In the movie theatre last weekend waiting for the new Harry Potter movie to begin, we were checking out the audience before the lights dimmed, and wondering about the broad range of consumer appeal of this film “HP6,” as it’s known to fans.

A part of working in a creative field is learning to be open to new ideas from the world, watching how things work, noticing consumers and what interests them, and what they respond to. Everything out there has the potential to feed the creative thinking process. The world is an idea incubator and also a marketplace.  And the two ways of looking at things are completely compatible – a hybrid thinking approach.

Now back to HP6.  In the theatre, there were young kids, teens, adults and grandparents: Gen X, Gen Y, Gen I (Internet generation), and Baby Boomers. HP6 touched some common chord across all these consumer groups, young and old. Then, we noticed something else. Within a few rows of our seats, we counted five different people looking at their iPhones – two college students in different groups, a middle-aged, business-man-type, a grandmother with two grandkids, and the young guy sitting next to us with his girlfriend – they were checking for telephone or e-mail messages and sharing photos with friends before the movie began.

Hybrid thinking – 50% creative + 50% strategic = 100% effective

The point is this:  more and more products and services we see today are the result of creative thinking and innovation combined with the strategic savvy of marketing experts. It’s a hybrid: 50% creative thinking + 50% strategic thinking = 100% effective.

Are you right-brain or left-brain? Take the quiz!

This right brain (creative) and left brain (strategic) approach to marketing and design blends creative concepts about how the product should look, feel, and work, and then shapes, designs and crafts the final form to meet a strategic marketing and sales plan. These products and services creatively fill the needs and desires of their target consumer groups, and are frequently strategic home runs.

We believe this blending of creative thinking with strategic thinking holds huge potential for you, your business and the future of marketing, especially in today’s economy.  We feel it’s an evolutionary step toward better, more useful, and more appealing products and services.

As the marketplace changes, creative and strategic thinkers and marketers are adapting to meet the needs of a more competitive marketplace with a wider variety of delivery options.  Hybrid thinking is changing the way products are made and marketed.

What’s creative thinking? Creative thinking is about idea generating – solution engineering you could call it.  By observing the world and combining insights and ideas into new arrangements, we come up with new ways of showing and expressing ideas so that people see them in a new light.

What’s strategic thinking? Strategic thinking identifies consumers’ needs through research and measurement. It looks at the numbers, the costs and the potential profit for developing products and services, and it measures the most efficient way to fill those needs. It considers goals and objectives, vision and mission statements. It plans, strategizes and develops tactical approaches based on market data, business trends and projections. It operates linearly, using logic, probabilities and purpose.

Hybrid thinking:  50% creative + 50% strategic = 100% effective. At The H Agency we use the term hybrid thinking to describe this blending of creative thinking and strategic thinking. It gives us a common frame of reference to discuss creative ideas and solutions in a language that our clients understand and relate to and it enables us to step out of the role of graphic designers and into the position of strategic partner.

In the past, a product or marketing campaign would be planned and developed, then, in the final stages, the designer would be called in to create an attractive package to make it more appealing to consumers. The designer would be expected to create a solution that was eye-catching and appealing, but wasn’t necessarily informed by factual strategic data. Clients simply wanted an advertisement or brochure that was attractive or clever enough to get attention.

But today, hybrid thinking, and the value it adds to marketing and sales, is becoming an important part of the strategic planning process. Our conversations with clients are no longer about whether a brochure should be blue or green, but about who’s the target audience? What are their needs and what’s the best way to reach them? We discuss new and creative approaches to communicate the benefits of the product or service and positively affect the bottom line.

Can you think of some examples of products or services that use hybrid thinking in their development, design and distribution?

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For more info on Hybrid thinking download the latest H-Paper: Hybrid Thinking.

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