THINK INSIDE THE BOX

I GET HEADACHES. Little tension headaches and major three-day migraines that have landed me in the ER twice, driven me into the hands of neurologists, the tubes of MRI technicians and the grateful hearts of prescription and OTC painkiller manufacturers everywhere. So I’m interested in just about anything having to do with headaches. Which is why I was intrigued with a new product recently.

Heard of “HeadOn”? It’s the headache relief you “apply directly to the forehead” as the product’s unrelentingly repetitive TV spots have burned into my brain. I consider most OTC remedies irrelevant considering the magnitude of my migraines, and I’m especially disdainful of low-budget ads that shout at me, but for whatever reason I recently tried the stuff. I’m happy I did, for three reasons.

First, it helps. I’ve been using sports rubs, Ben-Gay, Tiger Balm and the like to supplement painkillers for years. HeadOn isn’t particulary more effective than any of those, but it seems to be about as good.

Second, I tend to look for insights into my profession and interests among the little moments of daily life, and it occurs to me that this is another great example of the “Think INSIDE The Box” principles I preach in my office trainings all the time. Ideas don’t come from “nowhere.” They are new combinations of existing ideas. HeadOn is a sort of semi-solid that comes in a twist-up tube. Just uncap it and apply directly … well, you’ve probably heard the annoying ads too. I love it that someone somewhere took what was old news for lipsticks and deoderants and combined it with the world of rubs and creams to come up with something new on the headache shelf. It not only gives me relief, it gives me another way to illustrate one of my points about the creative process.

Third, it solves a problem I didn’t fully realize I had. By happenstance, I tried HeadOn while I was in a two-day meeting with a roomful of senior Procter & Gamble marketing executives. We were talking about, among other things, the importance of obtaining deep consumer insights as the basis of product development and smart marketing campaigns. My appreciation for the topic deepened literally the first moment I applied HeadOn directly to … well, you know … I realized that had some researcher probed me to find out what I wanted out of a painkiller, there’s very little chance I would have spontaneously come up with “Hey, put it in a tube and let me roll it on my forehead like deoderant gone astray.”

It takes patience and indirect research to figure out that while deep rubbing topical analgesics into your temples, neck and shoulders can take the edge off the big headaches, it also leaves you smelling like Menthol Man and coats your fingers with a greasy afterglow that can ruin any lunch you eat with your hands.

Unrealized problem solved: Now I don’t have to touch the stuff.

I like companies that not only make the headaches I know I have go away, but make the headaches I don’t know I have go away too.

© 2006 John Armato
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