Posts Tagged ‘brand strategy’
Do Your Customers Feel Like They Belong?
I got a sensory jolt when I arrived at the QT Hotel on the Gold Coast last week, to speak at the Problogger Conference. The concierge greeted me wearing bright pink shorts and a matching smile, offering home made lemonade from the stand in the foyer. The receptionists wore one piece turquoise jumpsuits, with red…
Read More5 Steps To Getting Things Done, Strategy Before Tactics
On rare sunny, summer days at the beach in Dublin, my brother and I would have long, drawn out arguments about how deep and wide to dig the moat around our sandcastle. Obsessing over the tactics feels like the important work. We can often trick ourselves into jumping ahead to details that don’t yet matter,…
Read MoreContent Is Not King
If you Google these four words you’ll get over 600 million search results in less than 0.2 seconds. Amongst these links you will read articles about putting as much content ‘out there’ as you can. Others will urge you to ditch advertising and create content instead, because content is the new way to drive traffic,…
Read MoreHow To Tell The Story Of Your Idea Using The ‘Value Proposition Hack’
The biggest challenge that many of my clients have isn’t coming up with great ideas, it’s articulating why those ideas should matter, to the right people. Explaining the value of an idea can be tough if you don’t have a place to start. I created the ‘value proposition hack’, so that you would have a…
Read MoreWhy People Pay And Why It Matters
The dictionary will tell you that marketing is the activity that surrounds the transfer of goods, from consumer to buyer. This, for that. But we also pay with time, attention and love. And even when we pay with money, it’s rarely a ‘this, for that’ transaction, since all value is subjective. It’s easy to fall…
Read MoreThe Diminishing Value Of Access
When a new business opens in your suburb, the first thing they do, with great fanfare, is plaster ‘now open’ signs around the neighbourhood. The ‘we’ve built it, now you’ll come’ mentality is alive and well in every industry. My son, along with thousands of others is in his first year at university. Most of…
Read MoreDon’t Sell A Man A Saw, Teach A Man To Build
Mike works at our local ‘big box’ hardware store, alongside people who cut wood, motion directions and stack paint cans. Each weekend Mike sees a steady stream of ‘have a go’ DIY enthusiasts, the kind of guys who were too busy on their way to becoming accountants and lawyers in their teens, to learn how…
Read MoreThe Purpose Of Innovation In A ‘Needless’ Economy
For the most part in the West we have everything we need. Roofs over our heads, food in the fridge and a lot more besides. Even in the developing world where more people have mobile phones than have access to toilets, it seems that sometimes ‘wants’ trump real needs. So, if we have everything we…
Read More6 Ways To Become Part Of Your Customer’s Story
Think about the rituals that punctuate your days. Freshly boiled water poured over scented tea, your morning workout, or favourite mug. The ten minutes you use to brainstorm ideas in Evernote, checking emails, or meeting colleagues at lunchtime, your ring tone, playlist, date night….each one adding another layer of meaning to your day, becoming part…
Read MoreThe Elephant In The Marketing Room
“Although many of us may think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think” —Jill Bolte Taylor I was raised in Dublin, the storytelling capital of the world. There is no place on earth that is more hardwired for story than Ireland, home of Guinness and oversize teapots. Wikipedia…
Read More