If you’ve seen The Social Network, you’ll know that Mark Zuckerberg’s first attempt at social media was a website where Harvard men rated the comparative attractiveness of their female classmates.
This survey was a little like that, only without the sexism. :) The way it worked was, we listed a series of product and service categories and asked readers to choose whether it was “innovative” or “not innovative.”
The biggest surprise was that opinions were so evenly divided in so many categories. The only truly lopsided outcomes were in the airline, car rental and hotel industries on the one hand (not innovative) and mobile phones on the other (innovative).
The automotive industry and packaged goods industries were the most evenly split, nearly down the middle.
Maybe that’s because different people have different definitions of what constitutes innovation — is it the product, the marketing, or something else? Either way, it suggests that in every category there are innovators, and, more important, opportunities to innovate.
The comments in this survey were some of the most incisive (and funniest, in some cases) we’ve ever seen:
Airline: “Is it innovative to reduce customer service to zero?”
Car Rental: “Really innovative with their fees.”
Hotel: “Bed bugs, anyone?”
Soft Drinks: “Adding vanilla doesn’t count.”
Supermarket: “Most retailers wouldn’t recognize innovation if it walked up, clubbed them repeatedly and left them bleeding in the gutter.”
Movies: “Jackass … in 3-D. This is the best you can do?”
Not all the comments were so snarky. In the automotive industry: “Ford has done a nice job bringing technology into the car, and Mercedes has added features to let the driver know if they’re weaving or too close to another car. I’d say that’s innovation!”
Among airlines, several respondents credited JetBlue, Virgin and Southwest with being innovative. Zipcar was commended in the car rental category, and in beer a few folks gave a nod to Dogfish Head and other craft breweries. In supermarkets, Whole Foods, Wegmans and Trader Joe’s were most often mentioned as the innovators.
We also included three categories that aren’t products and services in the same sense, but are certainly relevant to marketers: Advertising, Shopper Marketing and Social Media. Not surprisingly, Social Media was deemed “innovative” by 82.5 percent. Advertising was more evenly split, 53-43, innovative/not innovative.
Shopper Marketing was also split, 38-37, but its relatively lower percentages are because 22 percent of respondents indicated that they didn’t know enough about it to make a choice.
Finally, we asked a couple of open-ended questions, starting with, “What’s the most innovative product or service you’ve experienced lately?” Predictably, the iPad and the iPhone were the overwhelming choices. Anticipating this, we included a caveat on our final question: “Other than Steve Jobs, do you have any heroes or heroines in innovation?”
As a result, there wasn’t much consensus, although Jeff Bezos received quite a few mentions, as did Jeff Zuckerberg. Others went to classic choices: “The original … Thomas Edison. A lot can be learned by studying not only his work, but his methods.”
But a few couldn’t resist tweaking Steve Jobs: “In my book, Steve Jobs is more an experience expert than an innovator,” said one. “Steve Jobs is no hero,” said another. “Woz … he was the inventor!” said a third.
Respondent Profile:
A total of 305 survey respondents included brand marketers (26%), consulting firms (24%), and agencies (16%). A majority were senior-level executives with 82% reporting more than 10 years of experience in marketing.
Survey Results: