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Approaching product development, services, and situations by way of odd associations can spark that creative idea marketers love to develop.

I had an interesting email come in the other day in regards to an article I wrote a while back called 8+ Ways To Train Yourself To Be Creative. The person mentioned how they loved the techniques I suggested and like me, they love the book Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

The question brought to me was, “These are all great techniques, but how do you suggest going about creatively finding a Purple Cow for your business?”

“Wow - what a great question,” I thought as I swiveled my chair around and walked over to the bookshelf housing Seth’s insightful book.

There of course is no one method or plan for developing a remarkable product, service, or business that stands out from the rest. For every idea out there, there’s an infinite number of ways to approach its development.

Those of you who know a little about me know I like thinking laterally. Thinking laterally usually entails approaching ideas from odd angles and different perspectives. Here’s one lateral way of approaching an idea that can kick that creative genius’ butt inside you and get those remarkable juices pump’n.

Think Opposites

Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War said, “To foresee a victory which the ordinary man can foresee is not the acme of skill.”

In the context of this article’s topic, that quote tells me don’t be ordinary. It tells me I need to challenge myself and create a way to win that’s unforeseeable by my competition.

One way to develop a new product or new direction of an existing product is to think in contradictions.

Unusual connections of information and placing two dissimilar objects together can create a memorable product which people often times can’t help but remember (and hopefully talk about). These unusual tactics often times get attention and spark creativity.

View your idea in different perspectives and force yourself to see relationships between dissimilar things that normally defy all logic. After awhile, you’ll begin to see ideas where none existed before.

For example, pizza and beer go together; so does peanut butter and jelly. But how does beer and jelly go together? Imagine advertising the campaign: “Get drunk on peanut butter and jelly!”

This is nothing new. You can often times find odd relationships in works of art.

Now that’s the question. Can you create a work of art in your product or service?

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