brand strategy
1,082 posts
What’s More Important Than Building Awareness?
Ask any business owner what their most pressing problem is and ‘building awareness’ is sure to be on the list. Maybe it’s on your list too? In a world where it’s harder to get attention, gaining mind share is a priority for everyone. We think that if we can just get a few more people…
Don’t Make Marketing Your Enemy
I often have conversations with people that start something like this: “I love my work (product, service, designs, vocation and so on), but I hate marketing. People who create often worry if they spend too much time marketing, that there will be no time left to do the work they care about—which they
Tapping Into Empathy
Wherever you are right now stop what you’re doing and listen to the people and the conversations going on all around you. I’ve been working in public places a lot recently and here’s what I’ve found. Nobody is listening to anybody—not really. They’re pretending to listen while they wait for their tu
The Truth About Winning
There is no such thing as something for everyone. More is not a shortcut to mattering. You don’t need the most customers. You don’t have to get all of the people to pick you. You don’t need to win all of the hearts. Image by ChrisJL.
Relevance Is The New Remarkable
I will never see the taxi driver who picked me up from JFK again. He doesn’t have to worry that he tried to overcharge me and he doesn’t care if it’s me, or one of a hundred other visitors in the back seat tomorrow. Uber, on the other hand, knows when I last booked a…
How To Write Your Mission Statement And 20 Great Mission Statements To Inspire You
Have you ever noticed how we tie ourselves up in knots and overcomplicate things when we put our business hats on? Your mission statement doesn’t need to be long and complex, it’s simply a promise—your statement of intention. A mission statement needs to clarify the answers to the following two ques
Marketing Is About Giving Your Customers A Story To Tell
We’ve been stuck in a time warp for the past fifty years with a marketing model designed to sell things to our grandparents. A model that’s kept media buyers in jobs and many media outlets afloat. Marketing used to be what we told our customers to believe about us. What matters more now is how…
Where Wile E. Coyote Went Wrong
Do you remember those old cartoons where Wile E. Coyote is so focused on outsmarting The Road Runner that he inevitably ends up getting in his own way? He spends so much time and energy trying to be one step ahead of the bird that he forgets what his end goal was. It’s easy (and…
What Is A Brand Story?
Brand story has become the new black of marketing. Once upon a time you had to have a campaign or ‘the line’, now you’ve got to have a story. The word story causes confusion because we think of stories being told and heard, a bit like other traditional advertising messages. But brand stories are exp
How Disruptive Innovations Happen At The Edges
Think of any business that’s succeeded over the past two decades and especially the upstarts that have left incumbent brands on the back foot. Kodak vs. Instagram, Sony vs. Go Pro, Hilton vs. Airbnb, cab companies vs. Uber, banks vs. Paypal, Borders vs Amazon, Blockbuster vs. Netflix, Chubb vs. Cana
The Purpose Of Brand Storytelling
Every September while my son was growing up there was a ritual to be upheld. Of course we had the usual beginning of school year things to do and a checklist to follow, but what Adam really cared about more than all of that, was choosing the football boots he would wear for that season.…
3 Essential Marketing Questions
As marketers we invest a great deal of time and money working out how to tell the story of our products. But if we can agree that marketing is giving people something to talk about, why aren’t we using resources in equal measure to do that. What if we began with a new set of…
Thinking About Marketing As A Strategy For Growth Not Just Sales
Mostly we market to sell more. The restaurant owner who tells his staff to remember to ‘push drinks and bottled water’ is marketing for increased sales today. The alternative is to be the marketer who bakes growth into his business by delighting customers, giving them a story they want to tell (and
Are You Smarter Than Your Customers?
How do you feel when you click on a banner ad? Do you remember what you said under your breath the last time you accidentally did that? And how do you feel when your local politician cold calls using a recorded message at 7.30pm the night before an election, asking for your vote? (I really…
How To Disrupt The Market
Do you remember the days when printed news was so valued that there were two editions of the daily newspaper? People waited at the local shops for evening editions to arrive at 4pm and paperboys weaved between cars which were stopped at a red light during rush hour where drivers also waited with exa
What Problem Are You Solving?
Every venture capitalist will tell you that the best startup pitches focus more on the problem than on the solution. A potential investor may give you just a single sentence to make them understand why your idea will succeed in a world where most people have what they need. And yet, as business owne
The Entrepreneurial Paradox
By definition entrepreneurs undertake to build whatever they are building at considerable risk to themselves. They do what humans are not naturally evolved to do, which is break free from the pack to try something different—something that might not work and may leave them exposed and on the edge, aw
Shortcuts And Workarounds
I found this shortcut under the soap dispenser in the ladies toilet at a local cafe and it made me smile. It also made me think about the person who put it there, someone looking for a shortcut in a moment of efficiency (or procrastination)—as we all do. What if your shortcut isn’t really a…
The Brand Sweet Spot
Every time I upgrade my phone the guys at Virgin try to convince me that there are much better options than the iPhone. When they ask me why I prefer the iPhone I never have a definitive answer. It’s not always easy to put that kind of value into words. Think about your favourite brands,…
How Should The Shift To Mobile Affect Your Marketing?
As the tag team of baristas was making my coffee one morning, I noticed the girl with the milk jug take her phone from her apron pocket and begin scrolling through her Facebook feed while she waited for her partner to pull the shot. More proof if I needed it that our mobile devices are…
