At the Beijing Exhibition on April 1st - 3rd, as one of the first half of the exhibition of the amusement industry in 2019, many people with lofty ideals gathered in the industry. However, since the three-day exhibition, many exhibitors and terminal operators have mentioned one problem: few new products, and the products at the exhibition lack new ideas. Perhaps the upcoming Guangzhou AAA exhibition has a lot of new equipment, but we can easily find that in recent years, the new equipment and new operational ideas of the amusement industry have been significantly reduced, just like the doll machine that broke out in the early years, 2017 The mini KTV that broke out in the year and the popular blessing machine and lipstick machine of the previous year, although there are new explosions in succession, but the types are few, the continuous cycle is not long. Often, after a prosperous product emerges and actively promotes the industry, it will wait for the next explosion to appear, rather than continuously innovating, and continuously lead the development direction of the industry.

How can we stay innovative? Keep the vitality of the industry, enterprises and places? This article will start with a variety of methods that may stimulate innovative thinking, hoping to help everyone.

Either innovate or die

"The distance has disappeared, either innovation or death." - Thomas Peters

Innovation is another very old word. In English, innovation originated in Latin. Its original meaning has three meanings: first, update; second, create new things; third, change. With regard to innovation, it can be a variety of innovations: saying what others have not said, doing what others have not done, and thinking of others have not been called innovation. Innovation is a conceptual process characterized by new thinking, new inventions, and new descriptions.

In recent years, China's amusement equipment industry has developed rapidly, but the status quo of China's amusement industry is still strong, but it still does not have strong market competitiveness. Faced with the strong impact of the international market, how does China's amusement market break the bottleneck of development? Experts say that independent innovation has become a fundamental factor in breaking the bottleneck in the amusement equipment industry. Many manufacturers put price competition first, instead of considering the quality of products, lacking the awareness of independent innovation, and causing vicious price competition. This will inevitably push the enterprise to the brink of extinction. If enterprises want to get out of the bottleneck, it is an inevitable way to take the road of independent innovation.

The impact of innovation is obvious to everyone. Take Apple as an example. In 1997, when Apple was in an unprecedented predicament, Jobs led Apple to launch the iMac. The innovative shell color transparent design made the product sell well, and let Apple survive the financial crisis and achieve innovation. To change the status quo of the company; in 2004, Jobs launched the "Purple Project" and extended its design expertise to create a new touch-screen device: the mobile phone, the iPhone has brought Apple back to the top of the world. In the past century, many events have provided examples of the power of innovation, and innovation and creativity can play a vital role in the crisis. So, what is the innovation of the product? Robert Cooper lists six different types or different levels of new products in New Product Development Process Management:

1. New products.

These new products are the first of their kind and have created a new market, which accounts for 10% of new products;

2. New product line.

These products are not new to the market, but are new to some manufacturers, and about 20% of new products fall into this category;

3. Supplements for existing product varieties.

These new products are part of the factory's own product range. For the market, they may be new products. These products are among the newer types of products, accounting for about 26% of new products launched;

4. Improved version of old products.

These less-new products are essentially an alternative to the old factory products. They have improved performance over the old products and provide more intrinsic value. These new and improved products account for 26% of the new products launched;

5. Repositioned products.

Suitable for applications of new products in new areas, including repositioning in a new market, or in a different field, such products account for 7% of new products;

6. Products that reduce costs.

It is a bit reluctant to call these products new. They have been designed to replace older products, with no change in performance and utility, but with reduced costs, which account for 11% of new products.

How do companies get creative inspiration? How to keep the product innovative?

Use data decisions: learn to use big data to find new product directions

The word big data was first proposed by McKinsey, a world-renowned consulting firm. McKinsey said: “Data has penetrated into every industry and business function field today and has become an important production factor. People’s exploration and use of massive data indicates A new wave of productivity growth and the arrival of consumer surplus wave.” The current society is a fast-developing society with developed technology and information circulation. People’s communication is getting closer and closer, and life is more convenient. Big data is The product of this high-tech era, companies can quickly understand consumer characteristics and needs through big data.

Some people compare data to coal mines with energy. Coal is classified into coking coal, anthracite, fat coal, and lean coal according to its nature, while the excavation costs of open pit mines and deep mountain coal mines are different. Similarly, big data is not “big” but “useful”, and value content and mining costs are more important than quantity. For many industries, how to use these large-scale data is the key to winning competition. In the same way, in the amusement industry, it is also important to learn the use of data. When a manufacturer of amusement equipment wants to develop a new product, it is possible to start with a portrait of a consumer under big data. First, first define the scope of the target customer, and then find the demand for entertainment for the customer portrait of the corresponding age group. In a fast-growing society, consumer demand changes are constantly changing, and consumer portraits under big data can help companies quickly find accurate demand, then plan new product directions for demand and gain inspiration for innovative products.

Focus on player participation: a long-term mechanism for continuous improvement and innovation

When the product arrives at the venue, the player will experience the timely feedback of the product and have an indelible help for the continuous innovation of the product. In the same way, while developing new products, professional players can also participate in the research and development of products, discuss and communicate together, operators and R&D personnel can continuously absorb the opinions of players and gain new inspiration in absorbing opinions. With the continuous improvement of the equipment, and then secondary development, and even three developments, so that the product can better meet the entertainment needs of players, giving players a better experience.

Forming a relationship of mutual trust and mutual help with professional players, allowing players to become a part of the enterprise product research and development, and let the enterprise products be loved by players, and truly develop innovative products with market benefits and popularity.

Cross-border thinking mode of the Internet: innovation under collision and integration

Cross-border should be one of the most talked about thinking modes on the Internet. From the beginning of Apple's cross-border into the mobile phone industry, subvert Nokia, WeChat cross-border into the communications field, subvert the voice and SMS business of operators, and Internet finance subverts traditional banks. The huge impact on the cross-border cooperation of fashion brands that are now in full swing.

The biggest benefit of cross-border cooperation for a brand is to let the elements that are originally irrelevant, even contradictory and antagonistic, mutually infiltrate and merge, thus creating new highlights. The most common innovation under cross-border cooperation is the IP-licensed product, the integration of amusement companies and traffic IP, and the launch of new IP-based amusement products. Cross-border not only creates new business models, but also leverages cross-border cooperation to help companies innovate with the strengths of their partners. Cross-border ubiquity may be just a subtle change, a small innovation, or a change in the industry's pattern. If you want to break through your thinking and find new inspiration for innovation, you may want to try to work with people outside the industry, and you may have different benefits.

Brainstorming: Learn to use suspicion to inspire innovation

The brainstorming method pioneered by Osborne of the American BBDO advertising company means that the working group members discuss and discuss in the form of meetings in a normal and unrestricted atmosphere, breaking the routine, thinking positively, speaking freely, and fully expressing opinions. Methods. Brainstorming allows key stakeholders to participate, helping to communicate fully; stimulating the team's imagination and helping to discover new risks, new ideas, and new solutions that are faster and easier to develop . When there is no new product thinking, you may wish to brainstorm on existing products, express your own opinions, improve the lack of improvement, and transform existing products. It is also a product innovation.

R&D staff: How to keep your mind active

Before developing a new device, R&D personnel need to find their inspirations in a divergent way. Creative thinking is based on the ability of perception, memory, thinking, association, understanding, etc., with comprehensive, exploratory and innovative features as the main features, and people need to pay Hard brain activity. The development of innovative products requires a process of rationally implementing ideas into actionable plans. How to maintain the activeness of thinking is particularly important here. How can we maintain the activeness of thinking?

1. Jump out of the frame and use divergent thinking (bold) in our minds. There are many similar rules. Some of these rules and regulations come from our mindset, some from cognitive bias, and some from limitations in experience, insight, and vision. Therefore, we must take an open mind and look at everything. Be brave to break through the comfort zone, don't be influenced by the previous rules, use divergent thinking to think about problems, and more easily discover new creative ideas.

2, to maintain concentration, to maintain curiosity (bold) Psychology believes that curiosity is the psychological tendency of individuals to encounter attention, operation, and questions when they encounter novelty or under new external conditions. Curiosity is one of the intrinsic motivations of individual learning, the motivation of individuals to seek knowledge, and an important feature of creative talents. Distraction is the enemy of creative thinking. Therefore, while maintaining curiosity, we must also focus on the areas we develop, which will help create better solutions and equipment.

3. Cultivate the imagination (bold) The cultivation of imagination begins with imitation, and imitation itself is “reconstruction of imagination”. The stronger your ability to imitate, the stronger your ability to recreate your imagination. At the same time, you need to develop observational skills to enhance our imagination. When we imagine something, it is to establish the relationship between the feature and the property between the thing and the things that have been experienced in the mind, and the acquisition of the characteristics and characteristics of the thing in the mind depends first on observation; it can also cultivate a variety of hobbies. Cultivating imagination, wide-ranging interests and multi-faceted hobbies can broaden people's ideas, complement each other's knowledge and gain more inspiration. In addition, the cultivation of rich emotions, people's emotions and emotions are often the direct driving force of imaginary activities. Usually listening to various types of music and watching various movies can also help this.

4. Record and organize inspiration, thinking and discovery in a timely manner. (Bold) Inspiration is fleeting and must be recorded because “written thinking is easier to use”. Moreover, this intuitive idea is more creative than the idea of sitting on active reasoning. Saving the results of thinking activities is a real intellectual saving. Sometimes, inspiration is just a piece of thinking. But if you can accumulate a little bit, one day, it will become a wonderful idea, or a unique discovery.

5. Develop a critical way of thinking (bold) Critical thinking is to think in a way that is reasonable, reflective, and spiritually developed, so that it can be clearly and accurately expressed, logically and rigorously reasoned, reasonably demonstrated, and raised. Be thinking about the spirit. A critical way of thinking can look at the same thing in different ways of thinking, and it can also collide with new creative sparks.

Whether an enterprise can continuously carry out product innovation and develop new products suitable for market demand becomes an important issue that determines whether the company can achieve sustainable and stable development. Especially in the new economic era where the development of science and technology is changing rapidly and the product life cycle is greatly shortened, the challenges faced by enterprise products are even more severe. In the same way, whether the amusement industry can maintain a sustainable and vigorous development is inseparable from the impact of various new products on the market again and again. Keeping innovation, staying alive, and thriving, let us work together for the future of the industry!