Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [198]
Brainwriting can be done when people are at different locations; or it can be done within a meeting by taking short “time-outs” and asking people to individually write as many ideas as they can on the topic for about six to ten minutes. To reduce evaluation concerns, participants should not sign their list. The ideas are then summarized.
Over 20 studies have shown that brainwriting is substantially more effective than brainstorming (Gallupe, Bastianutti, and Cooper 1991). In addition to reducing group pressure, less time is spent on listening (Diehl and Stroebe 1987). Thus, it is much less time-consuming especially with large groups. Large groups can participate in brainwriting.
Organizations with a frequent need for creativity should consider electronic brainwriting. With this process, creative people enter their ideas on a computer program. When all participants have finished, the ideas are listed anonymously on a screen. Consider the advantages: Because everybody is writing simultaneously, it takes less time; because of the anonymous nature, everybody is equal; it can be held with group members in remote locations; people can work on it when it is convenient; people can sleep on ideas; and there is a complete record of the ideas generated.
Lab experiments have shown that, for a given level of man-hours, electronic brainwriting groups can produce many more “high-quality ideas” than properly conducted brainstorming groups. Furthermore, the subjects were more satisfied with electronic brainwriting (Gallupe et al. 1992; Valacich, Dennis, and Connolly 1994). Another study, describing lab experiments, concluded: “Across five studies involving more than 800 people, productivity advantages have ranged from 25 percent to 50 percent for four-person groups and to nearly 200 percent for twelve-person groups” (Gallupe and Cooper 1993).
Electronic brainwriting is gaining popularity. By the late 1900s, several million people in over 1,500 organizations around the world had used electronic brain-writing (Briggs, Nunamaker, and Sprague 1998).
A related approach to brainwriting is called “gallery writing.” This can be done manually or electronically. In the manual mode, group members silently write unsigned suggestions about the discussion topic on flip charts. They then post the pages on the walls. Others write comments on the suggestions. This approach is effective and is well liked by participants (Aiken and Vanjani 2003).
It helps to set high goals for the number of ideas to be generated. This conclusion is based upon the substantial literature on goal setting (Locke and Latham 2002). It was tested directly for generating ideas for advertising: groups of subjects were asked to generate one, three, five, or eight ideas for advertising a hypothetical brand of beer. A panel of four advertising professionals rated the ideas. The group given the goal of generating eight ideas actually generated 25; furthermore, the percentage of good ideas did not wane as the quantity of ideas increased. The group given the lowest goal generated only one idea (Bergh, Reid, and Schorin 1983).
The use of analogies can aid the search for creative solutions. Listing similar problems and describing possible solutions can stimulate ideas for solving a current problem. For example, if the task is to advertise automobiles, you might think about how other forms of transportation (trains or ships) were successfully advertised. To avoid suppressing creativity, examine these after, not before, developing your initial ideas.
Groups can enhance creativity with the above-mentioned structured procedures. An alternative is to use virtual groups. In these, participants communicate using e-mail, reports, and letters, but do not meet face to face. Thus, they are not influenced by factors, such as a person’s height or looks, body language, facial expressions, tone, or other factors that might cause them to be careful about suggesting ideas that differ from the ideas that are