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Articles filed in: Storytelling
Loved
filed in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Storytelling
I finally fell out of love with my favourite little cafe. 18 months ago I went there almost every day, not just for the coffee but because of how it made me feel to be there in amongst the noise, the life and the friendly faces with the smell of the ocean wafting through the open windows. It was such a great place, everything was made right there on the premises and the owners were in the thick of it… caring, and that showed.
Last week I decided I’m never going back. Their success has killed everything they once stood for, it’s crushed the soul out of their business (the thing that made them brilliant in the first place). The cafe had been busy to the point of bursting for a long time. The great coffee (every cup), homemade food and the posture of the owners and the staff meant that people loved telling their friends about it. Customers didn’t mind waiting for a table or paying a dollar extra for a delicious fresh brownie and the story they could tell themselves. Then everything changed.
The business expanded. They extended their premises. The owners started working ‘on’ the business not ‘in’ the business. Their new systems and processes changed the whole feel of the place and wiped the smiles off the faces of the staff. It became obvious even to customers that the goal posts had shifted and that the first focus was maximising profit and capitalising on their growing numbers with cynical pricing.
It seems to me that their values shifted along with their metrics. They forgot what made them successful in the first place….. perhaps they never really knew.
This is not to say that you can’t go from starting small to building a hugely profitable business. I’m not implying that you should not aim to turn a good profit. It’s perfectly okay to have a change in strategy as long as you don’t have a change in values.
In a recent study Millward Brown discovered that the success of the 50 best businesses in the world is driven by their ideals, not simply by their product innovation or service provision.
In every category the brands that stand out, the ones that succeed wildly, like Red Bull, Zappos, Apple, Amazon, Lindt and Innocent Drinks are the ones that people love. Go ahead and be the most profitable cafe, consultancy or app developer in town but don’t forget to give people a reason to love you. Then remember the story you gave your customers to tell.
The future of your business is actually built on a lot more than what you hand over at the end of the transaction.
Image by Craig Belamy.
10 Questions To Help You With Your Pricing Strategy
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
When my family and I were in Venice recently we decided to take a seat in a tiny Cafe in St Marks Square and ordered four hot drinks (anyone who has holidayed in Italy knows what’s coming next!). There was nothing remarkable about the coffee but we walked out half an hour later having paid €37 for 4 drinks…. the most expensive cup of coffee I have ever had…. my husband kept the receipt!
The lesson. If you want to sit, not stand to have coffee in Italy you will pay a premium. The way a service is designed and delivered can alter its value. The price of a commodity has little to do with what it costs to produce and everything to do with customer perception and available alternatives.
Many of my clients struggle with pricing their products and services.
Here are 10 questions to ask and answer to help you with your pricing strategy
1. Have you covered your production and service delivery costs?
2. What’s your customer’s perception of the value you deliver?
3. What other choices do they have?
4. What do you want to communicate with your pricing strategy?
5. Are you telling a story about luxury, affordability or something else?
6. Have you taken the availability of alternatives into account with your pricing?
7. Have you done enough to convince your audience that there are no better substitutes to what you offer?
8. Can your mode of service delivery, specifications or design add value?
9. Is your pricing strategy in line with your longer term business goals?
10. What type of clients are you trying to attract and how can you use price to send a signal to the right people?
The MBA version on pricing strategy can be found here.
And for those travelling any time soon here are some tips for what not to do when you are eating out in Italy.
Image by Dan Zelazo.
Better Stories Versus Better Stuff
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
Most things that you can buy are good enough.
The companies that succeed now, Tattly, Apple, Zappos and Amazon don’t find ways to make and sell better stuff. They work out how to tell a better story AND how to give their customers a story they want to tell too.
The story is baked into the product. “Hey check out my cool tattoo.”
That’s a very different kind of marketing and it’s certainly not advertising.
What are you baking in that’s worth talking about?
Image by Erica Feliciano.
Why Belief Matters
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
Five years ago, just before Polaroids began to make a comeback, the owner of the Dublin camera store reluctantly allowed the sales rep to create a tiny, top shelf Christmas display. She spent a whole afternoon arranging then re-arranging the cameras. At last she stood back to admire her handiwork, slipped a digital camera from her pocket and took a shot for her records. The store owner stared at her in disbelief.
“Why on earth are you using a digital camera to take your display photos?” he said. Okay that’s it, you’ve finally convinced me. You can take it all down and pack it away. If you don’t believe in your own product how can you expect me or anyone else to?”
She had to admit that he had a point, as she began to reluctantly put things back in their boxes.
True story.
It’s a whole lot easier to spread an idea that you care about and believe in. The world will only begin to have faith in you when you do too.
Image by Steve Rhodes.
Anticipation Is Your Point Of Differentiation
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Brand new guest rooms, sleek kitchenettes, minibars and bright, new bathrooms were only the start of the boutique hotel’s story. The ‘dream pillow menu’ gave me six choices from buckwheat to hypo-allergenic, duck down to Swedish memory foam.
And yet…..there was no chance of an early check in after a 30 hour journey. No mechanism to anticipate or to care in a way that the competition doesn’t.
Anyone can take instructions. Every business can get customer to tick boxes and say exactly what they want. The thing that’s scarce is what the customer didn’t know they needed or wanted in the first place.
The brands that succeed understand that the ability to anticipate, and act upon what isn’t already known is what makes them stand head and shoulders above all the rest.
Image by Amanda Tipton.
More Than Words
filed in Entrepreneurship, Storytelling, Worldview
The school public speaking competition was in full swing. One after another the young and accomplished speakers stepped up to the lectern. Their opinions, convincing arguments and confidence just blew us away.
The evening was drawing to a close and the audience began to fidget as the second last speaker took the stage. Before he said a word he got hold of both sides of the heavy wooden lectern and pointedly moved it to the side of the stage. He paused, then stepped forward to make eye contact with the audience.
Before he had even opened his mouth or his argument this kid was a winner.
It’s true what Annette Simmons says….whoever tells the best story does win. It’s important to remember though that your story is more than the most convincing argument you can make, or the eloquent words that you write.
Image By Tommi Komulainen.
Petrol Station Flowers
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
‘Petrol station flowers’ never quite hit the mark.
It’s obvious to both the giver and the receiver that they were unplanned….an afterthought.
That the giving of them lacked the thing that’s more important than the blooms themselves.
The intention.
We care about the intention as much as the gift, often more.
Your intention matters in business as it does in life. It costs nothing to care more than the competition. And the flip side of course is that if you care more, you not only have the opportunity to change how your customers feel, you also get to do work that matters to you too.
Image by scorpians and centaurs.
Confusing Price With Value
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
There’s a company here in Perth charging $70 an hour to weed gardens. Just weeding, and perhaps a light trim of garden shrubs. Nothing more. They don’t mow lawns (there are already thousands of guys doing that).
They do the job that nobody else wants to take on. The job that plenty of time poor professionals with a particular worldview need to get done. $70 is a bargain to these people. It’s worth every cent for the feeling they get when they pull into the driveway after a twelve hour day.
The price you charge has little to do with how much it costs to make the product or provide the service.
It has everything to do with the value your deliver to the people who need you enough to care.
Image by Billy Liar.
Who Is It For?
filed in Storytelling, Strategy, Worldview
They’ve put a beautiful Christmas tree in the foyer of our local leisure centre. It stands almost three metres tall, complete with the usual baubles and wrapped presents underneath. The tree would be perfect if it wasn’t for the temporary barrier that surrounds it on four sides, (you know the kind, the type with the expanding elastic you see if you ever queue at a bank anymore). Oh and the sign which reads, “Do not touch the Christmas display. Thank you for your cooperation.”
The point of the tree should be to deliver joy. Not much joy for the three years olds (who can’t read the sign of course) and have a go at touching it. Or their mothers, who now have to yell at them loudly not to touch the tree, while they wait in line for coffee or an entry ticket to swimming lessons.
Every business decision you make should be prefaced with the question. Who is this for? If you’re doing something to please investors or board members, your suppliers or partners, customers or staff, make sure your decision pleases the right people.
If you really are setting out to delight your customers and not just putting a tick in the box, go stand in their shoes. Once you see the world through their eyes you’ll know who you’re choosing to please.
Image by Geoanne Millares.
Marketing Is….
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
mar-ket-ing
noun
1. the act of buying or selling in a market.
2. the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing and selling.
Actually marketing is…..
finding ways to tell the story of what you do so that the people who want and need it will care.
Image by Brett Davis.