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Articles filed in: Marketing
The Difference Between Value And Valuable
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
On Saturday a single rose would have cost you $5. Today and tomorrow it’s $8. While you clearly got better value for your dollar on Saturday, the roses are more valuable to you today.
Who decides then where the value lies and what’s valuable? The value of your product isn’t just in the price you charge, it’s what the customer perceives it to be.
What makes something more valuable is the story the customer was able to tell himself after he left the florists this morning.
Image by Lynn Friedman.
How To Get The Customers You Deserve
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
You’ve heard a version of this story before. It goes something like this. The customer leaves the restaurant a little disgruntled after a Friday evening dinner. The service had been particularly slow, his table had waited an hour for their meal and the waitstaff hadn’t nipped his complaint in the bud. His next move is to contact the owner to give his feedback. The owner’s response….
“If you wanted fast food you should have gone to McDonald’s” and “I don’t need you or want you to come back”.
When the customer shared his story online and the reporter came knocking the restaurant owner told her the complaint was representative of a trend in people expecting too much from restaurants.
“We’re in the business to make money, we’re not there just to be a convenience to people who want to eat out.” he said.
In a city where cafe culture is thriving this posture could be one of the reasons our owner has to fill his restaurant with people who have bought a discount deal from a group buying website.
The flip side for him and the takeaway for you….
You have the opportunity to tell the story of your business to the people who you want to hear it. You get to shape the kind of brand you’d like to become. You can build your business for the customers you really want to serve.
But your customer’s experience is part of that story and they have a hand in creating the ending. If your story sends the good ones away you’ll get the customers you deserve.
Image by Steve Rhodes.
The Business Buzzword Of 2013 ‘Platform’
filed in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Strategy
Everywhere I look online these days I see people being urged to build a ‘platform’. The modern day platform is a digital connection to potential customers, contacts, followers or fans.
A platform then is a tool and a tactic.
There are plenty of consultants willing to help you with the ‘how to’ of building one and whole books devoted to the tactics (the knowing part).
Knowing is a far cry from doing though.
If you are to succeed at building a platform you need to be consistent at ‘the doing’ part. And to be consistent at ‘the doing’ you need to have a reason to build the platform that intersects your needs with those of your audience. Building a ‘platform’ is a far cry from building a tribe. ‘Tribes’ begin with the reason for building (doing) the thing in the first place.
Successful businesses like Airbnb and Zen Habits were born from having a reason to create the platform that served the needs of the audience. The success didn’t simply come from the platform itself.
Go ahead and build your platform so that the people who need you can find you, just remember to work out the reason you’re building it first.
Image by Peter Durand.
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.
Different, Because
We are different because ———————.
We are the only one that does ———————.
How are you different and why does that matter to your customers?
Image by Evive.
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.
5 Questions You Need To Ask About Your Ideal Client
filed in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Strategy
1. Who is she?
What’s her backstory? What makes her who she is?
(Hint…she may not be you).
2. What does her typical day look like?
How does she spend her time and where (both online and offline)?
3. What does she care about?
What inspires and informs her? What motivates her to act?
4. What problem(s) does she need to have solved?
Is it a physical pain or obstacle, or is there a want she needs to have fulfilled?
5. How are you solving that problem better than the competition?
Why are you the business that changes how she feels, the one she can trust above everyone else?
If you don’t know how her story starts how can you be a part of it?
Image by Marianne Janssens.
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.
The Secret To Spreading Ideas
filed in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Strategy
I recently had the opportunity to share an idea I care about thanks to the team at TEDx Perth.
The talk went live online two days ago. I hope it helps you to spread the ideas that you care about.
Image by Sally Jarvis at TEDxPerth