brand framing
442 posts
The Thing About That List You’re Making
Take a look at the Top 20 Book Lists of All Time on Amazon. This is what most people bought and reviewed—the books that succeeded wildly, beyond expectations. Could anyone have predicted that these would be the books that the majority embraced? Can anyone explain why? Despite their outstanding succe
A Reputation That Precedes You
It’s 5pm, still thirty minutes to go before Mr Wong opens its doors for dinner. The line snakes down the street and around the corner. A few people have bookings for tables of six or more, but not many, most are walk-ins who know that if you’re not dining with a bigger group and have…
The Three Marketing Superpowers—Judgement, Empathy And Timing
Just two days before Christmas while every other retailer was happily dealing with long lines, the outdoor clothing and travel equipment store was empty. Not a customer in sight. They should have been doing a brisk trade in torches, camping accessories and stocking fillers, yet the assistants had pl
When The Marketing Works
We spend so much of our time in ‘push mode’ that we can forget to celebrate what went well or to evaluate why. When you make the sale it’s natural to begin working out how to make the next one. We make the next one by working out why we made the first. It’s important…
What To Question
The comedian doesn’t think about how he to be funnier, he tries to understand what makes people laugh and why. The shoe designer doesn’t simply consider what will look good, she obsesses over what will make a woman feel good. The architect doesn’t just consider the orientation of the building, he ca
The Value Of Unknowns
Will the new product launch be successful? Is this really what customers want? Will the digital marketing initiative drive enough sales? Is this the right person to hire? Will the redesign improve engagement? Is the timing perfect? The truth is that we can’t know for sure. That doesn’t stop us tryin
Design For The Outcome You Want
Susan is the VP of Sales at a large company. She’s more than a little frustrated that her sales team keep selling legacy products to customers and don’t make the effort to introduce new product lines to them instead. Of course it’s easier for the sales guy to earn his bonus by filling repeat orders…
What’s The End Game?
Before you pivot. Before you expand. Before you take on extra staff. Before you act on conventional wisdom. Before you panic about the numbers. Before you say ‘yes’ to something when you really mean ‘no’. Before you become someone you don’t recognise. Ask yourself, What was my original intention for
The Long Way Round
In most situations if there’s a shortcut we’re tempted to take it. It’s human nature to conserve energy and take the most efficient route from point A to point B. This makes the business of selling hard, because we are naturally impatient to see signs of success and to avoid nagging doubts about the
Good To Do Vs. Right To Do
The brand new billboard spanned the four lanes of the freeway that led to the airport. The location was obviously a strategic move, given that the company being advertised was in the travel business. The gorgeous image of a lone traveller in the wilderness had likely been painstakingly chosen by the
Where Your Story Starts
The question we mostly try to address when we set out to tell our business or product story is what we want the customer to know about our brand. The better place to begin is by understanding what the customer wants to believe about herself and where our brand could potentially fit into her story.…
First Impressions Vs. Lasting Impact
“What’s that new cafe like?” asked a business colleague from out of town. His question got me thinking about how much a negative response from a single customer could cost a business. What’s the lasting impact of a one bad experience? We can invest time and energy and money into the things we believ
Do Your Actions And Story Align?
Have you ever seen the somber, suited doorman at Cartier chasing a thief, searching a customer’s bag or stopping a young woman from entering the store? Me neither. If he’s not doing that then why is he there? Does the sales assistant at MontBlanc really need to wear a white glove to remove the pen…
The Simplest Way To Add Value
We just moved house. You can probably empathise—so many logistics to arrange and tiny details to keep in your head, no matter how much help you have. By 3pm on moving day we had Internet (no mean feat). At about 9pm we realised there was no hot water. Too late to contact anyone of course,…
The New Rules Of Email Marketing
The old rules are broken. Familiar email marketing tactics might enable us to extract one more sale, but they are definitely not designed to respect our customers—the people who pay our bills, the same people we hope to matter to. They are busy and smart. We should treat them that way. THE NEW RULES
How Will You Get To Where You Want To Go?
There are always things we know we’d like to change or improve about our businesses. Often we’re just not sure what’s missing, how to begin or even where to start. To make change happen you need to have the vision to know where you’re going, the skills and resources that enable you to get there…
The Downside Of Buying Attention
Some of the most sad and frustrated emails I get are from business owners who have invested money to get people to visit their websites. Often they have paid for search engine optimisation or Google AdWords and waited for the traffic to come—which is does, it just doesn’t always convert or deliver t
Not Everything Is An Opportunity
We first met casually, in a social situation one Saturday morning. Less than five minutes into the small talk Terry asked what I did for a living. No sooner had the words “I run my own business” left my lips, than his hand reached into his back pocket to draw out some business cards (one…
Context And The Value Story
How much is nail polish removal worth? It all depends on the circumstances in which it’s executed. Use a tissue and liquid remover at home and we’re talking a cent or two. Individually wrapped polish removal wipes for use on the go, cost as much as $1 each and a trip to the nail salon…
Who Is This Not For?
When we spend time thinking about growing our businesses we tend to focus on our ideal customers—the people we know we want to matter to. A great way to get really specific about who you are creating your products and services for is to think about who they are not for. The temptation in the…
