One problem with brand new ideas is that instinctively we don’t trust them. 

So unless there’s a company we do know and trust behind a new product or service it’s often a case of ‘better the devil you know’ until someone we know buys into the idea. Hence the importance of early adopters or ‘mavens’ as Seth Godin calls them.

One way around this innovation gridlock is to use brands, but an even better way is to use people. For example, when Stelios Haji-Ioannou was thinking of launching easyjet in the UK in 1995 he had two insights: first, people are more likely to trust a person than a company; and second, as a start-up he needed publicity but couldn’t afford it.

Solution? Combine the two and make the airline personal. Stelios is now a billionaire, his planes are bright orange and his competitors are green with envy.