For decades, distributors in the promotional products industry have gone to market by targeting businesses in a specific geographic area, dropping off catalogs, and waiting for orders to appear which allowed them to achieve a certain degree of success. However, many continue to do business in the same way without altering their approach or way of thinking decade after decade. This is a mistake.
Consider an iconic company of the 20th Century: Kodak. Founded in 1888, Kodak defined innovation and disrupting the marketplace by inventing the first camera that average people could use. Throughout the 20th Century, Kodak was THE name in photography owning 90% of the market share for film in the United States as everyone tried to create their own “Kodak moment.” However, when digital technology became both affordable and accessible in the late 1990’s, Kodak was slow adapting to desires of their target audience and failed to recognize how quickly digital cameras would be commoditized. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy and now has a brand that has been completely forgotten in the digital photography revolution.
Kodak relied on the past as a blueprint for business success for the future and failed because they stopped innovating and disrupting the marketplace. Quite simply, they were left behind.
How many promotional product distributors are charting the same course with their future?
This isn’t to say that being disruptive through innovation and reinvention isn’t challenging or without risks. Embracing a forward-thinking thought process requires a business owner to let go of traditional strategies and venture into uncharted, uncomfortable waters. It may not be easy, but it’s essential to sustained growth.
Below are 5 steps to shift your mindset to disrupt your company and challenge your success.
Honor the past, but look to the future – The past is a great teacher, but a terrible predictor of future success. Holding on to the past will limit your imagination and keep you to thinking small. Look to disruptive companies outside the industry like Apple, Amazon or Zappos for great examples of marketplace disruption.
Be courageous – Allow yourself and your team to share their ideas in an open, judgment free environment. If people don’t feel safe sharing ideas, they won’t embrace the spirit of disruption, innovation, or reinvention. Have a monthly brainstorming meeting about the future of the business where everyone is secure in the knowledge that there are no bad ideas in brainstorming.
Embrace failure – New ideas will go through numerous trials and errors before they are fully ready to implement. The Apple Newton was a handheld personal data device in the early 1990’s and was a colossal failure that almost destroyed the company. However, many of its concepts and functions were later integrated into the iPhone, one of the most successful products in history. Encourage yourself and your team to view failure as the necessary fuel for innovation.
Do the opposite – Richard Branson (Virgin), Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines), and Steve Jobs (Apple) had a great propensity to zig while their competition zagged. They changed expectations, pushed through obstacles, and embraced ideas that others feared. This allowed them to not only stand out, but to disrupt their chosen marketplaces leading to wild success.
Reject Limits – Organizations that disrupt are continually met with resistance, both from inside and outside forces. The path forward takes grit, refusing to accept defeat, and the resilience to push forward.
One last part – and perhaps the most interesting piece – of the Kodak story: Kodak developed the first digital camera in 1975. In a move that eliminated countless jobs and drove the company to bankruptcy, the product was dropped because senior management feared it would threaten Kodak’s traditional film business. They embraced the complacency of the day and put blinders on to the future they themselves were creating.
The lesson learned from Kodak: success today isn’t only about having a history of being innovative. It’s about continual reinvention and challenging your own success. It’s about disruption.
And when you shift your thinking to disrupting a crowded and commoditized marketplace, you truly begin to stand out.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, a digital marketing, media, and advertising agency, and has over 20 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, president of the Regional Association Council (RAC) board, and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, and developing branding that resonates with a target audience. He can be reached at bill@promocorner.com.