How can you use brainstorming to generate creative marketing ideas for a product launch?

2 How to prepare for a brainstorming session?

Prior to brainstorming, it's important to do some preparation to ensure your session is successful. Firstly, you should define your objective - what is the main problem or challenge you want to solve? What criteria must your ideas meet? Make sure to share this with your team. Secondly, choose your participants carefully - aim for a diverse and cross-functional group of 4 to 10 people who have different skills, backgrounds, and perspectives. Thirdly, set up your environment - choose a comfortable and spacious location with privacy and minimal distractions. Supply enough materials - paper, pens, sticky notes, whiteboards, flip charts - for your team to write down and display their ideas. You can also use online tools like Miro, Mural, or Stormboard for remote brainstorming. Lastly, schedule your time - depending on the objective and number of participants, you may need anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. Set a timer and stick to it to keep everyone focused and motivated.

3 How to conduct a brainstorming session?

To begin your brainstorming session with your team, start by doing some warm-up exercises to get everyone in a creative mood. Then, review the objective of the session and criteria the ideas must meet. Next, generate ideas using different methods, such as brainwriting, brainstorming questions, or brainstorming tools like SCAMPER or Mind Mapping. As ideas come up, record and display them in a visible way for everyone to refer to. Utilize paper, pens, sticky notes, whiteboards, flip charts, or online tools like Miro, Mural, or Stormboard to capture and organize your ideas. Doing so will help ensure that everyone understands the problem or challenge and can come up with creative solutions.

4 How to evaluate and select ideas?

Once you have generated a plethora of ideas, it is necessary to evaluate and select the most promising and feasible for your marketing strategy. To do this, start by clarifying and categorizing ideas. Ask your team to explain any that are unclear or ambiguous, and group them based on criteria such as theme, relevance, impact, cost, etc. Then use methods such as dot voting, plus/minus/interesting voting and matrix voting to vote for the favorite ideas. Once you have voted and ranked the ideas, discuss them with your team and decide which ones to pursue further. You may also need to combine or refine the ideas to make them better suited for your marketing strategy.

5 How to test and implement ideas?

The final step of the brainstorming process is to test and implement the ideas that you have selected for your marketing strategy. To do this, you need to prototype and validate your ideas by creating mock-ups, conducting experiments, or creating surveys. After gathering feedback and data, you can iterate and improve your ideas through A/B testing, feedback loops, or a lean canvas. When you are ready, launch your marketing campaign and monitor its performance by using analytics tools, review platforms, or reports. This will help you evaluate the progress and outcomes of your marketing campaign.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?