Want to innovate? Look in new places.

It's the beginning of a project. You're excited. There's a sense of optimism in the air. The possibilities seem endless. Could this brand be re-invented? Could it become meaningful to a whole new target audience? Where could it go in the future? But before long you're seeing the same familiar old concepts trotted out again - updated versions of boards that already languish in the depths of the marketing department cupboard.

Why the disappointment? To quote Henry Ford, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

We have to start looking in new places.

We have to broader the current myopic focus on brand, immediate competition or consumer. We have to look much further out - to company assets and value chain assets. We need to look at the lives of real people (citizen consumers) and what they really need, rather than defining people solely by their consumption habits.

We have to ask new questions. What it is that's unique about how a brand thinks or behaves that could change the business' and category’s role in society? What does the consumer - and importantly wider society - gain from this brand. How does this brand improve quality of life?

There are many opportunities for brands to innovate. We just need to look in places that go well beyond the fixture.