Outdated brainstorming techniques are keeping Scottish companies from marketing themselves successfully, according to a Canadian marketing expert engaged by Scottish Enterprise to help local firms come up with “big ideas”.

“Most brainstorming doesn’t work. It is 50 years old – there is no other critical business system that is still around which is that old. The creative industries are some of the least creative you’ll ever see.”” said Doug Hall, author of Jump Start Your Marketing Brain and inventor of what he says is a system for producing big ideas.

His book is based on a study of 239 new products and 3,500 consumers tracked over 52 weeks; in the process identifying three distinct strategies for achieving success in generating trial of new initiatives. Hall claims that the average US household has or uses 18 products or services invented using his methods.

Scotland has huge potential for generating big ideas, feels Hall. “I have been very impressed here with the way people are concerned about the future and asking: ‘Where are we going?’,” he said. “You can’t predict the future, but if you think hard about it you can create a new reality.