authenticity
259 posts
Two Ways To Market
Which marketing is more effective? “Let me tell you about our best ever chocolate cake. All of the ingredients are sourced locally. The butter is hand churned from the milk of Brown Swiss cows and the eggs were freshly laid this morning. We use fair trade organic cacao and the finest quality Belgian
Questioning The Questions—The Truth About Your Data
You’ve probably been on one of those calls to a service provider where having pressed, one, then two, then one again and being on hold for fifteen minutes you finally get to speak to a human being. Sadly, the undervalued team member at the call centre is charged with doing his best to troubleshoot h
Your Best Offer Advantage
While working on my next book I was considering commissioning some independent research. Following a Skype conversation with a representative from a global research firm, where the investment seemed way outside my budget I received “some great news for in the form of a quote!” The consultant had spo
The Characteristics Of Beloved Brands
Earlier this week Bob Lefsetz wrote the following line in a post about Elon Musk; “We know greatness when we see it, we clamor for it. We want to get closer to it.” We also want to emulate it—to understand the qualities and characteristics that elevate certain leaders, businesses and brands above th
The Power Of What We Measure
It’s easier than ever before to create a set of metrics by which to monitor our progress and measure our success. Click-through rates, subscriber numbers, impressions and customer lifetime value are useful data points. What if we measured our success by the results we delivered for our customers? No
The Gap Between Saying And Doing
You will have seen this image of a goldfish making a courageous leap from his bowl on countless websites. It’s meant to convey a message about a company that’s not afraid to challenge the status quo, of course it’s now so ubiquitous, it does exactly the opposite. Nobody in the marketing department g
What Your Competitors Can’t Copy
Back in the day our neighbour had to buy her gluten-free products from a tiny and very expensive range of products at the local pharmacy. If you wanted organic products you trekked across town to a speciality store. Not so today. As demand drives supply, competitors enter new markets and what was on
Making Things People Want
We are buying fewer pairs of jeans and more yoga pants, eating less gluten and more coconut oil. Trends are not simply a shift in behaviour, they are a sign of a change in the story we want to believe about ourselves. When you develop a product, service or platform it’s not enough to consider…
Nothing And Everything
“Have you got far to go with those?” the assistant asked, while looking me squarely in the eye, as he was deciding how best to pack my groceries. It was the tiniest gesture, nothing much, and yet it was enough to stop me in my tracks, because it’s not what we’ve come to expect. Nobody…
The Business You’d Want To Visit
Matthew Weiner, the creator of the wildly successful TV series Mad Men carried that script around with him for four years, shopping the idea to whoever would listen. During that time people asked him if he was aware of how uncommercial his idea was before they rejected it. The reason the folks at AM
10 Ways To Avoid Getting A One Star Review
Dear Business Owner who delivered a one star service experience, Yes, a bad Google review will hurt your business, but delivering the kind of service you’re not proud of and having to keep covering your back will crush your soul. How To Avoid A One Star Review 1. Care twice as much about how your…
Your Most Important Customers
The most important customers (listeners, audience members and followers) are not the ones you gain, but the ones you keep. It’s all very well to measure how many people have signed up or walked through the door, quite another to understand who is really listening and what they care about. Numbers an
Marketing In The Connection Economy
Traditional marketing, conceived for an industrial age asks us to believe in the wisdom of the funnel. Create something for most people, compete for the interest of some of them and convert a handful to customers. Ironically what works in the connected economy, where our potential customers have acc
The Art Of Selling
Buying is defined as the acquisition of one thing in exchange for something else. Of course it goes beyond ownership or the trading of things. Buying is an exchange of trust and value—a belief in promises we expect will be kept. Selling is described as the transfer of goods or services in exchange f
How You Market Is Who You Become
“EXPOSE YOUR BUSINESS TO 40,000 CARS A DAY.” Read the big sign at a busy junction that would exposure your business to 40,000 cars a day. The way you tell your story asks people to believe something about who you are and what you stand for. It sends us (and you), a signal about what…
The Value Of Giving To Give
A supermarket loyalty card helps the company more than it does the shopper. We all know that it’s less a way of rewarding customer loyalty and more a way of collecting useful data. Much of the ‘giving’ we do in business is because some kind of return is expected down the track. This drawing that…
The Importance Of The First Stroke
The coach leaned forward on her handle bars and across the bike path at the side of the lake. The four girls in the boat who had been training since sun up hung on her every word. “I want you to focus on the first stroke, nothing else. Just keep thinking I am going to…
The ‘Only’ Metric
We often downplay our effort or achievement by using the metric of ‘only’.
Why You Need To Abandon The ‘Everyone’ Mindset
I recently got an email that began…. ‘Hi everyone,’ I didn’t make it past the second word and your customers won’t either. We are too busy, distracted, tired, wary, focused, selfish, savvy or [fill in your blank here], to care about something that’s for everyone. The only messages that get through a
Before And After
Before any business is done you and your potential customer each have a story playing in your head. There is the worldview you each have before the transaction takes place and the outcome you hope will eventuate afterwards. The outcome that you want and the one that the customer is hoping for may be
