By Doug Stephens<\/p>\n

Today I came across this ad from the United States Postal Service. \u00a0They’ve adopted a self-preservation strategy that attempts to convince us that snail-mail’s low tech nature is actually preferable to digital communication because it offers protection from viruses and hackers. “An online virus has never attacked a cork board.” the voiceover says. \u00a0Isn’t that a little like saying \u00a0a horse would be better than a car because a horse never runs out of gas?<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal of the campaign appears to be to convince rational adults who run real-world companies that sending paper statements to their customers makes more sense than digital billing and that customers actually prefer mail!<\/p>\n

This is the best the USPS could come up with? \u00a0This is the strategy that will assure them their rightful place in the future?<\/p>\n

[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oysFmSVzCnM[\/youtube]<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this sort of reaction to imminent obsolescence isn\u2019t unusual. \u00a0For example, instead of innovating, the record industry chose to simply sue individuals for downloading music. \u00a0Instead of innovating, Blockbuster merely tinkered with late fees on DVD’s. Instead of innovating, book publishers and sellers tried to convince digital readers that they were somehow betraying the sanctity of the written word by using a Kindle. \u00a0In the process, they all wasted precious time and energy that could have been dedicated to real innovation and reinvention – things that might have saved them.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I\u2019m not suggesting that reinventing a company, a business model, or an entire industry, for that matter, is easy or even possible, in all cases. \u00a0There are some notably successful reinventions however; brands like Hyundai, Apple, HP and Gucci are just a few that come to mind. \u00a0Many more, of course, have faded into obscurity despite their best efforts. \u00a0There are no\u00a0guarantees.<\/p>\n

What is<\/em> absolutely certain though, is that deception, scare tactics and tinkering don’t cut it when you’re being\u00a0annihilated\u00a0by\u00a0devastatingly\u00a0disruptive\u00a0technology. \u00a0You have no choice but to innovate aggressively and radically to create a new and relevant proposition. \u00a0You have to find a remarkable reason for existing.<\/p>\n

So, if your company ever finds itself behind the eight ball and someone at your agency suggests a campaign like this one from the USPS, fire them<\/strong>. \u00a0Then sit down and start the difficult but exhilarating\u00a0work of innovating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens Today I came across this ad from the United States Postal Service. \u00a0They’ve adopted a self-preservation strategy that attempts to convince us that [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[152,181,89,118,58,182],"class_list":["post-1509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","category-uncategorized","tag-change","tag-disrutpion","tag-innovation","tag-retail-prophet","tag-technology","tag-usps"],"yoast_head":"\n