Words: 4958
Problem Finding The gardening industry has numerous customer problems with current products that have the opportunity to be reinvented. There are multiple definitions that classify the word “Garden”. The online dictionary, seen in Exhibit 1, has helped us understand how some perceive the word. During our search of definitions of a garden/gardening, we came across numerous definitions, which were just the submissions from one dictionary. Although gardening may be viewed through multiple perceptions, the conventional perception of gardening is a popular activity that involves a great deal of time and hard work.
There are many different problems and opportunities that can be established within the gardening industry. Gardening originated with tools that came directly from nature, such as twigs and rocks (“Garden Tools. “). Finding industry information about the gardening industry was difficult because gardening has been growing since the beginning of time. This industry has constantly evolved from developing ideas based on endless problems or frustrations brought on by the customer. The main target audience that this industry aims for is middle age homeowners (“Garden Tools. “).
There are many different aspects in a product material that help enhance a gardening tool to ensure the best quality. When searching for a tool, a standard objective a consumer looks for is durability and comfort. Price, size, shape, and weight are also common factors that are considered. We were able to gain this information by building our knowledge thorough basic research. The need to continuously enhance gardening products is increasing daily. After understanding the many definitions of our industry, we then thoroughly studied the industry background and the different elements that contribute to customer satisfaction.
We found a vast amount of information including the significant impact economic fluctuations has on the gardening industry and the key factors that contribute to maintaining a position in the market. Since there is a wide selection of brands and products during a time of recession, customers will seek cheap solutions towards their discretionary sending. Therefore, there are key factors that contribute to expanding sales including affordable pricing, strong product introductions, and quality customer service. Customers also seek the value the tools will deliver (“Garden Tools. “).
Durability and comfort of a tool is a significant factor that marketers need to consider when developing a product because the materials that are used to build a product have a large impact on the life of operation of the tool. This information is just a narrow overview of the industry, but we spent a great deal of time researching the background. Another influential factor on a garden is the type of garden an individual or company wishes to grow. There are many different markets in the gardening industry, seen in Exhibit 2, which has allowed us to better understand the number of tools that are required by each market.
During our search of types of gardens/gardening, we came across 67 different types of gardens. (“List of Garden Types. “). While researching the factors that influence the markets and the numerous variations of market types, we realized that there are many problems and opportunities that arise from this data. First, to understand possible problems that may arise, we executed a bug list seen in Exhibit 3. Each of us generated multiple problems that we found could arise from the information we had researched and diverged the problems as a group.
Throughout the Problem Finding process, we ascertained problems would continuously arise as we progressed through the project. We were able to grasp a better understanding of possible consumer problems by gaining knowledge about the industry and creating a bug list. Another approach we used in our Problem Finding process was behavioral mapping seen in Exhibit 4. We decided to look into two basic behaviors that commonly occur when gardening and break down each behavior into individual steps that occur over the duration of those activities. The first behavior we focused on was “mowing the lawn. Because we considered this to be a common behavior most consumers would take some part in, it seemed like an appropriate behavior to explore further. After listing out each step that typically occurs for most consumers during the process of mowing the lawn, we were able to identify a few areas that could be sources of problems. With these areas selected, we then listed a few possible problems that we believe could arise from the selected steps. We repeated the same process of behavior mapping with a second behavior, which was “planting flowers. After completing the list of steps, we again broke down selected steps we believed could lead to problems. This exercise we used was another approach to examine how consumers behave and helped to identify where problems might occur in efforts to minimize them later by creating possible solutions. The bug list allowed us to diverge the various issues that consumers might find with gardening and behavioral mapping allowed us to put ourselves in the customer’s position towards specific problems we found to be the most influential given our market research.
These exercises allowed us to generate a greater knowledge towards the problems that might arise from the consumer’s perspective. Problem Delineation To gain a greater understanding of the problems that are within the gardening industry, we conducted many activities that helped enhance our problem finding. We understood that this stage was important to fully understand the scope of the gardening industry, so we made sure to focus on different dimensions to form multiple sets of potential solutions. The first activity we conducted was Progressive Abstraction, which may be seen in Exhibit 5.
To ensure we did not narrow the scope of the problem, we took majority of the problems we conducted from the bug list and expanded the initial problem to two other potential resulting problems. Overall, we conducted this technique 22 times, which allowed us to gain a greater knowledge towards the sub problems that appear because of the initial problem. After we conducted the Progressive Abstraction technique, we reversed the situation and performed the Problem Reversal, seen in Exhibit 6. This exercise helped us gain a better understanding on what helps deliver customer satisfaction.
This allowed us to identify who our specific target audience is and allowed us to further target the needs that gardening delivers. This also allowed us to brainstorm solutions towards the compliments that are added onto the satisfaction of the product delivered to the customer. During the 5W’s/H tactic, we discovered answering simple questions like, Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? are a little more difficult when one has to do research instead of just going off of assumptions. This may be seen in Exhibit 7. We researched the lawn mowing industry as well as its customers.
We found out the majority of people who mow their lawns are baby boomers, instead of our preconceived notion that young people mow the lawn more often than anyone. The answers we found were not only based off of surveys, which we conducted during the information gathering, but they were also from other resources we found and implemented. The lawn mowing industry is not as cut and dry as our team thought it would be. We understand the importance of researching the market and customers of the industry in which we are working to provide solutions.
We also understand that one of the most important steps one can take as a marketer is to research and understand the industry and its customers for which one is working. These activities allowed us to understand that the consumer problems are constantly changing overtime. The first assumptions we made when initially starting this project were drawn to the understanding that maintaining flowers and shrubs were the largest concern for the consumer. After thorough research and intensive brainstorming, we found that our biggest concern should be redirected towards proper lawn care.
The largest concern of a consumer is to maintain a healthy and attractive yard. The largest issue we found was that the work that is more labor intensive and not as leisurely, mowing the lawn and hedging. Lawn care is one of the most significant dimensions of a yard, and every household must maintain the lawn. This allowed us to affirm that our primary audience, household owners, would like to see improvements in lawn care. Information Gathering Once we were able to evaluate and understand the problem more clearly, we continued to gather more information about the industry and the problem in specific.
We conducted surveys to various types of people and companies to allow us to gain a diverse range of consumer thoughts. The surveys may be viewed in Exhibit 8. We chose not only to interview individuals but businesses as well because we wanted to gather as much information about the gardening industry as we could. We also wanted to diversify where our information was coming from so that we could have a more complete understanding of our industry. We found that interviewing businesses was an effective way to gather more information about our industry, its customers, and its problems.
Content Analysis was another way we gathered information, seen in Exhibit 9. The content analysis of magazines tactic was one of the easiest brainstorming tactics our group utilized. Not only did we decide to use paper magazines, we decided to use online magazines as well to diversify our search. The magazines we used were: Country Living Gardener Magazine, Garden Design Magazine, Gardening Online Magazine and Fine Gardening Online Magazine. We discovered many customer problems we would have never thought about if we did not use the content analysis of magazines tactic.
One of the reoccurring customer problems we found within the magazines is gardening with allergies. During our search of customer problems, we encountered countless advertisements and articles pertaining to allergies. Another method our group utilized to gather more ideas on possible consumer problems was through photographs and observations of products at Home Depot seen in Exhibit 10. This method allowed us to physically visit a location where gardening equipment is sold and observe the different types of tools and products consumers are using first hand.
When we were able to see the vast numbers of tools and equipment sold for all possible aspects of gardening. We noticed that price was a constant problem given the variety between the sizes and types of equipment. Our group also noticed that there were so many tools needed to achieve simple tasks, which could also be a problem for consumers. After gathering more information by visiting a store and observing and photographing products being sold, our group was able to identify different consumer problems we had yet to think of addressing. Problem finding is a very influential factor that affects all aspects of our creative marketing process.
We spent a large amount of time during this stage to ensure that we gained full knowledge about the industry, market, products, and the consumer’s perspective. After we fully educated ourselves towards this specific industry and created multiple problems that were forced through our unconventional thinking, we then felt ready to start to delineate the problem. Idea Generation For our team to progress in the creation of a new product, we started to concentrate on ways to generate ideas to enhance gardening tools for potential customer problems. First we applied the Creative Idea/Solution Generation method.
This tactic allowed us to begin the generation of potential solutions to the many problems we had discovered, seen in Exhibit 11. We took the problems we found from The Bug List and Progressive Abstraction and focused on four of the problems we found to be the most important from the research we conducted. From these problems, we created a number of potential solutions and for each further developed sub solutions. This allowed us to take our divergent thinking and converge some of our problems and ideas to specific categories and generate ideas for that problem.
Another tactic we used to help generate ideas was Forced Association. We chose our words to force associate with our lawn mower completely at random, seen in Exhibit 12. During the forced association-brainstorming tactic, it was a bit difficult to think of combinations of a ring and a lawn mower, the sun and a lawn mower, and a cell phone and a mower. What we discovered is that we needed to take attributes of each of the words and find a way to combine the attributes instead of the item as a whole. Once we thought about the attributes, the ideas started to flow.
Forced Association allowed us to step outside of our conventional thoughts and find ideas that are wild and clever. The next step to Forced Association was the Morphological Analysis, seen in Exhibit 13. Coming up with ways to combine a lawn mower and a laptop was more difficult than we thought it would be. Although the process was difficult, we came up with some really good seeding ideas, and with a little massaging we realized they could be a brilliant addition to the reinvention of the lawn mower. A different tactic our group used to generate ideas was through the method of idea shopping see Exhibit 13.
This was a relatively simple method for us to utilize but allowed our group to uses unrelated materials and websites and come up with unique and random ideas. When partaking in idea shopping, one website that we used was Apple. com which has no relation to the gardening industry. After browsing through the different products Apple develops, our group was able to spark a whole different type of ideas we could possibly incorporate into a lawnmower. These new ideas most likely would never have been thought of if we did not shop around and extend our thinking beyond the limits of gardening products.
Idea Evaluation The exercises we conducted to gain knowledge to help us generate a diverse group of ideas to create an innovative product was a ranking of The Top 10 Industry Ideas, seen in Exhibit 15. First, we individually came up with creative new ideas; then we combined all the ideas from each group member into one large list. We then individually ranked each idea on utility and novelty on a scale of 1 through 10. After we individually ranked the ideas, we averaged the total scores to find our top picks. Based off these scores we were able to then determine which ideas scored the highest.
Each of us scored multi-use lawn mower, many seasons the highest. We excluded this from our individual discussion because we all agreed that turning a lawnmower into a tool that could be used for other purposes had the most utility and novelty. Rachele: When evaluating the industry idea’s each team member developed, I decided the best technique was to go with my first reaction to the product once I read the idea. My top pick for both utility and novelty was to create wheels on lawnmower that allows better maneuverability.
I figured this would allow access into hard to reach areas of the yard. My second top pick for both utility and novelty was a rechargeable lawn mower, which I figured since the economy is constantly fluctuating, it would save money on gas. The other scores I gave the other ideas only maintained average scores. Natalie: When looking over the different ideas, my favorite idea was an electric lawnmower. I felt that this was novel, since it is a new technology people are beginning to accept, and also showed a lot of utility since it would save money on gas and maintenance in the long run.
The second idea that I found to show both utility and novelty was a website where user’s information could be logged such as where to order parts, calories burned, health of lawn, and so on. This was an interesting idea since people have become so health conscious and also computer oriented; therefore, I felt it was both novel and had a strong utility. The third highest ranked idea I selected was a lawnmower that also had bug repellant. This seemed like a novel idea because it is nothing I have ever heard of to have bug repellant while using a lawnmower.
Also, the utility of this idea is high since it eliminates the need for other bug repellent when mowing the lawn, which adds value, by eliminating another cost-adding product. Overall these three ideas were my highest ranked after we diverged to evaluate the ideas our group had generated. Britney: During the idea evaluation and ranking stage of our project, we first had to diverge to rank the ideas individually and then converge in order to rank them collectively. My top three choices were not only based on what I felt was unique but what I thought would solve the customer’s problems.
My top three ideas were: 1. Laser pointer showing the straight lines you will be cutting to keep on path 2. Programmable lawnmower (navigates itself) and 3. Website where user’s information is logged, information is sent directly from the mower (i. e. when to order parts, calories burned, health of lawn etc. ). I gave all three of these ideas a 10 for utility and a 10 for novelty, giving each a total score of 20 points. I gave these ideas such a high ranking in utility because of the problems we discovered and the information we gathered from people who mow their lawns as well as our industry research.
I believe each of these ideas will be beneficial for people who mow their lawns. I also gave these ideas such a high score in novelty because I have never seen a lawn mower with these characteristics yet and I think they are truly unique. As a group we then conducted and discussed the results. We understood that some of the ideas that were on the list were not completely new, but we decided that a combination of items that maintained top rank would give us a completely new and creative product. Idea Implementation To help implement our product to the customer, we will focus on how our product can be viewed as cost effective.
The current walk-behind, self-propelled lawnmowers are generally priced between around $220. 00 all the way up to $3,299. 00 depending on the features, brand, engine type and other variations. Similar to the lawnmowers, snow blowers also range in prices between around $299. 00 up to $3,399. 00 also based on the different features offered. With our new product design and combination of the lawnmower and snow blower features, our group decided to price our product at around $1,599. 00. We considered this would be a fair price for our target market.
Although at first the price seems relatively high, the consumer is in reality saving money because of the combination of the lawnmower and snow blower. By investing in our product, our consumers are saving the money with the purchase of one machine that completes the jobs of two. Another small benefit our consumers would be receiving is storage space since there will no longer be the need for both a lawnmower and snow blower in the home. Also, to increase customer awareness, we devised promotional tactics that could be advertised throughout the year because this product is not seasonal.
One slogan that we came up with is: “Sun or Snow, It’s Still a Go”. See Exhibit 16 for other slogans we devised. We will focus this advertisement on our target market through industry related magazines and televised promotions. To increase the value towards management, we will emphasize how this product will help double their revenue because of the novelty and utility our product offers. We will emphasize that the customers will understand that they are saving money, which will help increase sales.
This product will also make the employees’ job easier because they will only have educate themselves on one product during the calendar year. Personal Reflections and Insights Natalie: After completing the product improvement project, I feel that I have learned a lot about different strategies and methods that can be used towards creative problem solving. When we began this assignment, it started off a bit slow because it was difficult to imagine what we as a group wanted to focus on in our industry. The best method I feel we used to begin our process was doing different types of industry background research.
Once we had more of an understanding on what types of products were already available, it was easier to begin looking at consumer problems and try to identify the most important ones. A method that I feel was the beneficial to our problem identification stage was the bug list. This method allowed us to find a large number of problems we could then dissect into more specific and individual problems a consumer might deal with. Along with the bug list, another method I felt was beneficial in the problem identification stage was behavior mapping.
Using this tool we were able to look at each behavior a consumer would partake in and identify certain areas that lead to problems. The longer we spent on problem identification, the more I feel our group was able to progress. When we began the idea generation stage, two activities that I felt were effective were idea shopping along with just traditional brainstorming. By simply think about solutions to problems that are not a typical daily thought, I was surprised by the number of ideas our group was able to come up with.
I also learned that the process of diverging and individually thinking about problems and then coming back as a group to converge was a beneficial method to create a solution. When we had each group member coming up with as many ideas as possible, we were able to think of a variety of solutions. Then, after we had a large list to choose from, it made our group decision much easier because we could discuss what we felt was an important problem to solve and which solutions were the best ideas to use. This whole process allowed us to think differently and not rely on the first idea that came to mind.
During the idea evaluation stage, the most effective process we used was voting and then discussing which ideas we felt were the best. Each group member had the opportunity to vote on every idea we came up with based on the ideas utility and novelty, which gave us all an opportunity to express our ideas. This was useful because we did not select an idea that we all did not have some say on. Overall I feel that the effort of the group as a whole is what produced a successful, creative process. Although this process could be done by an individual, the ideas that each of our members came up with helped to produce the best solution.
I think that the experience of working as a group to produce a creative solution was a beneficial process. If we had to do everything over again, I think that if we would have more time to identify more problems using more methods we could have come up with a totally different idea. One piece of advice I would give to a future student would be not to dismiss the craziest ideas that come to mind. I noticed that after one member of our group threw an out there idea, we were able to come up with different ways to use or change that idea and make it into a plausible solution.
Also, other advice I would give to a future student would be to research information about the industry as much as possible because the more time we spent looking at the industry, the more ideas we were able to come up with. The last piece of advice I would give would be to try every possible method the group members have time for throughout the process. I think each method was effective in some way. There were a few that generated more ideas than others but overall trying every method was the best way to go about this project because ideas
Rachele: After thorough evaluation of the different elements to The Creative Product Improvement: Case History project, I found that this project was extremely beneficial and helped me gain a lot of knowledge for future marketing problems. Actually completing each step first hand allowed me to realize the amount of work it takes to develop an innovated product that brings novelty and utility to the customer. Prior to this project, I did not understand the multiple constraints that play a major role towards this process such as gaining a wide assortment of industry knowledge and my personal beliefs.
I found that when we were first assigned to this project, I allowed my personal beliefs to create a narrow scope of how I thought our group would go about completing this project. As our group carried on with the different exercises and tactics in the CPS process, I was able to realize that I had a one-mind set of what I wanted to create and that this path I wanted to take was not creating the numerous opportunities that were available. After I realized this, I took it upon me to keep an open mind about the gardening industry and was able to broaden my scope to the many other possibilities.
I also learned that even though the exercises are time consuming and take a great amount of thought and effort to complete, they are a crucial part of the process and every exercise should be taken seriously. A primary piece of advice I would give to future participants in this project is to start the project early. The project should be started early because the exercise/activities take awhile to thoroughly complete and they are a major part of the project. One of the most effective strategies I found when completing these exercises for product improvement was the bug list.
This list helped us to find the problems that customers may be facing within our industry. Without finding the problem, every other stage would have been negatively affected and the Bug List was what I found to be one of the best ways to enhance this stage. Another exercise I found to be extremely beneficial was ranking our Top 10 Industry idea’s. We each individually ranked all the potential ideas we came up with and then averaged the scores together. This allowed us to each voice our opinions without one group member over powering an idea.
Overall, each stage and exercise involved creates an impact on the project and every step should be thoroughly evaluated. Brittanee: I found this project to be extremely beneficial to my understanding of creativity in marketing and the creative marketing process. This project took me through the creative marketing process step by step and provided me with the opportunity to gain an endless about of hands on experience. I am a visual, hands-on; give me an example kind of learner and this project allowed me to absorb everything that was headed my way.
I never thought twice about the gardening/lawn mowing industry because I do not garden nor do I mow the lawn. This projected forced me to enter in an industry and walk in the footsteps of something that is totally unfamiliar to me. I discovered my ability to empathize with my customer/client, which is a fundamental skill which all marketers must possess. One of my favorite parts of the creative marketing process is Idea Generation. I enjoyed this portion of the project the most because it forced me to think outside the box and come up with ideas that were wild, unique and novel.
Another reason I really enjoyed this stage is because of the vast variety of tactics marketer can use to stimulate the flow of ideas. This was also one of the hardest stages of the creative marketing process because I have been conditioned to think logically, linearly and within the box. I think I’ve grown a lot during the duration of this project and I know I will be a better marketer and person for it. The creative marketing process is a unique process in which marketers abandon conventional thinking for unconventional thinking.
I truly admire people who can think unconventionally yet effectively. There are many ideas in marketing and advertising that are boring because they are conventional and not unique. The ability to make the familiar strange is a great quality and skill for all people, especially marketers to poses. I do not want to push my views or beliefs on anyone but I do encourage people I know who are going into a field which requires some level of creativity, which is most jobs, to explore unconventional methods of thinking like creativity in marketing.
I am truly happy I was granted the opportunity to be apart of this class and take part first hand in all of the steps within the creativity in marketing process. Works Cited “Expert Garden Plant Advice, Tips, and Idea’s. ” Fine Gardening (2011): n. pag. Web. 14 Jun 2011. . “Garden. ” Dictionary. com n. pag. Web. 14 Jun 2011. . “Garden Tools. ” Down Garden Services (2011): n. pag. Web. 12 Jun 2011. . “Lawn & Garden. ” Gardening Online (2011): n. pag. Web. 15 Jun 2011. . “List of Garden Types. ” Wikipedia n. pag. Web. 19 Jun 2011. .