relevance
546 posts
No Big Pitch Required
It was nudging 6pm and Kelly was the last customer at the salon on a cold and dark winter evening. As she pulled out her credit card at the point of sale she noticed a discreet, but pretty display of ‘non toxic’ lipsticks and commented on the gorgeous colours. The therapist showed her the colour…
The Ideal Customer
The ideal customer Doesn’t worry about what the product costs. Tells her friends about your service. Gives you her undivided attention. Would never consider switching. Always listens when you talk. Doesn’t question the facts. Has an abundance of time. Believes your story. Shares your values. Never c
What’s Your Customer’s Worldview?
It was 10 am and the queue at the cafe serving coffee that’s less than 48 hours out of the roaster was ridiculously long. The line moved impossibly slowly, and yet not a single person left it to go to one of the many cafes that could serve them a forgettable drink in moments. Leaving…
The Purpose Of A Billboard
The purpose of a billboard is to interrupt as many people as possible, to create awareness not necessarily impact, to broadcast instead of engage. I’ve passed a lot of forgettable billboards, pleading from the side of highways on my travels this week—maybe you have too. The only ones that left any k
Betting On Maybe
There are many reasons why Melbourne has been crowned World’s Most Liveable City four years running—great coffee is just one. It’s impossible to walk a hundred metres in any direction without stumbling on a place to grab a ‘good enough’ macchiato, so there’s a lot of competition in the coffee busine
What Does This Advertising Do?
It’s easy to erect a billboard that broadcasts to everyone—far harder to build a bridge to meaningful engagement with the people who matter. If it’s not helping you to get closer to your customers then it’s not worth doing. Image by Daniel.
Two Ways To Market
Which marketing is more effective? “Let me tell you about our best ever chocolate cake. All of the ingredients are sourced locally. The butter is hand churned from the milk of Brown Swiss cows and the eggs were freshly laid this morning. We use fair trade organic cacao and the finest quality Belgian
The Secrets To Consistent Marketing
Consistent marketing… Demonstrates a clear understanding about who the product (and thus the marketing) is for. Focuses on the change being created for the customer rather than on what is being sold. Aligns with and reinforces the company’s purpose beyond a single bottom line. Communicates love for
Where Big Ideas Begin
Big ideas never start with a big idea—they start with a small problem, impacting a lot of people, that no one has worked out how (or cared enough) to solve. Slack, Powerwall, Instacart, iTunes, GoPro, Simple and on and on, fall into this category. You have to name the problem before you can begin to
Marketing Is How It Feels
In a recent article I read that “….aside from a few television spots and billboards here and there, Apple pretty much ignores marketing and advertising.” This is simply not true. EVERYTHING Apple does, from the massive investment in package design that creates scissorless, video-worthy unboxing expe
Awareness Is Overrated
Every entrance and exit to the market was in lock down on Saturday. The footpaths, walkways and zebra crossings we each covered by teams of two volunteers shaking collection tins and asking for donations. Several over-enthusiastic volunteers stepped out into the path of oncoming pedestrians to make
How To Be Valued In Any Marketplace
Mike is ‘in sales’. He takes care to dress well, to tone down his tie and give a firm handshake. He begins every conversation with a prospective client by first introducing himself and then sharing his perspective about why he’s there. It’s no surprise that Mike is met with hundreds of rejections ea
Who Exactly?
Who exactly is your ideal customer? Was her mobile phone on her bedside table when she woke up this morning? Did she reach for it as soon as she opened her eyes? Or did she go for a run before sun up, then sip hot water and lemon as she scrolled through her Facebook feed?…
The Gap Between Saying And Doing
You will have seen this image of a goldfish making a courageous leap from his bowl on countless websites. It’s meant to convey a message about a company that’s not afraid to challenge the status quo, of course it’s now so ubiquitous, it does exactly the opposite. Nobody in the marketing department g
What Your Competitors Can’t Copy
Back in the day our neighbour had to buy her gluten-free products from a tiny and very expensive range of products at the local pharmacy. If you wanted organic products you trekked across town to a speciality store. Not so today. As demand drives supply, competitors enter new markets and what was on
3 Questions To Help You Find Your Niche
Look in the jewellery shop windows in any western city and you’ll notice the same trends—rings, bracelets and necklaces designed to appeal to what most people like the look of. Jewellery designer Megan Auman found her niche by marrying her talents as a metalsmith and designer, to create pieces that
The Marketing Should Be Invisible
The vibration you feel when you plug your iPhone in to charge—that’s marketing. The texture of the sheets as you pull back the covers of a hotel bed, jazz playing on a good stereo at the cafe, the ease with which the milk carton opens, daring to have an insane mode—all marketing. We spend a…
Making Things People Want
We are buying fewer pairs of jeans and more yoga pants, eating less gluten and more coconut oil. Trends are not simply a shift in behaviour, they are a sign of a change in the story we want to believe about ourselves. When you develop a product, service or platform it’s not enough to consider…
The Business You’d Want To Visit
Matthew Weiner, the creator of the wildly successful TV series Mad Men carried that script around with him for four years, shopping the idea to whoever would listen. During that time people asked him if he was aware of how uncommercial his idea was before they rejected it. The reason the folks at AM
Your Most Important Customers
The most important customers (listeners, audience members and followers) are not the ones you gain, but the ones you keep. It’s all very well to measure how many people have signed up or walked through the door, quite another to understand who is really listening and what they care about. Numbers an
