value
679 posts
The Value Of Asking What If
Have you ever been stuck waiting outside your hotel room while it was given the daily once over? It turns out that for some guests housekeeping can feel like more of an intrusion than a service. On average it costs a hotel $22 a day to deliver housekeeping services for each room. That figure probabl
The Economics Of Attention
Attention is either earned or paid for. Whether you pay for advertising or not you still buy your audience’s attention every day. You may not pay in dollars and cents, but either way there is a cost attached to getting people to notice or engage. The cost of paid attention (in the form of TV…
Why Not Go First?
An article about successful disruptive businesses like Warby Parker or Square spreads like wildfire through social media channels and whole libraries could be filled with stories about what makes Apple unique. It’s natural to want to learn from the successes of others and to wonder how we can borrow
Whoever Gets Closest To Their Customer Wins
Let’s consider how the business world has been turned on its head in less than a decade. We only need to think about fourteen brands in order to understand the shift. APPLE vs. SONY. AMAZON vs. BORDERS. NETFLIX vs. BLOCKBUSTER. AIRBNB vs. HILTON. UBER vs. CABS. NEST vs. HONEYWELL. TWITTER vs. NEWS C
Life After Launch Day—Introducing The One Page Marketing Plan
It’s not hard to remember the lead up to the birth of your first child. Forty weeks of sheer focus on everything from what cheese to eat—or not to eat, to a birth plan that read like a military operation. I always found it odd that there was a ten-point plan for every eventuality during…
Tapping Into Empathy
Wherever you are right now stop what you’re doing and listen to the people and the conversations going on all around you. I’ve been working in public places a lot recently and here’s what I’ve found. Nobody is listening to anybody—not really. They’re pretending to listen while they wait for their tu
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.…
The Entrepreneurial Paradox
By definition entrepreneurs undertake to build whatever they are building at considerable risk to themselves. They do what humans are not naturally evolved to do, which is break free from the pack to try something different—something that might not work and may leave them exposed and on the edge, aw
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
What If You Had One Line To Tell The Truth About Your Product?
Imagine you have a giant billboard to tell your customers the truth about your product or service. You’ve got just one line to do it in. What would your truth look and sound like? Is the truth in that single sentence what you want it to be? If not, what do you need to do…
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
How To Sell A Guitar…..Or Anything
The number one reason a salesperson fails to close a sale is that she can’t effectively communicate the value of the product. Of course it makes sense that if you can’t help your customers to understand why they should care, then you’re not likely to be able to convince them to buy. The luthier take
What Don’t You Do?
You are challenged at least ten times every day to explain to people what you do and why you do it. This happens on your about page, at networking events and even as you sit next to someone ten thousand feet up on a transatlantic flight. A great place to start is by unapologetically telling…
The Most Dangerous Thing About Your Competition
….is your obsession with them. Yes, we live in a giant digital goldfish bowl. This makes it possible to get stuck watching and worrying about what our competitors are doing. Almost every move they make, every accolade, acquisition and award is there for the world to see. It’s far more productive and
