From: Dr. Roni Horowitz Dear marketers, entrepreneurs and product developers, No matter what your business, if you possess the skill of coming up with winning ideas for new products and services on demand, your road to success is guaranteed. Read on and I'll tell you how this can be achieved regardless of how creative you perceive yourself to be. For the past 14 years I've been researching, developing and perfecting a method called Advanced Systematic Inventive Thinking (ASIT). ASIT was originally developed to help people find breakthrough solutions to their problems. But then something strange happened… Increasingly, ASIT users started telling me that ASIT helped them not only to solve problems, but also to come up with great ideas for new products and services. I began to understand that ASIT could do much more than it was originally intended to do. But before I tell you more about ASIT and how to use it to develop exciting new products, let's review the popular methods people currently use to develop ideas for new products. "When you stick to conventional methods, Marketers will tell you that the best source of new product ideas are customers, both current and potential. Every day we come acrossnew methods or tactics to help us "listen to the customers' needs". It seems as if companies nowadays outsource the task of inventing new products to their customers. But evidence shows that customers lack the imagination to envision products that will satisfy their unmet needs or desires. For example, participants in focus groups typically opt for product innovations that feature only minor changes to the current version. When these products hit the market, they usually fizzle out because small improvements aren't enough to alter customers' entrenched buying habits. Using sophisticated market research, companies listen very carefully to their customers. As a result it has become more and more difficult for them to set their products apart from the competition. Here's what the gurus of modern marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout write in their book, "Bottom-up Marketing" about market research.
If market research will not help us create exciting products, maybe we need to start thinking out of the box? "Thinking out of the Box If market research is an unsuccessful way of achieving differentiation in the modern marketing world, are there other ways? As a way to get beyond predictable product extensions, product developers are encouraged by consultants to "think outside the box. " Give free rein to your creative impulses, they are told, and try to imagine products that respond in truly innovative ways to customer needs. "Brainstorming" has become the de-facto standard method of helping us to think out of the box. And, yes, occasionally brainstorming sessions do deliver the goods. Put a bunch of intelligent, creative people in one room, and you may certainly get results. But more often than not, this kind of brainstorming yields a flurry of ideas that, while appealing, are just too far out, given the company's brand image or capabilities. They are quickly discarded or, if they make it to market, simply flop. Here's why. How on earth can people think out of the box when they don't have a clue as to where the box is? How can people think differently when they've thought in a particular way their entire lives? The sad truth is that simply telling people to be creative or to think out of the box is a sure recipe for killing their creativity. Eric Hoffer expressed this brilliantly:
If market research and setting our thoughts free will eventually lead us to where everybody else is, how can ASIT help us to come up with original and viable ideas? "Listen to your product
before ASIT represents a complete rethinking of both traditional brainstorming and market research. It replaces the creative free-for-all with a highly disciplined approach to idea generation. And, unlike most new product development methods, it starts with an existing product and its characteristics, rather than customers and their unmet needs. The method's thrust:
Let me explain. ASIT tells us to start from the existing product, but instead of thinking about our product as is, we take action, manipulate it and crack its internal code. By changing the existing product ASIT turns the familiar into the unfamiliar, thereby allowing for refreshing, fruitful thinking. ASIT supplies us with six simple patterns or tools for changing our product as a way to arrive at a new form or "virtual product" in ASIT's terminology. The virtual product serves as the starting point for the process of creating new product ideas. Instead of fulfilling known customer needs, we actually identify new needs that our customers have not been able to communicate. When products developed in this way hit the market, they create huge excitement and surprise. Here's an example of one of the simplest, but most powerful of ASIT's six tools - the Sacrifice tool. "If you feel something is very important,
In developing new products, people intuitively tend to add features to an existing product. The new features are conceived as responses to the perceived needs of the customers. While this is a perfectly logical approach, it can result in those incremental improvements having little impact on customers' buying patterns. It can also lead to a growing complexity in the use of the product… Think about the word processor - it outweighs whatever benefits the new features offer. We tend to view evolution and progress as adding things, and it's therefore difficult, and sometimes almost impossible for us to conceive of ideas in which we improve a product by removing something from it. In applying the Sacrifice tool one takes the opposite approach: Instead of trying to improve a product by adding components or features, we remove them - particularly those components or features that seem to be desirable or even indispensable. Removing an undesirable component - lead in gasoline, sugar in soft drinks, caffeine in coffee - is typically a customer-driven move and is NOT an example of the Sacrifice tool at work. Case study - developing a new TV product Think about a TV set. What is its most important component? Right. The screen. So let's remove it! Yes… I know it's not easy. Logic tells us that we completely change the identity of the TV by removing its screen, but ASIT insists that we go ahead with it. So we have a "screenless" TV. This is our "virtual product". Now we need to turn the virtual product into a product idea. The first part of this process is to identify the target market that would gain a special benefit from the screenless TV. OK, so what about drivers? They can't watch the screen while driving, and so our product could be suitable for them. Our product will be a small box that can be connected to the car radio system and that will be able to receive TV signals. We've just invented a new product idea for a TV manufacturer. And the good news… no expensive R&D efforts are required. Do you think that participants in a marketing survey would suggest such an idea? I believe not. Chances are that most customers would suggest adding new features to the TV. Replace the TV with your own product or service and repeat this simple process. Surprising results will follow, guaranteed! The Sacrifice tool is just one of the six ASIT tools. Together with the other systematic tools - Parasite Product, Unification, Multiplication, Division and Breaking Symmetry - it forms a powerful and practical framework for developing new product ideas. "The secret behind real innovative ideas are… constraints" Most creativity methods will help you "open up" your mind, use the right hemisphere, freewheel your ideas… But during my thirteen years of using, developing, researching (my Ph.D. thesis was dedicated to the development and study of ASIT), training and consulting inventive thinking, I've come to the opposite conclusion. I've found that people become dramatically more creative when they act within a focused, constrained framework. Take 30 seconds to think about an idea for a new workout instrument. Yes…do it now. 30 seconds later… Did you come up with any ideas? How many? Were you happy with them? Let's do that again, but this time think about a new workout instrument that can be used in a car while driving. Do you see the difference? Most people report that the flow of ideas, their quality, creativity, and practicality were greatly increased when they were forced to think within the second, narrower framework.
ASIT is based on this simple but extremely important observation. Years of research lead to the development of a constrained thinking environment that is just right! Through its principles and tools ASIT forces us to think within a focused and constrained environment that leaves us no choice but to come up with practical, ultra-creative ideas. How to Develop Winning I'm offering a 145-page electronic book that will teach you all you need to know about applying ASIT to develop new product ideas that will WOW the market and put you ahead of the competition. ASIT allows for a dramatic increase in creative productivity. In no time at all you'll effortlessly be coming up with dozens of ideas that you wouldn't have thought about any other way. ASIT is not a general outline for inventing new products or services. It's not a philosophical approach or academic exercise. ASIT is a system of detailed tried and tested "recipes" that allow you to invent as many exciting ideas as you want. ASIT is based on observing hundreds of successful products that created a "WOW" effect in their time. Analyzing these successful products exposed, surprisingly, repeated patterns and common characteristics that eventually crystallized into a clear, focused and practical method. Sacrifice, Parasite Product, Unification, Multiplication, Division and Breaking Symmetry are ASIT's six powerful thinking tools that allow for the development of products that will take over the market, arouse attention and astonish. The book is packed with examples and detailed, straightforward case studies - some based on hindsight analysis of successful products, and some invented especially for this book. Topics covered in the book The book will discuss, among other things:
Click here for the Table of Contents Who should read this book? Frankly I can't think of anyone who would not be interested in a book that teaches tools to help him or her come up with winning ideas. However, this book was written specially to fit the needs of:
If you are one of the above, this book is simply indispensable to you! Did Edison use ASIT? Technology drives innovation. But if we base our new product strategy on technology ONLY our competitors will easily show us the way out of the market. Add this to the fact that research and development efforts take a lot of time and consume a lot of capital. But that's not all. Big inventions such as the light bulb, the microwave and the laser are all due to commutative efforts of many individuals and teams through the decades. When these efforts ripen, the invention appears About 40 different people "invented" the light bulb at the same time around the world. Edison is remembered because he was wise enough to create a business out of his invention. Technological innovation is expensive, demanding large time constants, usually not in our total control and hard to gain true differentiation with. In contrast to technological innovation, the IDEATIONAL innovation we achieve with ASIT can quickly and easily be implemented, thus creating an immediate marketing impact. But make no mistake. Reaching a simple idea may take longer than developing a new technology. Here are two examples: Ice cream was invented in about 2000BC. But the edible ice cream cone was invented only 3900 years later. Humans have been eating meat since the beginning of time, and bread has been with us for a few thousand years, but the sandwich was invented only a few hundred years ago. Jay Abraham has this to say:
Jay Abraham states the problem in an excellent way. ASIT, as you will learn in the book, is a perfect solution. Follow me and see how
In my lectures and workshops I ask the participants to suggest any product they like. Then, in real time, to their amazement, within an hour or so we manage to develop between 20-30 product ideas. Some of them are very promising! I thought, why not do the same in the book…? And so I decided to dedicate a full chapter to this exercise. I chose a product that I'm NOT an expert in and used ASIT tools to invent a collection of new products. I intentionally chose a fairly simple product with a very big market. Writing this chapter was an adventure for me. When I started writing I had no idea what ideas would come up. In the end I came up with 25 different ideas in just one hour! Some of the ideas have the potential of becoming real "stars!" In chapter 9 you'll find a detailed report of this exercise and the exact ASIT process used. You'll be able to use this chapter as a reference guide when starting to use ASIT to invent your new product ideas. "Use ASIT to create a purple cow product" Seth Godin is a well-known, best selling author of "Permission Marketing", "Unleashing the Idea Virus" and "Survival is Not Enough". In his latest, brilliant book, "Purple Cow," Godin urges marketers and idea developers to create "Purple Cow" products. A purple cow product is a remarkable product that people simply can't ignore. In Godin's words:
I couldn't agree more. Godin's book does a great job in explaining to us why we need remarkable products, and I whole-heartedly recommend it. However, one element is still missing in the book. How exactly to come up with remarkable product ideas? And this is where ASIT comes into play! Well, this all sounds very promising… what's the deal? I hope that I've managed to instill the belief that ASIT can help you come up with winning ideas for your company, enterprise, startup or clients. You also know by now that the book I'm offering will teach you all the ASIT tools with numerous detailed examples and case studies. For a small investment of ONLY US$57 you can NOW download the e-book, "How to develop winning product ideas" to your desktop or laptop. After the simple and quick download, you can print the 145 pages and read the book at your own convenience at home or while traveling. Think about it… if you implement just one small idea as a result of reading this electronic book, you'll return your investment multiple times. And that's not all. As a thank-you gift for purchasing my e-book, and to help you even more to come to terms with ASIT, I'll also throw in the 2003 volume of my newsletter, "ASIT technique for a week". You'll get a collection of all the newsletter issues published in 2003 including many success stories, case studies, puzzles and much more. So for the price of one e-book you'll actually get two! I'm taking the risk, so why hesitate? "When you try to create a product for ANYONE, you end up creating a product for NO ONE." I am aware of this fact and therefore I'm aware that a few people, for one reason or another may not find that this product lives up to their expectations. This is perfectly legitimate! So I personally guarantee that if, for any reason, you think that you did not get everything I promised or anything you expected, I'll simply return every penny paid by you. And when I say, "for any reason," I really mean just that! Even if you don't like my style, the headings…heck, if you don't like the fonts in the book, just drop me a line and you'll get the full refund. And I won't ask any questions (though I'd be dead curious to know why you didn't enjoy the book! ;-) So, in short, you get a highly practical e-book that will teach you how to develop winning ideas, a collection of all 2003 newsletters with the success stories and case studies, AND my personal guarantee for satisfaction or your money back. All that remains is for me to tell you how simple and reliable the online ordering process is. Here's how to order I'm glad you decided to order the e-book. Within minutes you'll start learning a highly effective method for developing exciting product ideas. This is all you need to do to get my e-book and the bonus: Click the ORDER button below. You'll be taken to my online credit card payment agent, CLICKBANK. CLICKBANK has been in operation since 1995, and is a well-known and highly reliable payment agent on the net. I trust them, you can trust them to! After the payment, CLICKBANK will lead you to a page that will ask for your e-mail address. After entering your address, hit the "send" button, and an e-mail from me with full download instructions will be waiting in your Inbox. That's it. Straightforward and simple! To get the e-book that will teach you how to systematically develop ideas for winning products as well as my special thank you gift, all backed with my personal money back guarantee just…
If for any reason you have any problem, simply contact me at: I wish you fruitful and enjoyable learning! Dr. Roni Horowitz P.S. I'm confident that after reading this book you'll experience a dramatic change in your inventive skills and will be able to suggest exciting new ideas at will - ideas that will capture the attention of your colleagues, and more importantly, the market. P.P.S. Please let me know about all the great new products you develop. P.P.P.S. And remember…the risk is mine, so don't hesitate!
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