matter
444 posts
How We Do Matters
One of the owners of Melbourne’s most iconic café died tragically a week ago. Sisto Malaspina had been serving espresso to Melburnians at Pellegrini’s since 1974. Tributes poured in from across the community about the impact he and his café had on people and the city. The one that struck me was the
The Right Customer
A lot has changed in the six months since I last walked through the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. New cafes have opened. Others have closed their doors. Some established cafes have queues of people waiting for tables, while several, just a few hundred metres down the street, are empty. There’s no
The Power Of Because
Over several decades our traditional, mass marketing culture taught us that marketing and sales were about finding the angle. Marketing became about getting creative with the truth and being a master of spin. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can choose to do the kind of marketing we’re proud of. W
One Of The Few
Few organisations look past the data to see the humanity of the client behind the numbers. Few companies act as if it’s a privilege to serve their customers. Few people take time to listen twice as much as they speak. Few products are made with love. In a world where we are doing our best…
Leaving A Trail
The contractors who mow the lawn in the public spaces where my parents live whizz around on ride on lawnmowers. They don’t get off to move obstacles, trim edges or collect the grass. The job is done in no time. But for the next few days, cut grass blows around the suburb and is trailed…
A Matter Of Marketing
We live in an age when it’s easier than ever to get your message in front of people. Many businesses have a strategy for getting their message seen and heard—far fewer have a plan for being believed and understood. It’s one thing to get in front of people, and another for them to choose to…
Readiness Is Underrated
Even though traditional advertising is becoming less effective, it can still teach us about timing. The best marketing messages remind the right people about something they already want to do at the right time. So the millinery advert in the fashion magazine reminds women that it’s spring racing sea
The Story Of Successful Ideas
Every product or service that becomes the backbone of a thriving business succeeds because it enables someone to do something they want to do, but can’t do. Before Keep Cup, millions more disposable coffee cups ended up in landfill. Before Stripe, it was more difficult for people and businesses to r
Keep Your Eye On The Ball
It was hard not to get swept up by the Serena Williams, US Open final story this week. It was difficult to avoid joining the debate about how it could all have played out differently if only this had been said or that had been done. That time spent thinking about what should have been…
The Best Fit
Sometimes we take on projects or clients that are a bad fit. Work that doesn’t energise us or customers that don’t value us. It’s hard to pay attention to the reasons why things aren’t working out when you’re knee-deep in the situation. But it’s important to try. We discover how we work best by payi
The Slow And Steady Advantage
The salespeople at our local gym usually interact with their customers once. A person who is motivated enough to book a gym tour, followed by the inevitable sales conversation is likely to join. The conversion rate is high. While designing the experience to optimise the quickest route to the sale wo
The Rise Of The Patient Marketer
The fact that we’re exposed to thousands of marketing messages every day is old news. Our lives are now designed to mitigate against being interrupted by things we don’t care about and never respond to. And yet, we often fail to acknowledge that the people we want to reach feel the same way. If we’r
The First Marketing Myth
Logic tells us that just because someone is aware of a product or service doesn’t mean they will buy it. We know that people are not short of choices. And yet when it comes to marketing our products and services, we prioritise awareness all the time. Logic goes out the window. We fool ourselves into
A Stop Start Guide To (Business) Success
Stop worrying about how to get attention. Start paying attention. Stop obsessing about creating awareness. Start being more aware. Stop making people want things. Start making things people want. Stop analysing the data. Start seeing the people it represents. Stop trying to be more interesting. Star
The Value Of Goals And Outcomes
We tend to think of goals and outcomes as one and the same. They’re not. Let’s say your goal is to run a marathon. Crossing the line at the end of the twenty-sixth mile is your goal. But the effect of the actions you take by trying to achieve that goal is worth more than…
Priorities And Metrics
We often default to using narrow parameters to qualify worthiness or quantify excellence. We focus on a company’s revenue or an entrepreneur’s net worth, count the number of books an author sells or followers an influencer amasses. What we choose to measure has a direct impact on what we then priori
A Question Of Pride
Like most of their friends and neighbours from big Irish-Catholic families, my grandparents didn’t have the luxury of an education. They were not bookish, in fact, they were barely literate. They couldn’t teach me much about history or science. But they taught me a lot about pride. My grandparents m
The Power Of Identity In A Competitive World
Nobody who read the pre-match reports or the post-match statistics would have predicted a one-all draw. Iceland, a country with a population of 334,000, was fielding a team of semi-professional players, in their World Cup debut against Argentina, one of the world’s best footballing nations. There wa
What Successful Companies Do
Just one thing. Successful companies help people do things they want to do, so they can be who they want to be. What do the people you serve want to do? How can you help them to be who they want to be? Image by Tim Dennell
Extraordinary Is…
In a digital world, extraordinary is Human. Presence. Care taken. Handcrafted. Eye contact. Face-to-face. Heart-to-heart. The intangibles. Genuine interest. A timely response. That feeling of belonging. Thanking someone in person. Executing on the small details. A handwritten note inside the package
