Page 224 - Free the Idea Monkey

But there aren’t a lot of marketers who have tried to formalize a
new product introduction. Too often, marketers see their job as sim-
ply coming up with the idea. They leave the actual development and
production to someone else and then profess to be surprised when
the finished product is not exactly what they had envisioned (see
Idea Parenting). It is always nice to have someone else to blame when
something goes wrong—such as, the product didn’t sell. But it isn’t
the best use of your time or of company resources.

There is a shortage of Renaissance men (and women). This
builds off the previous point. As we have seen, there are two distinct
components to developing a successful new product: coming up
with the idea and then putting it into practice—i.e., executing it. We
must make sure that it is produced exactly as designed and that the
marketing that follows is consistent with the overall message the
product is supposed to communicate. Failure can arise when we look
for people who possess both skills. Such people
are extremely hard to find in any organization.
Most people are naturally better at one or
the other part of the process.

Instead of looking for someone who is
good at both, it would seem more efficient to
let people do what they do best. Since most com-
panies have people who are fairly good at carrying out a mission once
it is defined for them, it probably makes more sense to keep that capa-
bility in-house, and to look to outside resources to help you discover
new ideas and fresh needs in the marketplace. Once the outside firm
has unearthed those opportunities, the company can develop them.

209C H A P T E R 1 5