The Grand Unified Theory of Creativity

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I am approaching 40 years of experience mumbling and working with Madison Avenue ad agencies and their clients, finding strategies that invigorate the sales of products, brands, categories and industries. Beneath the surface I've sought what I call The Grand Unified Theory of Creativity - what is it that would give a client the single most comprehensive yet concise view of all product and positioning potentials available to their business. While this search with my clients has allowed me to amass many career's worth of experience in less than a lifetime, I still wonder why more people don't get it - knowing as I do that they can go farther than where they are, expanding their product or strategy's Viability Envelope, by just tipping the creative tea cup a bit further - in the same way shifting from 'fit' and 'dryness' to 'development' dramatically expanded Pamper's industry footprint?

Letters back from companies such as Starbucks and their Senior Vice President of Category Management state they have plenty of specially designed resources available for the gathering and measurement of the required data - never realizing that you can never measure your way to where your business can go. Again I ask, "So why don't they get it?"

No one is talking to Starbucks (or any company) about The Grand Unified Theory of Creativity (google "the grand unified theory of creativity" in quotation marks and you will find I am one of only two people on the planet thinking about it, and the other guy wants to be a western writer.) And Starbuck's 'gathered' and 'measured' data is doing nothing to reverse the fact that the strategy that once made them most powerful is now being copied handily by every other Tom, Dick and Harry coffee purveyor.

Strategic Innovation, and The Grand Unified Theory of Creativity is about Multi-Dimensional Creativity. Another one of those terms that companies such as Starbucks tells me is provided by their ad agencies (really?...so if you google the term "muli-dimensional creativity" why don't any advertising agencies pop up in results?)? Multi-Dimensional Creativity is about that comprehensive/concise justaposition of which I spoke earlier - looking at fractions of millions of strategic options in the blink of an eye. That's just to get the linear thinkers out of the starting blocks. It doesn't come from the user-generated input websites touted by Chrysler to get them closer to their customers. It's the Abstract Creativity, The Abstract Dimensioning that ensues that makes the obvious special. (and that's not covered by any ad agencies or strategic innovators either).

So say you are Staples, and the strategy that once made you so powerful, and the first to consolidate office supply acquisition, is now so copied that you've become little more than a commodity; what do you need to shift your business strategy from strategy maintenance to strategic creation mode? You need to visit a fine tailor and get your new grand unified view of creativity custom tailored to fit you.

Calle Creativity Summit - New York, New York - November, 9-11, 2007 - Host Cat Deeley

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American Idol presenter Cat Deeley will host Calle & Company's 10th Annual Creativity Summit in New York November 9-11, 2007. Director of Differentiation Strategy Martin Calle says attendance has grown every year. Invitations closed August 29 and the event is sold out.

This year the conference will focus on product differentiation and why CEOs are more likely to jettison a brand or ad agency than look in-depth at the product to find brand boosting product-based marketing solutions to take the business to the next level.

CEOs chase consumer ears and eyeballs, they promote lavishly, but the anchors, the product's features and benefits can only take the business so far. The goal of the conference will be to present attendees with solution strategies. To illustrate, Martin said that M&Ms started out as a hard shelled candy. Nobody wanted it until Rooser Reeves found a more abstract under pinning; "they melt in your mouth, not in your hand." Martin says answers like this are so obvious, they're not obvious. Advertisers no longer think that way, substituting a product's reason-for-being with :30 seconds of buzz du jour dialogue. And advertising has taken a tumble. Martin says, "My grandfather had a farm. My dad had a garden. I have a can opener."

Breakouts will cover Multi-Dimensional Creativity® - a linking process that creates the conversation of creativity in consumer minds, Abstract Dimensioning® - the critical mass of connected thought that becomes available when stimulated into existance through the use of custom-created proactive materials. Question-based or Quantitative Marketing - pitfalls and poor traditions of gathering and measuring data, establishing Perceptual Monolpolies® - the lost ad process and more. A complete calendar of events is available from Calle & Company. future@callecompany.com