The Power Of Imagination
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein
Pretty smart, that Einstein guy. We think he was on to something.
During our recent workshop with Tom Monahan, we talked about the importance of imagination in creating effective marketing strategies. Now this might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s not as simple as you might think. A lot of times, people get bogged down by two things: knowledge and convention.
Knowledge is great, but the more you know about something the less you tend to think creatively about it. Before you knew why the sky is blue or what causes thunder, you probably had all kinds of interesting childhood opinions on these important questions. You weren’t limited by what you had learned or the fear you might get an answer wrong. As a result of your lack of knowledge, you were more creative.
How can you recapture that? Don’t do a full brain-dump (after all, other parts of your job probably require the knowledge you’ve so carefully built up!), but do try to set knowledge aside from time to time. The next time you want to promote credit cards, try thinking less about the fine print requirements and instead imagine how the product could touch different parts of people’s lives. This may inspire you to come up with a more interesting and compelling offer.
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