HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR BRAND’S INNOVATION STORY

Every year the Consumer and Electronics Show (CES) leaves a twisted wake of consumer tech trends fueling media and analyst commentary. Recently, after our CASACOM tech PR team supported a consumer electronics client in their CES efforts, one of our food industry public relations clients mentioned that they felt a bit left out of all the seasonal hype concerning new tech wearables, smart cars, eyes–in–the–sky and other innovations.

We are happy to report there is hope for strategic communicators focused on products that don’t have an electrical current running through them, at least not yet anyway. Stories of product innovation are certainly not cordoned off to the halls of CES. In fact, the unique story of your brand’s innovation approach needs to be a key component of your ongoing content strategy no matter what industry you operate in.

The following are some key steps that will help you craft your brand’s unique innovation story :

• First, take inventory of key corporate and product milestones of the last five years including product incarnations, company processes, even acquisitions or other corporate developments. See if there are any trends that stand out, any technologies, materials or development processes that are unique to your way of doing things.
• Now, determine the internal and market impact of those changes. This should provide you with solid content that will be the roots of a story to be told and updated frequently.
• Consider key points of innovation that customers and audiences will be looking for over the next 24 months. Key story points related to your innovation path with direct links to market needs can now be crafted.
• These points can now be pulled into your own story of product and process innovation presenting your unique understanding of the consumer, their needs, and your innovation approach to meet those needs.
• Remember a story always has a hero. In your case it should perhaps be your own internal thought leader and the vision they had that brought them to a eureka moment. A hero can be an underdog as well, local heroes who grow, craft or provide services to your customers directly. A hero can be a new arrival with new ideas and a way to bring new strengths to an experienced team.

Despite it being probably the most mistaken and overused term in business, the story of innovation within your company needs to be a key differentiator in your external and internal communications. What ever direction your story takes, it should support your team’s drive to reach its potential. It should be at the core of any communications plan and support your brand’s success, attract the best minds, the best partners and drive development of the your best products and services.