Here is the description of your decision-making headings:
SUBSTITUTE: Replace your current sales / product WHO: Helps you identify individuals and groups
focus with something else.
who might be prospects for your travel idea or
those who can help you i.e. suppliers, colleagues
COMBINE: Consider how a combination of etc.
products / strategies might boost sales.
WHAT: Helps identify all the things involved in this
ADAPT: Change some part of your marketing action: the requirements, difficulties, rewards,
strategy to include / exclude social media, old read tape, numbers, specifications…
media.
WHEN: Schedules, dates, durations, start times,
MODIFY: Revise the attributes of your sales- milestones, checklists…
marketing-business plan.
WHERE: Places, locations, focal points,
PURPOSE: Think about what your promotion is departments, processes…
supposed to do. Refocus, repurpose.
WHY: Helps identify the understanding and
ELIMINATE: Remove elements of your plan that reasoning behind the action.
reduce sales / marketing functionality.
HOW: Identifies how the situation developed,
REARRANGE: Change directions. Recreate. Turn it actions taken, to be taken, steps for success,
upside-down, inside-out. Reverse it, modify the process, implementation…
order of operations or any other hierarchy
involved.
Next Step: Decide what your sales or marketing challenge is. Review each W5 heading and make
your notes such as WHO is involved (clients, suppliers, staff) then continue on to WHAT and
through to HOW. The next step in the process is to review your W5 notes as you apply each of
the SCAMPER headings.
Questions that pop up might be: should you substitute one brand for another, should you
examine the purpose of your promotion – is it to drive sales by email or drive prospects to your
website? Could you, should you combine this promotion with another? Using this decision
making model is not a quick win. It will take an hour or two for you think through each
combination. The outcome will be worth it and you will be more than confident that you have
indeed been thorough in reviewing your idea or plan, noting the upsides and the downsides. You
are good to go. If in doubt, ask a colleague to review your work with you.
The end result will be a page full of ideas that you must then prioritize and re-write into a doable
timeline. Thinking INSIDE the box will become second nature and you will speed up. Better if you
can work with a colleague to bounce the ideas around, to question them, and then decide on
your plan.
If you have any questions about using this grid you can contact me here. ?
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