You gotta see this video!" ace ResearchWorks strategist Ross Dammann gleefully exclaimed. And he was right. Watching the parody of Microsoft "improving" iPod packaging is as funny as it is poignantly instructive. It's several years old; and not much has changed. Check it out:

Here are three key takeaways:

1. Purpose: The job of retail packaging is first to get the customer to notice the box and look at it, then to engage them enough to dig deeper. That's it. So K.I.S.S.

2. TMI: Like with other forms of seduction (hey, it is what it is), revealing all right away is NOT the best approach. The package should not try to convey every detail. It's Too Much Information. Usually, less is more (hence, my top secret code name Les S. Moore, since you were wondering).

3. Think/Feel/Do: Every communication piece should be subject to the think/feel/do test. Yes, even Apple stuff. In advance, determine what you want target customers to think, feel, and do when they see the package. Then use those objectives to make sure the creative execution hits the mark. It's a simple, powerful, and ego-free form of assuring purpose-driven communications and accountability for results.

Happy and persuasive communications!

Apple has become synonymous with product innovation. We have a number of clients in the life sciences, in healthcare, and even in public health who say they aspire to be like Apple. What they really mean is they want to make very hip, cutting-edge, trend-setting products. They want customers with cult-like devotion. And they want to score major "cool points" -- lots of 'em. All while making a ton of money.

Which is a problem. Why? It reminds me of a large, national, nonprofit we work with that said they want to be world class. The question was, are they willing to pay the price of being world class? Like letting go of mediocre employees, investing in top training programs, rewarding high performance, etc. 

Similarly, companies that want to establish a value discipline of innovation need to be willing to pay the price. In the development phase alone, Apple makes a huge investment. For example:

• A small team of extremely well-paid, top-notch designers with a maniacal focus on perfection.
• Who create 10 perfect mock-ups for each potential new product feature, from which three mock-ups will be selected for further exploration, to result in the feature in as perfect a form as possible.
• Which means Apple knows in advance that they will get rid of 90% (9 of 10 mock-ups) of what they create.
• And happily makes that investment.
• Fueled by leadership that is relentlessly committed to winning by innovating.

Which results in game-changing, industry-inventing, highly profitable products with incredible demand.

And Apple's style of innovation invite a fundamental re-positioning of form and function. As Alain Briellat put it in his excellent analysis:

"Apple doesn’t sell functional products; they sell fashionable pieces of functional art."

So... two simple questions for you, dear reader:

1) What do you sell?

2) Are you willing to invest what it takes to be a top innovator in your space?

------------------------

P.S. Check out these classics: Peter Drucker on The Discipline of Innovation, and Treacy & Wiersema on Value Disciplines.

Have you noticed how more and more technology is "hands-on?" Touch screens are everywhere- on phones, ATMS, airport terminals- all kinds of computers. When Apple brought out the iPad, I didn't think it met a felt need. But I was only thinking about what what it did, not how it did it. I believe the iPad has caught fire because, like its smaller predecessor (the iTouch), how it works is with pointing, touching, swiping - natural intuitive human movements.

The more that interfacing with products and services uses our natural human gestures, movements, and patterns, the better they will sell. Why: They just make sense to us as human beings.

Let's apply this thinking to more complex things- like medical devices and electronic medical records EMRs. The more complex the issue or problem is, the more intuitively simple the interface with the solution needs to be. In our customer research on a wide range of medical products and health issues, we hear it all the time. Keep it simple. And nothing keeps it simpler than products designed to have people to do what they naturally do anyway. 

Microsoft opened its fourth retail store recently - this one in San Diego, the same day Apple launched iPhone 4. According to blogger Joe Wilcox, the Apple Store (a stone's throw from the Microsoft store in the Fashion Valley mall) had about five times the crowd.

Microsoft was giving away lots of freebies, while people were waiting for hours to give Apple money. I wonder where Microsoft got the idea for their retail stores?? I'm waiting to see a TV ad (in the spirit of Windows 7 ads) with Steve Jobs in front of a Microsoft store saying... "My idea."