customer engagement
847 posts
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…
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 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…
Winning In The Difference Economy
I’m not sure what department stores look like on a Tuesday afternoon in your neighbourhood, but in mine they are like ghost towns. Whole floors full of stock that changes with the seasons waiting to be bought by someone (they don’t know who), who happens to stop by. We all know the stories of the…
We Need To Stop Telling Customers What We Do
I’m driving along behind the white Ezy Tiles van, when we stop at a red light and I get close enough to read their sales pitch, which is an image and a single line. The picture is of three guys wearing dust masks that look like something you’d see in a documentary about chemical warfare.…
The Truth About Starbucks And The $4 Coffee
Before Starbucks you could buy your morning coffee for a dollar or two. So how was it possible for Starbucks to more than double the price of coffee overnight? The truth is that Starbucks didn’t actually invent the $4 coffee—they created the $2 experience. $2 felt like a bargain for the feeling of b
There’s More Than One Way To Buy A Lemon
The middle-aged couple at the garden centre stood with furrowed brows as the sales assistant explained the difference between the varieties of lemon tree. They took a step back and almost looked alarmed when he explained how one particular variety would bear a lot of fruit, but could become tall, st
Blog Comments: Strategy Or Tactic?
The opportunity to reach out and literally touch people all over the world with words still feels like a miracle to me, even after three years of blogging. A millennial who regards Internet connectivity like oxygen would wonder what on earth I’m talking about. If you’ve lived life without an Interne
The Limitations Of Knowing ‘How To’
For years we’ve been rewarded for knowing the right answer. All of those gummed gold stars licked and stuck in copybooks next to neatly spaced handwriting, served their purpose. We can’t help wanting to know the answer. Knowing ‘how to’ is barely an advantage to the twenty first century business own
Your Customers Don’t Just Want To Eat Cake
Picture the scene. A group of five girlfriends are out celebrating a birthday together. The evening is drawing to a close, dinner plates have been cleared and the last bottle of red has been emptied. The waiter offers dessert menus and watches for cues. The first woman to pipe up is adamant as she w
Great Content Marketing Doesn’t Feel Like Marketing.
“You have more chance of summiting Mount Everest than getting someone to click on a banner ad.” —Jonathan Perelman VP at Buzzfeed Getting the word out about your products and services can feel a bit like an Everest expedition. You and I know that traditional advertising doesn’t work anymore. We’ve k
