customer engagement
847 posts
The Future Of Storytelling And The Currency Of That Future
So there we were gathered together on an island, (the best kind of place to feel that you’re truly gathered) to talk about the future of storytelling. Some of the best and brightest in the storytelling business from Burberry CEO (soon to be heading up the retail story at Apple), Angela Ahrendts, to
Value Is A Story We Tell Ourselves
Value is what we believe in the moment and not simply a measure of gain, relative to units of currency. Value is a story we tell ourselves based on what we perceive and what we think is true. Our framing of the value story is the reason that passers by walked past original works of…
What Focus Groups Can’t Tell You
Steve Jobs famously said, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” The committee might be able to tell you what they think is working, or what’s broken, but they can’t tell you how to matter. And no…
Everyone Owns The Truth
As soon as the flight landed (two hours behind schedule), people began jostling on the spot, eager to get off. The priority of course was people with connecting flights who might have a chance of making them. For others it was too late and they’d be spending the night at the airport hotel. A woman…
The Trouble With Positioning
Do you remember when President Obama came to office first time round and negotiated with the secret service to keep his BlackBerry—Bush and Clinton didn’t even use email. In 2004, three years before the launch of the first iPhone, BlackBerry, who pioneered the smartphone had a market share of 47%. F
You Don’t Have To Matter To Everyone
We weren’t meant to be sitting next to each other. The European blonde, who didn’t want to be separated from her boyfriend for 10 hours overnight between Perth to Dubai, asked if I would mind moving to the middle seat in the row behind. So this is how I got chatting to a the chap…
Demographics Vs. Worldviews
It’s impossible now to presume everything about your customers just because you know their age, sex and postcode. In a digital world, that enables ever increasing possibilities and choices, people are no longer constrained by location, age, or gender, and they are not so easy to put into a box eithe
What Do Your Customers Care About?
Let’s look at some cold, hard, and fun facts. A search on Instagram one morning in mid-September for #me, gave me over 123 million results. Just 18 hours later a further 466,000 had been added. Let’s round that up to half a million a day, which means 26,000 photos with the hashtag ‘me’ are uploaded…
Hedging Is Risky
Have ever been scared to share more about what you stand for? Concerned about opening up about who you really are on your website? Anxious that the products and services you offer might put some people off? You’re not alone. One of the greatest challenges entrepreneurs feel keenly is the fear of sca
The Uncommon Advantage
In the 80s you’d walk into a record shop and the store owner, along with the record company would literally tell you what to buy. In every store there was a wall with 100 square compartments, numbered unsurprisingly—TOP 100. You got to chose from what everyone else liked, or what DJs were playing th
The Art Of The Offer
When we offer something, by definition we are putting it forward for consideration. And that’s often where we get stuck, selling our offerings, or ourselves short, because we become fixated on ‘the what’ of the offer. IKEA doesn’t sell you those six glasses and that red cushion you didn’t really nee
Don’t Just Build A Better Mousetrap
Do you remember when life was simple? A time when all tea bags were square and flat, and came with tea flavoured tea inside? Suddenly out of nowhere the tea landscape got messy and we had round bags, and bags with drawstrings. Tiny artisan tea companies sprouted up, selling boutique teas enveloped i
Do Your Customers Feel Like They Belong?
I got a sensory jolt when I arrived at the QT Hotel on the Gold Coast last week, to speak at the Problogger Conference. The concierge greeted me wearing bright pink shorts and a matching smile, offering home made lemonade from the stand in the foyer. The receptionists wore one piece turquoise jumpsu
Content Is Not King
If you Google these four words you’ll get over 600 million search results in less than 0.2 seconds. Amongst these links you will read articles about putting as much content ‘out there’ as you can. Others will urge you to ditch advertising and create content instead, because content is the new way to
How To Tell The Story Of Your Idea Using The ‘Value Proposition Hack’
The biggest challenge that many of my clients have isn’t coming up with great ideas, it’s articulating why those ideas should matter, to the right people. Explaining the value of an idea can be tough if you don’t have a place to start. I created the ‘value proposition hack’, so that you would have a
Why People Pay And Why It Matters
The dictionary will tell you that marketing is the activity that surrounds the transfer of goods, from consumer to buyer. This, for that. But we also pay with time, attention and love. And even when we pay with money, it’s rarely a ‘this, for that’ transaction, since all value is subjective. It’s ea
The Diminishing Value Of Access
When a new business opens in your suburb, the first thing they do, with great fanfare, is plaster ‘now open’ signs around the neighbourhood. The ‘we’ve built it, now you’ll come’ mentality is alive and well in every industry. My son, along with thousands of others is in his first year at university.
Don’t Sell A Man A Saw, Teach A Man To Build
Mike works at our local ‘big box’ hardware store, alongside people who cut wood, motion directions and stack paint cans. Each weekend Mike sees a steady stream of ‘have a go’ DIY enthusiasts, the kind of guys who were too busy on their way to becoming accountants and lawyers in their teens, to learn
The Purpose Of Innovation In A ‘Needless’ Economy
For the most part in the West we have everything we need. Roofs over our heads, food in the fridge and a lot more besides. Even in the developing world where more people have mobile phones than have access to toilets, it seems that sometimes ‘wants’ trump real needs. So, if we have everything we…
6 Ways To Become Part Of Your Customer’s Story
Think about the rituals that punctuate your days. Freshly boiled water poured over scented tea, your morning workout, or favourite mug. The ten minutes you use to brainstorm ideas in Evernote, checking emails, or meeting colleagues at lunchtime, your ring tone, playlist, date night….each one adding
