The 3M Company is at the forefront of a movement to re-emphasize the personal touch in marketing — something no IP marketing professional should ever lose sight of. The company’s “customer innovation centers,” typically located near its research facilities, provide a forum for meeting with corporate customers and engaging them directly in the innovation process. In addition to the customer innovation center at its headquarters in St. Paul, 3M has more than 20 such centers around the world. Its first was opened in Sumitomo, Japan, in 1997; its latest will open next year in Dubai.

What are these centers like? A typical customer day at a 3M center begins with a team from a visiting company presenting an overview of their business to a group of 3M marketing and technology experts, who then pepper them with open-ended questions. The goal is to understand “what our customers are trying to accomplish, not what they say they need,” says John Horn, vice president for research and development at 3M’s industrial and transportation business.

Next is a visit to the “World of Innovation” showroom. The company has more than 40 of what it calls technology platforms — core technologies in areas like optical films, reflective materials, abrasives and adhesives — that can potentially be combined and applied to meet a range of needs in different markets. By exposing customers to these platforms, 3M hopes to prompt the type of novel connections — like using dental technology to improve car parts — that drive innovative solutions. “We never show completed products,” Horn says. “Doing that would constrain people’s thinking.”

Source: The New york Times

Posted December 29th, 2009 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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