The Power of Dumb Ideas/ Marketing

strategy+business | enews

The Power of Dumb Ideas, by Randall Rothenberg

New York, September 29, 2005 -- Forget what the advertising gurus say about big ideas and differentiation. The solution to marketing's ills is not more creativity, it's less. A study of 1,300 U.S. companies by Chuck Lucier, senior vice president emeritus at Booz Allen Hamilton, reveals that only four broad ideas, copied again and again across sectors, accounted for 80 percent of the breakout businesses created between 1985 and 1995: power retailing, megabranding, focus/simplify/standardize, and the value chain bypass. The big idea doesn't have to be brand new. In a world overwhelmed by complexity, it's the context that gives dumb ideas their power to galvanize a team, create faith, and build the world's greatest marketing department.

This article is excerpted from the forthcoming book The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable, by the Group of 33 and edited by Seth Godin (published by Portfolio).

To read the full analysis: http://www.strategy-business.com/enewsarticle/enews092905

Art Kleiner, Editor-in-Chief, strategy+business