Creativity and Innovation: A Mind Dump

So for this week's blog I am exploring the topics of creativity and innovation. To do this, we were asked to complete a creativity exercise that had us consider two inanimate objects and then come up with possible innovative solutions that combined the two in some way, shape, or form. The results of my exercise are included below:

First Word: LAMP

Mind Dump: Fluorescent lights, bright lights, low lights, colorful lights, lamp shades, lamps with cords, lamps with batteries, reading lamps, floor lamps, desk lamps, different colored light bulbs.

In my room alone I have three lamps. I used to have touch lamp by my bedside, which was so convenient because it had three settings of brightness and only needed a soft touch to turn on and off. This made it so much easier to read a book and not have to reach all the way out to twist a knob.

I really like the lamps with unique shades. Whether they're made out of cloth and have patterns or are brightly colored plastics, I think lamps can be a really neat form of art. I've even seen some lamps that use mosaic tiles.

Uses for lamps are pretty obvious: to add light to the surroundings. But I think that if the lamp is decorative, it can also add aesthetic appeal to a room

Second Word: BASKETBALL

Mind Dump: NBA, UT Basketball, AJ Abrams, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, David Robinson, Spurs, Lakers, Final Four, March Madness, Orange and Black, tiny bumps on skin of ball, leather, bouncy, basketball court, rim, tall, jumping, blocking, point guard, center, forward, charge, pick and roll, 3 points, dunk, air ball, swish, Michael Jordan, Space Jam, Hoosiers

I don't typically follow professional sports, but I do like the San Antonio Spurs. I really like David Robinson, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, and Tim Duncan.  I’ve only been to one of their games, and we lost by four points to the Lakers.

You can use a basketball to play games other than a traditional game like Pig, Horse, and Around the World. It takes practice to be good at basketball. Maybe this is why I am not good at it. You also need the write attire when playing basketball: basketball shoes, shorts, t-shirt, (sports bra if you’re a girl), socks, and sometimes even a sweatband.

Basketball is the name of the sport as well as the name as the ball used in the sport.  A basketball goes flat after awhile and needs to be pumped up again. It is pretty bouncy for a ball and is bigger than the human head.

Combination Ideas of the Two Objects:

1. A lamp made out of basketball leather

2. A basketball with a light inside of it

3. Basketball light bulbs for the lamp

4. Basketball print on the lampshade

5. The base of a lamp being a basketball

6. A basketball book lamp

7. The chain to turn on the lamp having a basketball at the bottom of it to pull on

8. Lamps with basketball wheels to roll around on

9. Lamps that project beams shaped like basketballs on the ceiling

10. Lamp that re-energizes when it bounces in the shell of a basketball (battery operated instead of needing electricity)

11. Using a really flat basketball as a holder for the base of a lamp

12. Having one basketball on either side of the light bulb (probably a fluorescent bulb and the shape would look like a dumbbell) That way it could roll around and if it were ever dropped it would just bounce

Many of these ideas seem like they could be viable products. In fact, some already exist. A lamp that has basketballs on the shade, has a basketball base, basketball leather used on the base, and a basketball lamp with a chain that has a basketball at the bottom of it all seem to be pretty viable, and are probably already in the marketplace. 

Others that may be viable would be a floor lamp with basketball wheels (if they were miniaturized), a lamp that projects basketballs onto the ceiling, and a basketball that has a light inside of it. The last of these seems the most interesting to me because it could be challenging to make, but successful if completed.

           

A basketball that has a light inside of it could be useful for players who enjoy playing at night. The ball could use the technology in many flashlights these days that only require you to shake it (or bounce it) to re-energize the light. The light inside the ball would make it easier to see in darker environments and would be aesthetically cool to look at as well.

Event Planning and Customer Insights

For years, my friends and family have compared me to Martha Stewart (pre-jail time, of course). They’ve always said I’m the decorator, the creative one, and the event planner. While I am studying Marketing and can’t wait to begin a career in this field, I feel that someday when I retire, a good side job would be event planning. Whether that involves professional, sporting, or charity events or more personal events like birthdays and weddings, I hope to someday be able to use my creative ideas to plan beautiful, memorable events.

Before I could take on this endeavor, however, I think it would be exceptionally beneficial to have a better grasp on the customer insights and behaviors related to events. Therefore, I hope to use the research project for my Customer Insights class to my advantage by leveraging the different resources made available to me through UT, to research the differences in customer behavior regarding specific types of events. I hold particular interest in events surrounding charities and professional organizations because I may be able to leverage this information into my actual career someday if I am a project manager or get into event marketing professionally.

Within event marketing, I hope to take a closer look not only at how to organize events in such a way that will maximize the ROI, but also at how different tactics appeal to different types of event attendees.  I want to take a closer look at trends in events, customer perceptions of events, and how to evaluate the success of events in the eyes of customers.  I hope to use some of the following questions to form a basic foundation for my research:

•        What have been some recent trends in event planning?
•        What are some trends that have remained stable over the years?
•        How does professional event planning compare to sporting events? Charity events? Birthdays? Weddings? Socials?
•    What are some best practices for event marketing? What are these practices founded upon?
•        What are customers saying after “successful” events versus “unsuccessful events?
•      Does a more expensive event guarantee better approval from the attendees?           

As aforementioned, I hold particular interest in this area of study because I hope to someday be involved in event planning throughout retirement. However, I feel that understanding this topic will be extremely beneficial in the community service work I do as well. I hope through this research I will be able to find ways to understand customer behavior in regards to their participation in charity events.  It will be especially interesting to see why consumers are willing to pay thousands of dollars to charities in return for a plate at an event, and yet not willing to pay $20 to attend a marketing luncheon downtown. If I can figure out what motivates people to do this, I may be able to increase the number attendees my company’s marketing luncheons.

Another reason I hope to look into this topic comes from my perspectives as a customer, not a marketer. While throwing an event can be stressful and overwhelming, attending one can be fun and exciting – if it’s been put together well. However, I have on occasion found myself at an event thinking, “wow this is so tacky,” or “why won’t the keynote shut up already?” I’ve left these events tired, grumpy, and not at all impressed by the company/person throwing the event. It will be interesting to reflect on my own negative (and positive) experiences regarding events when compiling my research. Using these reflections may possibly lead me to discern ways to have made those events better.

Overall, by gathering these customer perceptions and insights, I will be able to someday create a valuable customer experience through event planning. Ultimately, by creating a valuable experience, the company, charity, or person I am planning the event for will be thoroughly happy with the results of my event, but even more importantly, their guests will be happy as well.  Happy guests means more donations for charities, more sales for companies, and more invites to other social gatherings from friends.

As the first step to this research, I have found a very interesting paper called: “Events Beyond 2000: Setting the Agenda.” While the paper is very long and I have not yet read the entire thing, it is broken down into several topics that I feel will be extremely beneficial to this project. The most important of these sections include the keynotes, event evaluations, event marketing, and the case studies related to this topic. While the main focus of this paper is about sporting events like the Summer Olympics in 2000, the insights the authors have documented seem relevant to many fields of event planning.  The link to this article is: http://linkbc.ca/torc/downs1/Events2000.pdf#page=192

By and large, I feel that this research paper will be very beneficial for future projects I someday hope to take on. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the “Events Beyond 2000” article and begin diving into other articles related to this topic.