brand framing
442 posts

The Third Secret Of Great Marketing
It’s the reason Dropbox’s revenue hit $240 million in 2011 despite giving away their product for free and how Instagram has grown to 100 million users. Stand in your customers’ shoes. Start with their story. Image by Trey Ratcliff.

The Death Of Retail. The Symptom Is Not The Problem
Georgina owns and operates a speciality gluten free food store in Brisbane and like many retailers she’s experiencing a problem. Increasingly people are coming to browse but not to buy. The perception is that if I can get it cheaper or faster online why would I make the trip to your store? So Georgi

What’s The Point?
Business isn’t about transactions and giving people the thing they want. That box of chocolates, an upgraded phone or the business class flight. And marketing isn’t about selling them your facts. It’s about giving people a story to believe in and one that they want to tell. Just like Evan’s. (Take t

One Trick Pony
In the 1800’s small travelling circuses without big headline acts or a menagerie of exotic animals were known as dog and pony shows. The very average acts on the programme were derided as ‘one trick ponies’. When I was growing up conventional wisdom said that you must strive never to be a ‘one trick

2 Questions To Answer Before Bringing An Idea To Market
1. How does your customer want to feel after she’s bought your product or experienced your service? 2. How are you going to get her there? Image by Renato Targa.

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
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…

Better Stories Versus Better Stuff
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…

Why Belief Matters
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, s

The Secret To Spreading Ideas
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

There’s Only One Way To Get A Different Outcome
We should have known as soon as we walked in. The place was empty, not a soul in sight apart from two lone waiters who pounced. Every other breakfast place in the city was teeming with life and overflowing with plates of over easy eggs. This place was dead. We stayed because we didn’t have…

Buy Versus Buy Into
Don’t be the brand that people buy. Be the one they ‘buy into’. Image by Peter Morgan.

Anticipation Is Your Point Of Differentiation
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

What Your Clients Need Now
They need you to ask the right questions, not to have all the answers. They need your generosity, not jargon. They need the truth. They need what works for them, not what makes you look good. They need faith in you and your intention. They need to be empowered more than they need to be…

What Versus Why
My middle son left school this year and here’s the question everyone asks him. “What do you want to do?” I bet it’s a question you’ve been asked too at one time or another. My seventeen year old tells people he wants to study either architecture or design, and then that he’s off to Billund…

Confusing Price With Value
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…

Be That
If you say you’re the biggest, fastest, strongest, cheapest, —————est, then be the biggest, fastest, strongest, cheapest, —————est . If you say you’re the best then be that. And the flipside? If you say it, then you set the intention of being it. Which means you have an obligation to go make it happ

Who Is It For?
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,

Marketing Is….
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 d

Rethinking The Sales Process
The food halls and nail bars were humming last Thursday evening. Apparently when they have a few extra shopping hours people want to do one of two things, grab a bite to eat or have their nails done. The designer clothes boutiques were dead. Not a soul in sight in any of them, apart from…
