Storytelling

Story Is The Universal Marketing Tool

Story doesn’t discriminate. It’s not dependent on a big advertising department or celebrity endorsement. It’s the universal marketing tool available to anyone. That includes you. When Target had a store in every suburb. Zappos had a story about delivering ‘wow through service’. When Borders had floo

A Reason To Decide

She spotted the black dress just as she was about to give up. It was perfect. She imagined how it would cling in all the right places at the party on Friday night. And how she would feel when he spotted her across the crowded room. The reason you buy the dress isn’t the same…

Apple’s Not-So-Secret Marketing Secret

Why would anyone buy a 13 inch MacBook Air? Why not buy the Pro? It’s faster, has more memory, it’s actually only 700 grams heavier and .7cm thicker (or 2.4cm ‘thin’ in Applespeak) and it costs exactly the same. Why pay a chunk of cash for less of something? When I asked my Twitter friends…

The Story Makes The Product Better

For three decades, 10% of the population of the tiny Welsh town, Cardigan, made jeans. 35,000 pairs every week. Then one day the factory died, and the jean artisans could no longer practice their art. They simply had no way to do the thing they did well, until Hiut Denim was founded. Now the company

How Dollar Shave Club Succeeds With A Better Brand Story

How does a startup come on to the scene, take on giant global brands like Gillette, and win? That’s what Dollar Shave Club did, by harnessing the power of great brand storytelling. This is how they did it. By telling the truth, and keeping it simple. With an easy to remember brand name and tagline,…

What Does The Competition Do?

I was consulting with two financial planners this week. We were discussing what made them different, when they told me this story about working with one of their clients. Jonathan was offered $9 million for his house, which had amazing, never to be replaced views out over the river. He was in a quan

Being The Most

In the 80’s Starbucks set out to be the most inspiring coffee brand on the planet. When they forgot this in the 90’s and tried becoming the most ubiquitous, they lost their way. If you could be ‘the most’ to people what ‘most’ would you be? Most reliable. Most irresistible. Most ubiquitous. Most lov

The Internet Is Not A Shortcut

Here is the cold hard truth about the Internet, viral marketing and the way to make your ideas matter. The Internet gives you a million and one chances to amplify what’s great about what you do. It doesn’t actually make your idea better. 70,000 people found Philippa on Instagram. She was an amazing

How Coffee Became As Seductive As Diamonds

I have no idea how this happened, but twenty five years ago when my husband and I were choosing my engagement ring on student budgets, I found myself inside a tiny strategically lit room with a £20,000 ring on my finger. £20,000 was enough to buy a house in Dublin in those days. Fast forward…

Well-Designed Moments Build Brands

That moment when the airline tells you that lost luggage is just a fact of life, or the sales assistant can’t exchange a faulty shirt on the spot because of company policy is a crack in the foundation of the brand. In that moment you begin to disconnect and feel like you don’t belong. Every…

Better Together

Putting your ideas out there is scary. Hitting publish is test of your nerve. Showing up most days involves commitment. Making room. Letting go of something else. You don’t, as (Seth would say), expect applause… but it’s lovely when you get it, and even better when it sounds like this. “Here’s a blo

The Last Thing You Should Rely On Is Your Resume

Your resume is not so much a testament to what you’ve done, it’s a timeline of where you’ve done it. The world doesn’t need to take your resume’s word for anything, it can find out more about you in three clicks of a mouse than you can tell in twenty perfect bound pages. When I…

The Number One Marketing Opportunity You’ve Probably Overlooked

Yes I know marketing is one of those icky words. It smacks of snake oil salesmen, hard sell merchants and spammers who interrupt without permission. You don’t want to be in any one of those categories and you don’t have to be. Marketing and branding is about turning up the volume on your mission, so

The Only Reason You’re In Business

The reason you’re in business is to make peoples’ lives better. Every word you write, coffee you serve or pixel you paint is nothing without an audience to consume it, and more importantly care about it. So here’s the question you need to ask. How does what you do, make, serve or sell make life…

How To Make Your Message Stick

I read an interesting fact on the last few pages of my friend Mark’s new book Return on Influence, apparently most people abandon a business book after reading one third of it. This is an audience who decided they believed in the idea, author or maybe the title and cover design enough to invest, onl

What’s The Purpose Of A Brand Story?

If you’ve got a great product or a killer service why do you need a brand story? You only have to look as far as your local cafe or boutique fashion labels to see that all brands are not created equal, and what usually separates the successes from the failures is a good story. The…

The World Is Calling You. Be Ready

A Lesson From The Most Iconic Advert In The World

The Coca Cola ‘Hilltop’ advert created more than 40 years ago is known as “one of the best-loved and most influential ads in TV history. In a recent collaboration Harvey Gabor one of the original creatives of ‘Hilltop’, worked with Google and Coca Cola to re-imagine a modern day version of the origi

Turn Up The Volume On Your Mission

Whatever your idea, whatever you market, sell or promote, whether it’s a cause, art, products or services, the way you differentiate from your competitors is by turning up the volume on your mission. Products can be similar, but missions are unique You don’t want people to buy your stuff, you want t

9 Elements Of The Perfect Pitch

This image was captured in Marrakech at the largest open air market in Africa. On the day the photo was taken the market was apparently in full swing, complete with everything from average snake charmers, to exceptional orange juicers and trinket traders. The photographer captures how many of the to