Innovation vs Stodgy
It struck me that as we do a lot of visual solutions for the tech industry like this pencil sketch ideation piece we did for HP on Client Virtualization that both the image and the innovative technology and approach is anything but stodgy but exciting and progressive and solving real business challenges.
But we work with a lot of industries and the preconceptions are that anything that comes out of them are stodgy. Usual suspects are government, healthcare, oil and gas (not solar or sustainability approaches), transportation, manufacturing, real estate, accounting, recruiting, retail banking and insurance, construction and the list goes on. And so the problem becomes an unusual one or more specifically – a double layer of communication challenges.
The Double Layer Problem for Stodgy Industries
There are two rather significant communication or positioning moves that have to happen – first you have to shatter the preconception that you as a member of a so-called stodgy industry is not following the status quo or trying to circumnavigate that by simply emphasizing the you have excellent customer service (you are better than that aren’t you?) but truly offer innovative differentiated value.. So if played out right – and of course I am going to suggest leveraging visual solutions like we offer at Frame Concepts, you may able to play your industries’ preconceptions as a strength.
It will seem unusual and provocative that such innovation is cropping out of a sea of supposed blandness. In the interactive tablet pictogram we did for a member of the construction industry we did just that – we called out every decision maker and influencer below the scene and with a dramatic before and after scene, suggesting that there is a better way to handle the installation phase of a large scale project.
The Second Layer – And Then of Course There is the Explanation and Engagement Thing
Once you grab them that you are not the usual stodgy suspect (and certainly progressive visual communications will not hurt), you still have the challenge of clearly and intuitively showing that you have a differentiated offering that really, really, really offers value to a well known problem within that industry. This is the same problem that surface for techs and startups that do not have the initial stodgy preconception to worry about. And its not easy.
Literally on the back of a cereal box you have to quickly bring in your viewer so they come to terms with how you work and the differentiated value they will receive by taking on your offering. We spend a lot of time at the pencil sketch phase to bring this point out working with our clients in the ideation phase to make sure we get this right.
You Solve Both Problems with One Bold Stroke
And its difficult for your audience not to think you are innovative and progressive and that you in fact have a solution that meets their need once they conceptually take you in through a bold visualization. You get a conscious or unconscious lift when your offering is couched in a cutting edge communication medium – be that an infographic, an interactive solution pictogram, an animation or data-driven dynamic data visualization or any integrated hybrid version of the above. It might not be fair or logical (rather psychological) that you get this lift by using a visual communication solution but then again it was not fair or logical that you had to inherit a stodgy preconception about your exciting offering just because you exist within an industry that is perceived as stodgy.
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