Sport innovation encompasses much more than most people expect. Let’s explore the different types and domains of innovation and discover the steps to implement innovation successfully.
Innovation refers to creating more effective processes, products, and ideas.
Further definitions include translating ideas into actions that will provide value for which customers will pay or reward you with their loyalty – or will increase efficiency of your company resulting in cost savings.
“The purpose of innovation is to win new customers, new markets or new products or to streamline business processes in order to save costs. Rather than a different department or different tasks, innovation should become a mentality, being a main driver of business growth.”
A very common idea is that companies are either innovative or they’re not. Think of some companies you’d consider innovative, why is that? They launch the newest apps, products or solve new needs? The latter is called radical innovation, and is only one type of innovation that’s possible to implement in your business, and the most risky one at the same time. There are a lot of models that divide innovations into different types, but let’s go over the most common types of sport innovation as a starter:
This type of innovation is simply taking the lessons, skills and overall technology and applying them to a different market. Similar to the same model in business development, this is a low risk strategy as the business case of the technology has previously been proven. In most cases, it will requires tweaking of the technology to match the requirements of the new market.
An example here is the NN Running club, a project we launched for Energy Lab. We used their corporate vitality software, designed to accomodate in-company training sessions and events, and repurposed it so that we could use it as a marketing tool for the insurance company NN and created the first digital sports club in Belgium.
Radical innovation is the most exciting type of innovation, and is what most people have in mind when thinking about it. It’s all about creating revolutionary technology to solve needs that haven’t been met before, and can even involve creating new markets or industries.
Mirror is a company that launched an interactive mirror that functions as a webcam so that coaches can give you personal training sessions without having to leave your home.
In short, this type of innovation optimizes your current technology to increase value to the customer by adding features, bug fixing, design changes etc. This is the most common form of innovation as every company apply it in one form or another. This is the usually the least exciting form of innovation, though it can be crucial for your survival.
A famous example here is the Nike ‘Shoes by you’ application which allows you to custom design your own shoe.
This involves applying new technology or processes to your company’s current market. Important remark: at first, new tech will be inferior to existing technology. Initially it might be more expensive, fewer features and will take some updates before it can compete with existing companies. But when they reach this point, older companies might be too late to catch up.
I saw a recent and brilliant example of this in Belgium, where the Fitness chain Jims fitness, recently launched a mobile application. The challenge? Many customers buy a subscription but hardly ever use it, which increases the churn rate of these customers. Their solution? A mobile appllication, that allows them to access live video’s of club lessons, accessing stretching tips and full training sessions right from their home.
Today, community building is key to transform your members or customers into ambassadors. We can help you set-up the right actions, platforms & communication to support community building.
It is much easier to create recurring customers out of existing customers than to find new customers. Therefore you should focus your business around loyalty and customer services. A loyalty program will support this process.
How great would it be if you’d have an army of sales people promoting your brand daily. Wouldn’t it even be better if they would only be rewarded based on results? Here come referral programs: define your ideal partners, set-up reward systems based on the level of commitment and watch your company grow.
Artificial intelligence is a trend nowadays and it’s not always the right solution for your problem. But when it is a good option for you, it can be very strong and remove a lot of pain. We can help you define the best technology and solution for your challenges or goals.
You need to stand out in the crowd, AR or VR activations are a great way to do so. When done right of course.
Innovation happens on different levels, business model innovation can be one of them. Let’s talk to see how you can innovate your business model in order to support your growth.
The whole point about innovation is that’s it’s supposed to be new. Got any new ideas and you’re looking for guidance on how to implement them? We use the double diamond framework to define the right solution to your challenge or goal.
