The Marketing Paradox

The goal of most marketing is to get people through the door, bums on seats and products sold. Because much of our marketing effort is front-loaded it’s easy to believe that once we’ve closed the sale, we’re done. And so we latch on to stories of six-figure product launches and multi-million dollar capital raises—often making…

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The Best Brand Stories

The best brand stories…. Are experienced and felt. Create affinity, not simply awareness. Are perceived in micro-moments that are remembered, long after what’s pitched is forgotten. Give people ways to belong, not just reasons to choose. Are less about what the brand says and more about how the customer wants to feel. In a digital…

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How All Marketing Should Be

This is the story of two homes that are for sale. “Elegantly renovated, exclusive address. This gracious residence set amid professionally landscaped gardens (approx 600sqm), close to schools and parks, offers formal sitting room, expansive living dining, flowing onto the verandah……” You get the idea. Contrast that with this one. “This has been our home…

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What’s The Endgame?

As anyone who has ever played chess will tell a beginner, every move must have a purpose. You don’t move a piece unless you have a reason for doing so, or before you understand what the next move is likely to be, and the one after that (depending on how your opponent responds). One single…

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How Will We Get Them To Like Us?

A more important question to ask and answer is: “Why should they like us?” You can’t ask people to believe in your story without giving them something to believe in. Image by Andreas Ivarsson.

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The Difference Between Strategy And Tactics And Why You Need To Know

Imagine your business mission and vision as a mountain in the distance. Your strategy is the route map—the path you choose that’s going to take you to that mountain. Tactics are the steps you take on the journey to advance your way along that chosen path towards the mountain—thus realising your vision. MISSION AND VISION—Where…

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What Are Your Competitors Failing To Do?

Like many new mothers Jessica Alba wanted to buy non-toxic baby products, they were incredibly difficult to find information about and source, this inspired her to found The Honest Company. Dave Gilboa lost a $700 pair of glasses and couldn’t afford to replace them, his experience was the seed of an idea that became Warby…

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What Marketing Is Not: 5 Common Misconceptions

When we think and talk about, teach and practice marketing we are often working on the assumption that marketing is one or all of the following: 1. How we make people want things. 2. Tactics, communications or activities designed to get people do what we want them to do. 3. The way we sell something.…

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The Marketing Disconnect

Potential customers have unlimited choices and are in no rush to make a decision. You on the other hand, need customers to choose your product or service, and to do it in the quickest time frame possible. It would be easy to believe that because you need more people to choose your product today, you…

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Five Brand Storytelling Lessons From Jamie Oliver

Who could forget how Jamie Oliver burst onto our screens in the UK almost twenty years ago? While most celebrity chefs of the day adopted the posture of the hero, showing us how to follow their rules to the letter, Jamie made aspirational cooks around the world the hero of the story by making cooking…

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