Innovation in Branding
COMPANIES SHOULD COMBINE INNOVATION WITH NEW BRAND NAMES

Interview with Al Ries

Any other thoughts/views you would like to share with our readers?

Many companies today, are trying to innovate by putting products together. Interactive television, for example, which has been a big disaster. Currently, cellphone manufacturers of the world are trying to put the cellphone together with a wide range of other products: Facsimile, handheld computers, game players, digital cameras, internet, etc. These so-called smart phones are unlikely to become mainstream devices. In the future, they will be a small niche market.

The concept of putting things together is called "convergence," and the concept has received an enormous amount of publicity.

My daughter and partner Laura and I are strongly opposed to the convergence concept. In our opinion, it dampens the innovation spirit that exists in most companies. To be truly innovative, engineers and designers should think just the opposite. They should look for divergence opportunities.

We borrowed the divergence idea from Charles Darwin who discussed the concept in his book, The Origin of Species. Darwin proposed the revolutionary idea that all living things are descended from a single spark of life by the process of divergence. He used the example of a tree where all the individual branches and twigs are created by divergence from a single trunk. ("The Great Tree of Life," he called it.)

Over time, every species diverges and creates two or more different species by divergence. This was to him the most important aspect of what was later called evolution.

By analogy with The Great Tree of Life, we proposed an idea called The Great Trees of Products and Services."

Take the Great Tree of Computers, for example. First, there was a trunk called "mainframe computer." Today, that computer trunk has diverged and now we also have midrange computers, network computers, personal computers, laptop computers, tablet computers and handheld computers. The computer didn't converge with another technology. It diverged, creating opportunities to build brands like Intel, Microsoft, Dell, SAP and Oracle.

Take the Great Tree of Television. First, there was a trunk called "broadcast television." Today, that television trunk has diverged and now we also have analog and digital television. Regular and high-definition television.

Standard (4/3) and widescreen (16/9) formats. Also broadcast TV, cable TV, satellite TV and pay-per-view TV. Television didn't converge with another medium. It diverged, creating opportunities to build brands like CNN, ESPN, DirecTV and HBO.

Take the Great Tree of Radio. First, there was a trunk called "AM radio." Today, that AM radio trunk has diverged and now we also have FM radio, cable radio and satellite radio. Also portable radios, car radios, wearable radios and clock radios. Radio didn't converge with another medium. It diverged, creating opportunities to build a host of brands.

Take the Great Tree of Telephone. First, there was a trunk called POTS (plain old telephone service). Today, that POTS trunk has diverged and now we also have cordless telephones, headset phones, cellphones and satellite phones. The telephone didn't converge with another technology. It diverged.

Did you ever see a tree in which two branches converged to form a single branch? This is highly unlikely in nature. It's also highly unlikely in products and services.