relevance
546 posts
Why Most Marketing Fails
It’s hard to communicate your value if you don’t know what the customer’s definition of value is. Most marketing fails because the marketer doesn’t understand the story his customer wants to believe, before he tells the story. So the real estate agent starts describing the proximity to great schools
How To Get The Results You Want
In work, as in life we create a sense of balance by understanding what we want and what we don’t. We prioritize by wanting less of one thing and more of something else. Less overwhelm and more progress. Fewer things to react to and more results. Less busyness and more time. Fewer restrictions and mo
Marketing In The Connection Economy
Traditional marketing, conceived for an industrial age asks us to believe in the wisdom of the funnel. Create something for most people, compete for the interest of some of them and convert a handful to customers. Ironically what works in the connected economy, where our potential customers have acc
How You Market Is Who You Become
“EXPOSE YOUR BUSINESS TO 40,000 CARS A DAY.” Read the big sign at a busy junction that would exposure your business to 40,000 cars a day. The way you tell your story asks people to believe something about who you are and what you stand for. It sends us (and you), a signal about what…
The Value Of Giving To Give
A supermarket loyalty card helps the company more than it does the shopper. We all know that it’s less a way of rewarding customer loyalty and more a way of collecting useful data. Much of the ‘giving’ we do in business is because some kind of return is expected down the track. This drawing that…
The Story Creates The Customer
Have you ever noticed what happens at the organic cafe? As the customer places an order he asks what’s in it. This happens almost every single time. The experience, our posture and products—the story, create the customer. When we encourage people to believe something matters, we attract the kind of
How To Tell The Story Of Your Products
Why is real estate copywriting so terrible? Maybe it’s not that bad in your town or city, but wherever I have lived the copy seems to serve one purpose—to fill the space between the images and the floor plan in the brochure. Here are a couple of examples of copy written to sell million dollar…
The Importance Of The First Stroke
The coach leaned forward on her handle bars and across the bike path at the side of the lake. The four girls in the boat who had been training since sun up hung on her every word. “I want you to focus on the first stroke, nothing else. Just keep thinking I am going to…
Your Brand Story Is More Than What You Say
It’s a chilly autumn morning and the waitress in the cafe down the street is folding blankets to put over the chairs outside just in case customers are feeling the cold. The local doctor who is half way through her busy surgery, comes out to the waiting room and invites Adam into her consulting room
The Value Of What We Don’t Know
Six years. That’s how long it took IKEA to research the South Korean culture before they were ready to open the first store there. Six years of understanding what they didn’t know about the story Korean customers lived and wanted to believe—so that they could tell a story that resonated. The goal wa
Why You Need To Abandon The ‘Everyone’ Mindset
I recently got an email that began…. ‘Hi everyone,’ I didn’t make it past the second word and your customers won’t either. We are too busy, distracted, tired, wary, focused, selfish, savvy or [fill in your blank here], to care about something that’s for everyone. The only messages that get through a
Where Marketing Starts And The Marketing Ladder
For many business owners marketing begins with tactics. Someone suggests that printing flyers or making a ‘viral’ video to get the word out is a good idea. Even if the tactic works this time round it doesn’t mean you’ve got a sustainable strategy for connecting with your audience or building your br
If We Build It Will They Come?
This is precisely the wrong question to start any project with. A better way to begin is by asking: Who wants us to build it and why will they come? *This photo of Walt Disney showing the Disneyland plans to Orange County officials was taken in Dec 1954.* Walt knew where to start. Image from…
A Lesson In Unlocking Value
When you book a room at the Hilton or the Hyatt you either have a pleasant conversation with someone in a call centre who you will never hear from again, or you get a polite, well-crafted email in your inbox. Your expectation about the experience is based on the photos from the website and the…
What’s Your Customer’s Why?
It’s true that people buy from companies they like. We feel an affinity with some brands and not others and our purchasing decisions reinforce our values. The Internet has given rise to a new kind of savvy, connected customer. She seeks out purpose driven brands whose ideals resonate with hers. Whil
What’s Your Email Marketing Strategy?
Digital is fast and cheap. Now we can save a dollar or two on stamps that are no longer needed, plus the time and energy spent licking them and stuffing envelopes. We don’t even need to walk to the post box to mail our messages. Because it’s easy to reach anyone with an email address…
The Power Of The Minimum Viable Experience
I like my insurance company, or should I say I like the people who work for my insurance company. I’ve been with them almost ten years and have no intention of switching. Their call centre team is well trained and they really go out of their way to be helpful and make the customer feel…
How Value Is Created
Value is created at the intersection of the customer’s worldview and your understanding of how your product meets that. If that’s hard to get your head around think about plugging a real world example into the model. Customer’s Worldview: Branded razors are expensive. The quality doesn’t reflect the
The Myth Of Differentiation
If we did a blind taste test on Starbucks coffee would the result tell us that Starbucks sells the best coffee in the world? Probably not, but the facts don’t stop Starbucks succeeding. In theory differentiation is the way we create a tangible advantage. A method for giving people something to measu
Why Strategy Must Come Before Tactics
What’s the best time to send a tweet? How do you develop a content strategy? What’s the easiest way to drive traffic to your website? How do you build a great landing page? If you can ‘Google’ the question and get an answer does that give you an unfair advantage over your competitors? Do you…
