Everyone with an opinion wants to predict big trends and ideas for 2012; so here is mine:

• Create a Youtube video series like Blendtec did with “Will it Blend” and get millions of dollars in free advertising.
• Get millions of dollars in free advertising, exposure, get fans involved in the success of your company, and let fans create your next commercial like Doritos did for their SuperBowl ads.

The next big idea for your business to dramatically increase your profits or enjoyment of your business may come from completely outside of your industry. It may come to you out of the blue. It is more likely to occur if you immerse yourself in a regular digital or physical newsletter, books, articles, news outside of your industry, and occasional news inside your industry.

If you ever use the phrase, “Nobody else is doing that,” remember that most people and businesses fail. So if nobody else is doing it…Great!

At the very least, ask yourself if the businesses that are NOT doing that as passionate about success as you are? Are they lazy? Are they lacking confidence and therefore unable to try something new?

When a kid copies his classmate’s answers and turns in his test, he may get caught because he turned in his paper second. When a kid on the playground gets in trouble for hitting, he is often the person hitting back.

You may not get detention or suspended from school for copying other businesses in your industry, but your business may suffer. You will lack creativity. If you copied the most successful business in town in your industry, you would both lack differentiation.

The only way to differentiate your businesses is to wage a price war. Keep lowering your prices until someone goes out of business…everyone loses.

Whether it is a successful or unsuccesful business in your industry, there are other motivating factors for you to look completely outside of your industry and outside of the box.

A $400 dollar blender by Blendtec is sold at 500-600% higher than the competition. A big part of that is their ridiculously great idea of blending iPhones and glow sticks and putting the videos on Youtube. In this case, Blendtec actually has a product that is different than the competition (I know. I have the blender.)

Their blender has been a great investment for me. I make protein shakes and smoothies for after workouts. I now make my own peanut butter. This alone made it worth the price…I love peanut butter.

I have gone through several blenders over the years because they frustrate me for their lack of power or chunky smoothies…or worst of all, the motor burns up because I actually tried to blend something that wasn’t already liquified.

It was probably difficult to express the huge difference between the Blendtec blenders and every other blender, especially to justify the price difference.

They could put the blender on Target shelves and put a label on the box that says, “Most powerful blender in the world will blend your frozen bananas in your protein shakes.” But that would be advertising like everyone else.

Instead they chose to do something completely out of the ordinary and blend golf balls, iPhones, etc. to give a lasting memory of how different their product is. It has had a viral affect with millions of views and the eqivalent of millions of dollars in free advertising.

Imagine if Blendtec founder Tom Dickson said, “That is a stupid idea. Nobody cares if our blender can blend a golf ball or a handful of marbles.”

When you keep your eyes peeled and your mind open, you will find ideas to give you a strategic advantage in your marketing, your processes, sales techniques, handling of employees, and more.

Learn about Discovery & Diagnosis and find new ideas or tweaks to old ideas to improve your marketing.