How To Build A 21st Century Brand

Forty years ago a brand was an identifier. Branding was what we did to the outside of a product or service after it was conceived and created. Brands became tales woven to increase visibility and memorability using design, clever copy, print and TV advertising to make sure the product was known by the majority of…

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How To Communicate Value Beyond Describing Features And Benefits

In an attempt to gain the trust of prospective customers we often resort to simply telling them about our product’s features and benefits. While describing value might seem like the easiest way to communicate it, the simplest strategy isn’t always the most compelling one. When value is demonstrated rather than described it immediately becomes more…

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The Power Of Story To Find Value

As business leaders, entrepreneurs and marketers we’re used to leveraging the power of story to describe value. We mostly use stories as a tool for telling. Because we believe the way to succeed is to be more vocal and visible, we create campaigns, sales letters, videos and press releases. We craft headlines, posts and tweets…

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Sustainable Attention

The box office was due to open on Monday morning. The first fans took their place at the front of the line at 3 pm on Sunday. By midnight a hundred had gathered, and at dawn, the line snaked around on itself, as people armed with deck chairs and milk crates, queueing for the one-off…

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What Are Your Words Designed To Do?

How often have you read website or marketing copy that uses words we’d rarely use in conversation? The real estate agent’s copy describing homes as abodes or residences. The jargon in the consultant’s brochure. The officious tone of the notices in the dentist’s waiting room. We’re often left wondering if the purpose of the language…

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More Than

In hard-headed, rational commercial environments where tangible advantages are sought in order to make the books balance, we often overlook the value of our products and services being more than commodities. Everything a customer chooses to exchange time, attention or money for says something about who they are. Purchases are forms of self-expression. What we…

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How To Learn From The Customer Journey

Many of the businesses you will frequent today have no idea how you became a customer. What’s worse than not knowing what brought you there is either making an incorrect assumption or not having an interest in your journey at all. It’s easier than ever in an online world to understand where customers come from,…

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Understanding The Value Gap

You may have noticed how commonplace complimentary gift wrapping has become this festive season. In years gone by this service was offered by bigger department stores or as a fundraiser for charities in local shopping centres. This year though it seems that every retailer from the bookstore to the pharmacy has decided that complimentary gift…

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What Are Your Marketing Goals?

We devote a lot of time to growing our businesses—often around the loose metric of ‘more’. It’s worth defining what ‘more’ looks like for your business. You get closer to your goals when you match effort to desired outcomes, and you can’t do that without understanding which numbers you’re trying to move the needle on.…

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Worth Vs. Worthy

As business leaders and entrepreneurs, much of our energy and resources are spent understanding how best to communicate our value to customers. Many of the most successful companies flip this thinking on its head. If we create things that are worthy of the time, attention and money of the people we hope to serve, we…

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