brand values
582 posts
A Lesson In Unlocking Value
When you book a room at the Hilton or the Hyatt you either have a pleasant conversation with someone in a call centre who you will never hear from again, or you get a polite, well-crafted email in your inbox. Your expectation about the experience is based on the photos from the website and the…
What’s Your Customer’s Why?
It’s true that people buy from companies they like. We feel an affinity with some brands and not others and our purchasing decisions reinforce our values. The Internet has given rise to a new kind of savvy, connected customer. She seeks out purpose driven brands whose ideals resonate with hers. Whil
A Category Of One
The sign was in the perfect spot—right next to the traffic lights at a notoriously slow moving T-junction, to maximise the number of people who would see it. The message was clear: “NEED A WEBSITE? 04040404040” What’s also clear is that the people who call are not likely to be the customers that the
What’s Your Email Marketing Strategy?
Digital is fast and cheap. Now we can save a dollar or two on stamps that are no longer needed, plus the time and energy spent licking them and stuffing envelopes. We don’t even need to walk to the post box to mail our messages. Because it’s easy to reach anyone with an email address…
The Power Of The Minimum Viable Experience
I like my insurance company, or should I say I like the people who work for my insurance company. I’ve been with them almost ten years and have no intention of switching. Their call centre team is well trained and they really go out of their way to be helpful and make the customer feel…
Customer Service Vs. Customer Empowerment
In a world of abundant choices the work of our businesses has to go beyond ‘helpful acts’ and minimum requirements. Understanding the distinction is our new advantage. Customer service vs. customer empowerment is the difference between…. Delivering what’s expected and going the extra mile. Profits f
Changing The Customer
The craft beer industry is flourishing, naturally that’s eating into the market share of the bigger brewers. Budweiser sales in the US have dropped by more than two thirds since 1988 and the company is losing mindshare and market share amongst 21-27 year olds. The solution seems to be to change what
The Myth Of Differentiation
If we did a blind taste test on Starbucks coffee would the result tell us that Starbucks sells the best coffee in the world? Probably not, but the facts don’t stop Starbucks succeeding. In theory differentiation is the way we create a tangible advantage. A method for giving people something to measu
Why Strategy Must Come Before Tactics
What’s the best time to send a tweet? How do you develop a content strategy? What’s the easiest way to drive traffic to your website? How do you build a great landing page? If you can ‘Google’ the question and get an answer does that give you an unfair advantage over your competitors? Do you…
How Deep Does Your Story Go?
It seems like a step in the right direction when the giant multinational supermarket starts selling organic vegetables. But the story begins to unravel when the organic broccoli comes shirk-wrapped in cling film, on a polystyrene tray. The customer who the story is aimed at, feels the disconnect bet
Wanted And Welcomed
We still have a landline phone at home to make it easy and more economical for elderly relatives overseas to get in touch. It rings at lunchtime and at around 6pm every day. We don’t pick up, because we know these particular calls are not ones we want or welcome. I often wonder what the…
What’s The Best Way?
When I was a new mum thinking about ‘the best way’ to raise my son to do the things that babies of his age were supposed to do, occupied a fair amount of my time. I worried about the best way to settle him to sleep and the best way to wean him. I graduated…
The Trouble With Marketing And The Opportunity For The Future
I met with a prospective client recently who had acted on conflicting advice about marketing tactics from a couple of different sources and failed to get the results he’d hoped for. “The trouble with marketers is that each one tries to sell you on their solution.” he said. “The SEO guy will tell you
The Characteristics Of Great Brand Stories
Great brand stories….. Are rooted in truth. Created with intention. Have a bigger purpose beyond a single bottom line. Add intangible value to something that was once a commodity. Take time. Make the customer the hero. Change how people feel about a product or service. Start with the customer’s stor
The Purpose Of Collecting Data
Data collection shouldn’t simply be about looking for proof or testing your assumptions. Your questions are not always about collating the right answers, often they are about finding out who the right people are. The idea isn’t just to get the data, it’s to understand the people who want to be under
Valuable Things We Ignore In The Quest For Growth
One of the first words a baby learns to say is ‘more’. They learn very early on that this one word is the shortest route to getting what they want. Every three year old knows that two cupcakes are better than one. It’s no surprise then that this lesson stays with us through life and…
How To Communicate Your Difference
There is a place where many entrepreneurs, (maybe you) and even global corporations who look like they have got it all together, (maybe yours), get stuck when trying to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. They hit a wall when they begin to articulate what’s unique about what they do and why
Knowing ‘The How’ Is Not Enough
When that friend you haven’t seen for ages shows up at the party in a figuring hugging dress having dropped two sizes, the first thing you say is, “You look great! The second thing you say is, “How did you do it?” And so it goes when we see evidence of any kind of success…
Where Are The Holes?
It’s hard to be objective when you evaluate your competitors. When you’re feeling vulnerable there is a tendency to think about all of the things your competitors are doing right and how you don’t measure up against them. The irony is that opportunities are realised and groundbreaking ideas are brou
What Lens Do You Use?
I’m a huge fan of Human’s of New York. It’s the kind of generous and rare content on the Internet that makes you grateful, sad and optimistic all at once. Brandon (lying down in the photo above because he is 6’4″ and always wants to get down to the level of his subject), will happily…
