Over the past few weeks, a lot of
conversations with colleagues
and friends in the profession
have been focused around discussions
on innovative ways to drive customer
consideration and product uptake.
It takes a lot of thinking to figure out
answers to this simple question because
we are used to thinking in an ideal world.
A world where you are surrounded by
programmers, coders, manufacturers
and prototypes that would ideally drive
innovation.
In our current situation, these are luxuries
and probably the reason many of us
are struggling with finding innovative
solutions to marketing in our current
crisis.
Innovation has become unhelpful in our
context. It’s a loaded word and only few
companies can get away with innovating
during this time. Innovation is dominated
by ‘giants’ in business, specific brands
would easily come to mind including
Apple, Safaricom, Netflix to name a
COMPLACENT MARKETING
Making Ingenuity Work
In Our Organizations
few. Innovation is out of reach for most
companies and in most cases requires
special talent and a robust and vibrant
organizational culture. It is a lot of
pressure to find innovative ways to deliver
our products and services to customers
and move the needle.
It is this overthinking that is making many
companies join the digital bandwagon as
late adopters. Many organizations ideally
have all the resources at hand; it is the
reorganization of these resources that is
required to achieve the desired results. The
outcome would then be ingenuity and not
innovation.
Ingenuity is simply doing something
different and new, or doing the same thing
in a new way by focusing on small changes
that would give the desired impact. Any
big dramatic changes in response to our
current situation would then be termed as
innovation.
A lot of these ideas that speak to ingenuity
are already evident as we are forced to solve
problems in an evolving environment,
In marketing, we often say the fundamental
principles never change. It’s only the planning
of the principles and execution that
change. Ingenuity operates on this principle
by focusing on solving problems in the most
efficient and effective way with the resources
at hand. Ingenuity doesn’t drive disruption
or transformation, it drives authentic
engagement and offers real solutions.
By Diana Obath
limited research ideas, limited resources
and reduced budgets. Larger companies
seem to be struggling with the idea
of ingenuity more than the smaller
companies. A simple example would be
a delay in larger companies signing up
on digital e-commerce platforms such as
Jumia, Glovo or such other firms.
Recently as I was going through my
emails, my attention was drawn to one
trusted online delivery firm that was
happy to announce that they will now
begin grocery and supermarket shopping
delivery services. I was first surprised
that with their size and scale they were
not already doing it; and secondly, I
wondered why it took them so long to
start doing it. They had already lost out on
the opportunity that the other companies
enjoyed to drive up their profits 2-3 weeks
into the crisis. Additionally, customers
had already tried and dialed down to
specific providers and apps.
In a similar scenario, a local microfinance
lender recently called me and asked if I
would like a weekend loan. I was surprised
by the call as I had never dealt with
them before, nonetheless, I allowed the
extremely polite telesales lady to say her
piece. She explained that I could apply for
a weekend loan which works like a mobile
loan via a USSD or opt for asset financing
through their app.
I asked what kind of asset finance she
was inferring to and she said a car or
home renovation loan. I only needed to
download the app and upload my details
in the application form, attach photos of
my ID, pay slips, send photos of the car,
attach a valuation report from my insurer
and attach a copy of the log book and they
would process the loan within 24 hours. I
could borrow up to Ksh.5 million based
on the value of the declared asset. I asked
her whether they would want to see the
car and she said the insurance valuation
report and my pay slips would be enough
to help them determine my suitability for
the loan.
The ease of the application process was
quite interesting for me. This comes
at a time when mainstream banks are
reporting low revenue due to reduced
borrowing, yet they have contact details
of millions of clients who may have
bought cars or other assets through their
financing facilities and clients who are
still receiving monthly salaries and qualify
for loans or top-ups.
Much as this is a high-risk approach,
they also have access to all resources that
would allow them to determine the credit
worthiness of customers in their database
and pick those with high credit scores
allowing them a more targeted approach
to sell their loans and improve their loan
books and revenue. The big financial
institutions are probably only looking
at increasing their mobile loan portfolio
and not secured loans. All factors held
constant, only bankers would determine
the success of this approach, but it is an
idea worth considering. Such ideas do not
require innovation but ingenuity.
Smaller brands and companies may
emerge the biggest winners out of this
crisis by being cleverly inventive and
resourceful. They have never known the
luxury of having highly skilled talent and
an abundance of resources for innovation.
They have often struggled to find a voice
in the market and have never been able to
compete with overt marketing messaging
and tactics employed by bigger brands.
They have however taken advantage of
the ‘reduced noise’ in the market to get to
the ear of their potential clients, making
it easy for them to gain competitive
advantage by offering solutions that
are well within reach of the customers.
Smaller firms have realized that we are
in an existential struggle that requires
survival of the fittest and swiftest.
Since the start of the pandemic, we
have also witnessed a lot of repurposing
by companies and brands. Alcohol
manufactures are making sanitizers,
manufactures of clothing items are
Ingenuity is simply doing something different
and new, or doing the same thing in
a new way by focusing on small changes
that would give the desired impact. Any
big dramatic changes in response to our
current situation would then be termed
as innovation.
making masks, water dispensing jugs are
now being turned into face protectors,
hotels have listed for take away services
on delivery apps, fast food restaurants and
local eateries are selling deconstructed
meals, local artisans of metal and
woodwork who would normally make
gates and tables are manufacturing noncontact
hand washing stations, software
developers are improving online software
to limit human resources required
for output. The list is endless. Every
organization has the same challenge, the
same problem and each is tackling it in its
own unique way.
In marketing, we often say the
fundamental principles never change.
It is only the planning of the principles
and execution that change. Ingenuity
operates on this principle by focusing on
solving problems in the most efficient
and effective way with the resources at
hand. Ingenuity doesn’t drive disruption
or transformation, it drives authentic
engagement and offers real solutions.
Bringing ingenuity to life works on
many levels and saving these gains
will be beneficial for the growth of
many industries. The output of Chief
Strategists, Chief Innovation Officers and
Lead Creatives within organizations will
continue to be tested on this level even
after the crisis when retention levels of
these ingenious ideas begin to operate.
Some will hold but some may become
flaccid.
The penetration of e-commerce and
cashless systems for example, has forced
small businesses including the matatu
industry to adopt mobile payment
services. The government has been unable
to get the matatu sector off a cashless
system for many years despite proof of
concepts such as the Citi Hoppa Cards
and KCB pre-paid cards, but this crisis
has quickly launched the sector into a
cashless payment system.
Saving such gains is the next big
challenge once the grinding need for the
ingenuity lapses. One major benefit a
cashless matatu industry would give the
government is increased tax collection
through the cashless channels that are
easier to track and regulate. The retention
of this idea will be an interesting one to
keep watch on.
The key take out in this obviously trying
season to many is that we must stop
thinking in a linear pattern. We need to
focus on finding the key ideas and features
that will genuinely allow us to connect
with our customers during this windy
times. Ingenious ideas not necessarily
innovative ideas.
We should then repurpose and take
advantage of the existing market need and
sales opportunities to serve them to our
clients. Speed of execution and relevance
should be the deciding factors of our
ingenuity. The ideas adopted should be
able to drive the required margins and
profit for sustainability.
Let’s make ingenuity work for us during
this time and get out of the trap of
unnecessary buzz words that would bind
our thinking and limit our innovation
when we will eventually need it.
Diana Obath is a seasoned Public
Relations and Communications
Specialist. You can commune with
her on this or related issues via mail
on: [email protected].
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MAL36/20 ISSUE