business
512 posts
Building A Brand Versus Selling A Commodity
Ideas spread, products become irreplaceable, and businesses grow when they stop being mere commodities and have meaning attached to them. It’s not possible to be a brand and a commodity all at once. Customers don’t demonstrate loyalty to commodities but they can fall in love with a brand. PRODUCT-ME
Perfect
When a Ryanair flight touches down on time a fanfare sounds over the public address system to celebrate the fact. Flights that arrive on time might be cause for celebration for the airline, but that’s no longer enough to delight most passengers. Just twenty years ago when you made an expensive long
What Business Are You In?
More on those $5 roses that you paid $8 for last week….. On the Saturday before Valentine’s day I went shopping for single white rose. The florist had none on display, but when I asked she went into the fridge and pulled out two dozen. “Oh, these are not at their best. You can see…
The Difference Between Value And Valuable
On Saturday a single rose would have cost you $5. Today and tomorrow it’s $8. While you clearly got better value for your dollar on Saturday, the roses are more valuable to you today. Who decides then where the value lies and what’s valuable? The value of your product isn’t just in the price you…
Something To Lose
The solitary guy who sets up shop in his garage or carves out a space at the local cafe to use as an office has nothing to lose. He can tell his friends that he’s following his passion, that it might not work but he’s giving it a go anyway. Not so easy to be…
10 Questions To Help You With Your Pricing Strategy
When my family and I were in Venice recently we decided to take a seat in a tiny Cafe in St Marks Square and ordered four hot drinks (anyone who has holidayed in Italy knows what’s coming next!). There was nothing remarkable about the coffee but we walked out half an hour later having paid…
Better Stories Versus Better Stuff
Most things that you can buy are good enough. The companies that succeed now, Tattly, Apple, Zappos and Amazon don’t find ways to make and sell better stuff. They work out how to tell a better story AND how to give their customers a story they want to tell too. The story is baked into…
5 Questions You Need To Ask About Your Ideal Client
1. Who is she? What’s her backstory? What makes her who she is? (Hint…she may not be you). 2. What does her typical day look like? How does she spend her time and where (both online and offline)? 3. What does she care about? What inspires and informs her? What motivates her to act? 4.…
Why Belief Matters
Five years ago, just before Polaroids began to make a comeback, the owner of the Dublin camera store reluctantly allowed the sales rep to create a tiny, top shelf Christmas display. She spent a whole afternoon arranging then re-arranging the cameras. At last she stood back to admire her handiwork, s
The Secret To Spreading Ideas
I recently had the opportunity to share an idea I care about thanks to the team at TEDx Perth. The talk went live online two days ago. I hope it helps you to spread the ideas that you care about. Image by Sally Jarvis at TEDxPerth
There’s Only One Way To Get A Different Outcome
We should have known as soon as we walked in. The place was empty, not a soul in sight apart from two lone waiters who pounced. Every other breakfast place in the city was teeming with life and overflowing with plates of over easy eggs. This place was dead. We stayed because we didn’t have…
Buy Versus Buy Into
Don’t be the brand that people buy. Be the one they ‘buy into’. Image by Peter Morgan.
What Don’t You Do?
It’s easy to rattle off the features of your product or benefits of your service. Which means it’s not hard for the competition to do that too. Far more difficult to stand for something and be willing to stand out because of what you don’t do. It turns out that time and again telling the…
Anticipation Is Your Point Of Differentiation
Brand new guest rooms, sleek kitchenettes, minibars and bright, new bathrooms were only the start of the boutique hotel’s story. The ‘dream pillow menu’ gave me six choices from buckwheat to hypo-allergenic, duck down to Swedish memory foam. And yet…..there was no chance of an early check in after a
What Your Clients Need Now
They need you to ask the right questions, not to have all the answers. They need your generosity, not jargon. They need the truth. They need what works for them, not what makes you look good. They need faith in you and your intention. They need to be empowered more than they need to be…
Petrol Station Flowers
‘Petrol station flowers’ never quite hit the mark. It’s obvious to both the giver and the receiver that they were unplanned….an afterthought. That the giving of them lacked the thing that’s more important than the blooms themselves. The intention. We care about the intention as much as the gift, oft
What Versus Why
My middle son left school this year and here’s the question everyone asks him. “What do you want to do?” I bet it’s a question you’ve been asked too at one time or another. My seventeen year old tells people he wants to study either architecture or design, and then that he’s off to Billund…
Confusing Price With Value
There’s a company here in Perth charging $70 an hour to weed gardens. Just weeding, and perhaps a light trim of garden shrubs. Nothing more. They don’t mow lawns (there are already thousands of guys doing that). They do the job that nobody else wants to take on. The job that plenty of time poor…
Work For Money, Design For Love
My friend David Airey has drawn on his personal experience of building a successful freelance design business. He’s also gathered the business insights of leading designers and creatives and shared it all in his new book. Work For Money, Design For Love. Why I love this book… well the title has a sp
The Rocket Artist
We went to a new cafe by accident today. We were late and didn’t feel like queuing for a table at our regular place. Donny, they guy wearing the apron who came to clear the table recognised we were new and asked how we’d enjoyed the coffee. We struck up a conversation about where they…
