Blog
The Three Marketing Superpowers—Judgement, Empathy And Timing
Just two days before Christmas while every other retailer was happily dealing with long lines, the outdoor clothing and travel equipment store was empty. Not a customer in sight. They should have been doing a brisk trade in torches, camping accessories and stocking fillers, yet the assistants had pl
When The Marketing Works
We spend so much of our time in ‘push mode’ that we can forget to celebrate what went well or to evaluate why. When you make the sale it’s natural to begin working out how to make the next one. We make the next one by working out why we made the first. It’s important…
What Are Your Rules Designed To Do?
It’s never a good sign when a flight doesn’t board on time. When the ground staff make announcements about ‘engineering faults’ and begin handing out meal vouchers you know you’re in trouble. And so it went last month for flight 029 to Hong Kong. Three hours after the first announcement the flight w
What To Question
The comedian doesn’t think about how he to be funnier, he tries to understand what makes people laugh and why. The shoe designer doesn’t simply consider what will look good, she obsesses over what will make a woman feel good. The architect doesn’t just consider the orientation of the building, he ca
Double Your Business
Greg opened his diary and booked the new client in. It was a small electrical job, hardly worth going out of his way for the call out fee of $120—the kind of job that most of his competitors wouldn’t have dreamed of booking this close to Christmas when everyone wanted everything yesterday. He turned
The Right Thing To Do
Joe was in a real fix. The equipment he’d been scheduled to hire from the builder’s supplier had accidentally been hired to another customer, there wasn’t an alternative machine available for a month. Joe needed to do something fast, if he didn’t the job he was working on would be behind time by wee
The Value Of Unknowns
Will the new product launch be successful? Is this really what customers want? Will the digital marketing initiative drive enough sales? Is this the right person to hire? Will the redesign improve engagement? Is the timing perfect? The truth is that we can’t know for sure. That doesn’t stop us tryin
Design For The Outcome You Want
Susan is the VP of Sales at a large company. She’s more than a little frustrated that her sales team keep selling legacy products to customers and don’t make the effort to introduce new product lines to them instead. Of course it’s easier for the sales guy to earn his bonus by filling repeat orders…
Doing The Maximum
Everywhere you look today you will see people doing the minimum. The cashier at the electrical store processing customers without acknowledgement. The doctor who casually flips through your notes without making eye contact. The lecturer using the ‘death by PowerPoint’ teaching method. We hardly ever
What’s The End Game?
Before you pivot. Before you expand. Before you take on extra staff. Before you act on conventional wisdom. Before you panic about the numbers. Before you say ‘yes’ to something when you really mean ‘no’. Before you become someone you don’t recognise. Ask yourself, What was my original intention for
The Long Way Round
In most situations if there’s a shortcut we’re tempted to take it. It’s human nature to conserve energy and take the most efficient route from point A to point B. This makes the business of selling hard, because we are naturally impatient to see signs of success and to avoid nagging doubts about the
What Your Marketing Needs More Of
Think of a person you love to be around, someone you have rich and satisfying conversations with. It’s likely your conversations are a two-way exchange including acknowledgement, pauses and even moments of silence. Compare that to how we market to customers. We know that the best conversations make
Doing Is Underrated
The customer you could follow up with. The survey waiting to be sent. The product you could trial. The colleague yet to be contacted. The copy you could test. The important observation you might take action on. Each one is an opportunity to learn something that could change everything. The GoPro sta
Where’s Your Magic?
The long Sunday morning croissant line at Lune moves slowly and never gets any shorter. Not a single person in the queue complains or shoots a frustrated glance at the time that is clearly slipping by. The servers work slowly, carefully boxing each pastry as if it were made of porcelain. All the whi
Good To Do Vs. Right To Do
The brand new billboard spanned the four lanes of the freeway that led to the airport. The location was obviously a strategic move, given that the company being advertised was in the travel business. The gorgeous image of a lone traveller in the wilderness had likely been painstakingly chosen by the
Where Your Brand Story Ends
Like the gym in my city you can invest time, energy and considerable resources into telling your story. But the stories your customers tell are what tomorrow’s customers are paying attention to. Your brand story ends where their stories begin. The question might not always be, “how many people can w
Changing Minds And The Decision Timeline
When was the last time you switched brands? The reality is we mostly make decisions on autopilot and we don’t often change our minds. When change happens it doesn’t happen in an instant—however hopeful we as marketers might be that it does. We know for example, that the transition to bottled water d
Where Your Story Starts
The question we mostly try to address when we set out to tell our business or product story is what we want the customer to know about our brand. The better place to begin is by understanding what the customer wants to believe about herself and where our brand could potentially fit into her story.…
First Impressions Vs. Lasting Impact
“What’s that new cafe like?” asked a business colleague from out of town. His question got me thinking about how much a negative response from a single customer could cost a business. What’s the lasting impact of a one bad experience? We can invest time and energy and money into the things we believ
The Three Sides Of Customer Experience
As boarding time came and went, it was clear that the flight wasn’t about to depart on time. The huge crowd of expectant passengers at the gate began to get restless. By the time the first announcement was made things were getting heated and when the call to collect refreshment vouchers went out res
