts, or doing the risky things
inside a computer-based simulation.
Miles Davis shows us another way. Get really
good people and put them in situations they
can handle, but also circumstances that
challenge them and their preconceptions.
What would happen if you put great people
on a business problem and refused to let
them solve it in a habitual way?
“The pressures of commerce have a way
of wringing the creativity out of business
solutions,” says Dybvad. “But the economic
downturn has changed things. Businesses
need to get to innovation quickly and
efficiently. To do that, they need the
freedom to question assumptions about
consumers and markets. Which requires
an extraordinary creative process, one that
opens minds, allows for improvisation and
pushes boundaries with a purpose. Not all
creative is equal. The whole point is to bring
something new to life that people value.
For us, that means never losing sight of the
prize—the breakaway innovation that gets
you to commercial success.”
Chairman’s Commentary

The Most Valuable Retail Brands

There’s still plenty to be learned from the top retailers in the U.S.

We’re also looking at what’s possibly the that attracts and touches the consumer,
end of the era of scale as strategy in retail, from real estate to human resources, the
since very few brands opened the stores supply chain, store design, digital channels,
they planned to. packaging and partnerships.

The new entries onto the list are exciting
because they demonstrate smart, consis-
tent branding and the courage to stick with
a long-term vision despite short-term
pressure from shareholders.
Of course, we always look for innovation,
and even though entire markets were
hard hit, at least one company will inspire
you with the sheer amount of non-stop
innovating it did to simply maintain share.
Over the years, we have found that a lack of
knowledge about how brand works often
leads companies to misallocate resources.
When brand guides marketing, retail
executives have a much greater ability to
see the trade-offs with crystal clarity—in
other words, no brand can be good at
everything. And in order to play exclusively
to your strengths, you must understand
where the true strength of your brand lies
for the optimum return on investment.

In case you’re new to how Interbrand

We’ve very excited to unveil our second
“report card” of The Most Valuable Retail
Brands in the U.S., an assessment of the
companies that are most successful at
managing their brands.
Because of the economic turbulence
of 2009, we expected some movement
among the 50 top companies from last
year to this. Last year we talked about the
opportunities in a volatile market where
every consumer decision is up for grabs.
In that respect, the list speaks to some
very impressive plays that have moved
companies up in value.
In a year when almost every retailer
poured their resources into chasing
customers when ideally they would be
focused on engaging them, the fight for
survival has played out in interesting ways.
Some great companies have fallen sharply.
There are revealing insights in those
falls. For example, the classic reliance on
getting the product exactly right from
moment to moment can set a brand up
for a fast and broad drop. Brands tend
to be more stable when they invest in
innovations to maintain their influence,
difference and leadership.
values companies, let me back up just a Thoughtfully,
little. Brand helps a retailer create demand,
not cater to demand, because of the value
it bestows on the product or service. A D. Lee Carpenter
strong brand ensures relationships that
create future earnings by growing customer
preference and loyalty. P.S.
We’ll be sharing the league table and its
We measure the economic power of insights with you at Globalshop in Las Vegas.
brands in order to identify which business As always, we’ll have a very lively, interactive
elements create that power. The role brand hospitality room where you can join us to
plays in any business decision versus the discuss the findings, Room 701.
other components of that choice can be
gauged and connected to strategy. Looking
at business through the comprehensive
lens of brand can shed light on previously
unrecognized market opportunities and
help justify new investments.
The complexity of marketing your brand is
increasing. In fact, the nature of marketing
itself is changing from campaigns into inte-
grated branding programs—promotional
efforts that are in-store and out. As a result,
the pressure to understand what works
has never been greater. Brand value is a
comprehensive explanation of how to
measure all things simultaneously.
Brand thinking provides a way to
orchestrate everything about the business
 The Great Unequalizer by Scott Jeffrey

How creativity makes you different,

and keeps you that way.
One of my favorite things about being
a designer is the feeling I get when I
realize that creativity is at play. It’s a
bit hard to describe really, but when I
encounter something that has a lot of
creative thought and energy behind it, I
get an instant dose of inspiration...a bit
of an electric charge. And an immediate
appreciation for the results as well. When
this inspired moment occurs during a
shopping occasion, more often than not,
that appreciation inspires me to purchase.
I think that creativity, when applied
against the idea of brand, can be the Great
Unequalizer when it comes to an ever
increasingly competitive marketplace.
The retail landscape is littered with me-
too brands. “Brand A” will engage a
customer with creativity or a new idea
and as success mounts, others follow suit.
Copying is an easy way to stay current, to
level the playing field. But the brands that
rely on innovation rather than imitation
always seem to stay top of mind, and
that’s a great place to be.
Their particular creative spirit permeates
every touchpoint, and the touchpoints
stitch together to create a unique expe-
rience in the mind of the consumer. That’s
when the magic happens. The retailer
becomes more of an affinity brand.
By representing something more than just
fulfilling a need, the overall experience
creates an emotional bridge with loyal
followers. These “brand ambassadors”
come to expect that creative overtone in
their products and services. It makes that
brand Unequal from the rest.
Maintaining a brand’s creative mindset can Scott Jeffrey
be hard and challenging work. Personally, Chief Creative Officer
I tend to see the fun side of creativity, the Interbrand Design Forum
side that plays with your senses and the
environment around you. You can twist Scott and his team have been
and stretch ideas to bend old paradigms part of many client success
into something new. It’s exhilarating when
stories over the past 18 years.
the brand has the freedom to innovate
across the full complement of consumer He believes every retailer should
touchpoints. No part the experience is too have a distinctive, ownable
small to consider, since those that appear personality, something that
insignificant are often found to have can be “architecturalized” and
surprising impact.
made experiential. His team
Most of the top retail brands employ does everything possible to
creativity to some degree. All too often, support a client’s innovative
however, I find that companies employ thinking, and his love of the
creativity in spurts. Once they arrive at a
creative process is infectious.
solution, they let innovation run its course.
If you sit next to Scott on an
The most successful brands foster a creative
fluidity to continuously innovate. They airplane, you may catch him
don’t rest on their past triumphs. The brand writing and illustrating
ambassadors that they create reward them miniature comic books.
for their efforts with their feet, their hearts,
and most importantly their wallets.

Ideations
A Retail Publication by

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D. Lee Carpenter, Chairman & CEO

Jill Davis, Editor
Garrett Rice, Design/Production
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