Outthinking 101:
Step Into the Marketing Lab

Marketing isn’t an exact science—every day presents a new challenge that can be wildly different than what you were doing the day before. That’s just the name of the game. It’s fast. It’s unrelenting. We also wouldn’t have it any other way, because at Iluminere we don’t just think & do. We outthink and outdo, constantly.  

 

Iluminere’s Outthink Method has all the makings of something you might be familiar with if you think back to 5th grade science class. Oh yeah, baby, we’re talking Scientific Method! It might be deep in your subconscious, but if you don’t remember the steps, it goes a little like:   

 

Ask a question
Research
Form a hypothesis
Experiment (our personal favorite)
Analyze
Draw Conclusions
Communicate 

 

Now we sprinkle in a little Outthinking!  

It starts with some basic principles.  

Listen before you speak.  

Relentless simplification. 

Look for progress. Not perfection.

Find ways to test and learn – be scrappy.

Include all stakeholders in the feedback loop.  

 

Method step one (and ironically, the most important)—truly understand the business or revenue challenge. Everything within the method should be optimized to solve challenges.   

Listen. REALLY listen.
Listen to your client, the customer, the market, the industry and the competition. 

Direct.
Define the impact needed to solve the challenge. Make your hypotheses.

Test.
Collaborate, create, iterate, test, fail and learn.

Adjust.
Continue until a clear hypothesis is a winner. A winner gets attention and garners the actions needed to make the intended impact.

Get attention.
Get in market and shake things up a bit. If we don’t get noticed, we’ve failed.

Evaluate.
Did we succeed? Fail? We want to know why, how and what we’re going to do to make it better.  

 

We’re not scientists, but we ARE experts. What we lack in lab coats, we make up for with relentless simplification. We’ve got that zest for good work. We’ve got that secret sauce that makes us stand out in this insane industry. But above all, brands trust us to solve revenue challenges, and we’re always down for a good challenge. Marketing is an insane industry (oh, how we love it so), but following the road map that was taught in science class all those years ago helps keep it all in front of us. That’s what it means to outthink.  

 

Thanks for coming to our iluminere Talk.   

 

Want to partner with an agency that’ll turn every stone until your business needs are met? Walk with us.