3-D Marketing When Bart Huthwaite owned a machine tool company, he regularly taught engineers how to innovate products to gain more benefits from his machine tools. It led him to believe that innovation should be learnable, repeatable and sustainable. Huthwaite sold his company in 1982 and founded the Institute for Lean Innovation, which teaches companies a 6-step, end-to-end product development process. Large companies, including Motorola, Eaton, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, are among the Institute for Lean Innovation's customers. But despite his success, Huthwaite wanted an innovative way to attract more clients and to more easily demonstrate the institute's product development process. Then Huthwaite saw the perfect marketing vehicle: It was a 3-dimensional cube with messages on all six sides. What better way to depict the Institute of Lean Innovation's 6-step process? Enter Structural Graphics, the Essex, Conn., company with a patent on the Book-Cube design. Structural Graphics specializes in innovative packaging products, direct mail campaigns, point-of-purchase displays, magazine inserts and sales aids. Its Book-Cube ships flat and appears at first to be a 4-page folder. When recipients open the book, it automatically pops into the shape of a cube with the help of an internal rubber band mechanism. "It's a piece of advertising that sticks around," says Michael Dambra, vice president of marketing for Structural Graphics. "It mails flat, then pops into shape. That 'pop' is the 'wow' factor. Very few people throw Book-Cubes away. They sit on desks for quite a while." The company provided 5,000 Book-Cubes for the Institute of Lean Innovation, which distributed them at trade shows and via direct mail. The cubes were printed by United Graphics in Dallas on 15pt. C1S stock. The 4-color cubes, which include a spot varnish, are taxi-cab yellow and measure five inches square when open. Prior to opening, the front cover reads, "Avoid the Enemies of Value" and depicts bright-colored cartoon characters representing those enemies. For instance, a blue character with diapers riding a bike represents "immaturity," and a green one with bandages and crutches represents "sensitivity." When the book is opened to a cube, the remaining five sides display tips for developing innovative products. One side is imprinted with a pie graph showing the five elements of value: people, processes, materials, parts and functions. Another side encourages companies to deliver the eight core customer values, with cartoon characters depicting durability, affordability and six other "ilities." A third side shows eight innovation tactics, while yet another discusses innovation metrics. The final side portrays a pie chart with the four domains (supply, design, customer and operations) where companies should seek value. Dambra says one of the biggest challenges on this project was the fast turnaround required. "This one screamed through the house, so scheduling was critical," he says. The Book-Cube took five weeks from receipt of artwork to delivery. While that may be a lot of time for stock forms or simple tri-fold brochures, complicated 3-dimensional products involve more steps. In addition to prepress and printing, the book cubes require die cutting and hand assembly. Huthwaite says working with Structural Graphics was great: The marketing piece was top-quality, and the company delivered it on time. "And the response was more than we expected," says Huthwaite. "We anticipated five companies would call us to set up appointments, but we got 25." Have a solution? Click here to be featured as an E-Weekly Solution of the Week