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Articles filed in: Strategy
Marketing Backwards
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
I recently witnessed a young friend agonise for two months about which new smartphone to buy. A thousand dollars was a big investment for her. She had to weigh it up carefully. She trawled through every online review site for weeks. But the internal dialogue went on for much longer. We often believe the customer only considers the story we tell her and forget that she’s thinking about what choosing our brand says about her. When we’re making products and services we hope people will buy, it’s easy to overlook what influences their decision. One way to get better at this is to anticipate their self-talk.
10 Questions Customers Ask Themselves Before Buying A Product
1. Why should I choose this product over the other one?
2. Why is it worth more to me?
3. What features will I use or won’t I use?
4. How often will I use it?
5. What do I like or dislike about it?
6. How does it look?
7. How does it feel?
8. What does it say about me?
9. What will people think?
10.What would make me regret this decision tomorrow/next week/next year?
We get better at making and marketing when we get better at anticipating how our customers think and feel.
Image by Jev
The Key To The Perfect Story
filed in Marketing, News, Storytelling, Strategy
In a world where information and ideas can be shared in likes, swipes and clicks, we have never had a better opportunity to make our stories more visible. With so much for people to pay attention to, we have also never stood a better chance of being ignored. And that paradox sets us off on a quest to craft the perfect story—the one that resonates with the most people.
All stories have a beginning a middle and end. There is an inciting incident, conflict and resolution, a hero and a guide, failure and success. But unlike on the screens of Hollywood or in the pages of bestselling fiction, there is no ideal structure for crafting the perfect brand story because there is no single algorithm for touching the human heart.
The important thing isn’t the mechanics of the narrative or brilliance of the creative—the intention behind them is key to resonating with the people we hope to serve. Our quest to tell the right story stops us telling the real story. The key is to start with the truth about why we believed in what we do enough to begin and why we care about solving this unmet need for that particular person. It turns out that getting to the heart of the truth works better than finding an angle.
Image by Luigi Tiriticco
How Are You Putting The Customer At The Centre?
At every strategy meeting, in every company boardroom and entrepreneurial hub around the globe, you will hear some version of the requirement to ‘put the customer at the centre’ in everything we do. These words are easy to preach from on high and harder (but not impossible), to implement at a grassroots level. The key to the success of any strategy is getting the people closest to the customer to feel they have ownership of what’s been planned. We can only put the customer at the centre when we create a culture where everyone feels their voice is heard and their work matters.
The bigger questions for all of us are:
1. How can we embed listening to the customer into our culture?
2. How can we empower everyone in the organisation to care and be curious about the customer?
3. How can we make our teams feel like their ideas and input matter?
Successful strategies might be dreamt up in corner offices, but they are implemented in ordinary moments from cubicles, counters and checkouts.
Image by Jim Coyle
21 Questions For Creators And Innovators
filed in Innovation, Strategy, Success
Ideas are easy and free, execution can be painful and costly. Not just because it requires time, effort and resources—but because we often don’t do enough groundwork to get clear about the impact we hope to create. While it’s important to plan for success and mitigate against failure, what’s equally worthwhile exploring is why the idea matters to you and the people you hope it will serve. Why should you give it priority?
These twenty-one questions will help you get clear about your intention.
21 Questions For Creators And Innovators
1. What sparked this idea?
2. What’s your motivation for starting this project?
3. Who is the ideal user, client or customer for the end product?
4. Why will they buy or buy into it?
5. Why do you care about solving this problem for these people?
6. Why are you the person or team to bring it to life?
7. Why this project and not something else?
8. What’s the end goal?
9. What’s the first step?
10.What resources do you need?
11.What’s your minimal viable product?
12.Who do you need to involve or get behind the project?
13.How much time do you need?
14.How will you test your idea?
15.Who can you trust to give you objective feedback?
16.What are the likely challenges you could face?
17.How can you mitigate against or learn from them?
18.What circumstances would make you quit?
19.What does success look like?
20.If this idea succeeds what’s your next step?
21.If not this, then what?
You’re more likely to succeed by confronting the hard questions before you begin.
Image by Business Region Skane
In Praise Of The Ordinary
We devote a lot of resources to creating the momentous. Dressing the window for the big sales event, crafting the sales pitch for a product launch, planning the grand family celebration—those orchestrated events to remember, where we can shine. The truth is we have the potential to make the most impact in more ordinary moments. Those times when we do the human, unexpected thing without a script because we care, not because it’s expected or people are watching.
Your customers will rave about the little thing you didn’t have to do, more than the specifications you met. Your team will be talking about how you reacted when they missed a sales target, long after they’ve forgotten what you said in your speech on launch day. And your child will remember the weight of your arm on his shoulder when he fails, more vividly than the balloons and candles at his birthday party.
Thoughtful, human acts carried out without applause are worth more than grand gestures made under bright lights. The ordinary is underrated.
Image by Kathy
Meeting, Managing And Exceeding Expectations
If a brand is a promise, then the expectations people have of the brand are created by the promises we make. Meeting expectations is about the alignment of words and deeds.
Disappointment occurs when we don’t do what we say we’re going to do. When we promise more than we can deliver or pretend to be something we’re not. Ironically, we are the ones who are most disappointed when we don’t meet the standards we set. We have the power to change this, by prioritising building trust over making an impression and only setting the expectations we’re willing to live up to.
Easy to say. Harder to do. That’s why it’s worth the effort.
Image by Bert Heymans
The False Promise Of Shortcuts
The promise of a shortcut is the most powerful marketing tool you can wield. That’s why we see it used so often and effectively. Diet shakes have done little to make a dent in the obesity crisis, and yet they are part of a thriving multi-billion dollar industry. We all know what works is regular and stepwise progress, choosing the salad and putting on our running shoes more often than we reach for the chocolate cake and the TV remote.
And so it goes for whatever we’re endeavouring to do.
It’s not just what you do that counts, but the way you choose to do it. When in doubt take the stairs.
Image by Philippe Woolgar
You Don’t Need To Compete When You Know Who You Are
filed in Marketing, Strategy, Success
Before globalisation, marketing, hair straighteners and the bullworker, our tribal ancestors and village businesses stood out by excelling at their craft. They became known for doing the thing other people in the village couldn’t or wouldn’t do. They were beloved for the way they went about their work. Not much has changed about how loyalty is earned, and a brand is built—except for our ideas about how to get noticed and gain traction. Now we look for the magic formula. We try to stand out by doing a little of what everyone else is doing.
The irony is, the people we admire and the brands we aspire to emulate, gain our respect because they are original. Mimicry is futile. You stand out by understanding what makes you unique—not what gets you noticed. Taking a stand that only you can take is underrated.
You don’t need to compete when you know who you are.
Image by Scooter Loweriemore
Choose Delight Over Satisfaction
When a flight is delayed why are the passengers who quietly accept their fate and meal vouchers never the ones who get priority on the next available flight? Our instinct is to acknowledge and take care of the customer who complains the loudest. We work hardest to get the dissatisfied, those unlikely to become raving fans, to the point of satisfaction. This strategy leaves fewer resources to delight our satisfied customers. It’s easy to take the contented regular for granted.
It’s hard to ignore the noisy bell. But focusing on the people who don’t feel they have a voice is the most important work we can do. Who are you taking for granted and how can you make them happier?
Image by Scott Ableman
The Rise Of The Interested
filed in Marketing, Strategy, Success
It doesn’t seem that long ago since a customer would get personal service at a drapery shop even if she was only buying four buttons for the baby cardigan she’d made. A real conversation ensued and colours were carefully matched. By the time money changed hands the assistant knew who the cardigan was for, when the baby was due and how many grandchildren the customer had. In the past, most companies gathered information because they were interested in helping, so they could serve us better. Now we immediately ask for the customer’s email address, we collect data, not out of interest, but often just to leverage it. We’ve allowed efficiency to suck the joy from our work.
Our obsession with optimisation and squeezing the most out of every interaction has led us down the path of knowing the facts, without caring about the stories and the people behind them. I think we’re beginning to realise our mistake. We’re often surprised by what we learn when we express a genuine interest in people. No work was ever worsened because it was carried out with empathy.
Image by Andrew