brand strategy
1,082 posts
Good Is The New Average
Meeting expectations was once enough to mark a business out. If every meal was served piping hot, served in a timely fashion, with a smile—the restaurant owner won. Now, efficiency is expected. It’s the minimum requirement for operating any business. Good is the new average. Only the exceptional wil
Making Sense Of Nike’s Controversial Ad Campaign Decision
Unless you’re an American football fan, you probably hadn’t heard of Colin Kaepernick before August 2016. Kaepernick, an African American, was a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers when he was propelled into the media spotlight for choosing to sit (then later kneel), during the United States nat
Keep Your Eye On The Ball
It was hard not to get swept up by the Serena Williams, US Open final story this week. It was difficult to avoid joining the debate about how it could all have played out differently if only this had been said or that had been done. That time spent thinking about what should have been…
The Art Of Differentiation
One day you will find a design you laboured over, taken and copied or several lines of copy you crafted, used and unattributed. And you will rant and rave until you realise, that there are things you can say and do that can’t be copied because those things are only true for you. We spend…
Is The Consumer The Customer?
When the Old Spice ‘Smell Like a Man’ advertising campaign launched eight years ago, it called out an often unspoken truth about sales and marketing. The consumer and the user are not necessarily one and the same. This insight inevitably alters how you tell the story of the products you sell and the
The Disciplined Marketer
It’s 6.30 am at the hotel gym, and the guests who are keen to get a workout in before breakfast are lining up. The receptionist is taking their room numbers before admitting them. As they turn to walk away, gym towel and bottle of water in hand, she asks if they’d like to book in…
The Best Fit
Sometimes we take on projects or clients that are a bad fit. Work that doesn’t energise us or customers that don’t value us. It’s hard to pay attention to the reasons why things aren’t working out when you’re knee-deep in the situation. But it’s important to try. We discover how we work best by payi
Culture Creation
Our usual Friday morning workout instructor is on holiday for a month. The first sign that something has changed in his absence is a drop in the number of people who attend. The time slot is the same. The workout is identical. But fewer people are motivated to come. We’re not just getting up early…
The Attraction Retention Conundrum
The line outside the new patisserie snaked around the block. It never seemed to get shorter. The word that they were giving away free muffins on opening day had travelled fast and the owner wasn’t sure she’d have enough for everyone. The launch promotion had worked that was for sure! Now she just ha
Show Your Story
In the early 1960s, a Brooklyn tax clerk, named Jean Nidetch discovered a powerful and underutilised marketing technique. When Jean, who had been overweight for years, lost thirty kilos her friends asked her how she’d done it. She began sharing her diet secrets with half a dozen friends in her apart
Sell It Like You Made It
The days when you could go down to the Milofsky’s Hardware supplies, and come away with a couple of screws carefully wrapped in brown paper, which were perfect for the job, are long gone. The days when Mrs O’Hanlon didn’t mind taking this heavy glass jar, then that one, down from the shelves of her
Transactions Vs. Experiences
The hotel was nothing to write home about. You couldn’t really fault it either. The facilities, which matched the hotel’s star rating were as described. The room was clean. The bed was comfortable. The staff were efficient and polite. But—you knew there was a ‘but’ coming. The place lacked a spirit
Marketing Efficacy And Expectations
When ‘meal replacement’ shakes first came to market they seemed like the answer to a dieter’s prayers. Replacing one or two regular meals with a calorie counted milkshake meant ingesting fewer calories, resulting in rapid weight loss. Meal replacements worked for some people for a little while. Thos
Being Seen And Heard
The numbers vary, but the trend is unmistakable. The average consumer is subjected to more marketing messages every day. In a world where it’s harder to get noticed marketers have responded by trying to be more visible. Being noticed is the goal of most marketing. The irony is five seconds in the sp
Another Time
During a high-intensity workout, the trainer reminds the athlete to treat every set as if it were the last. To train as if this was the only sixty seconds, he would cycle that day. In that moment, with that mindset he increases his effort, his performance intensifies and that changes his results. We
The Slow And Steady Advantage
The salespeople at our local gym usually interact with their customers once. A person who is motivated enough to book a gym tour, followed by the inevitable sales conversation is likely to join. The conversion rate is high. While designing the experience to optimise the quickest route to the sale wo
People Power
When a traveller books a $700 a night hotel room she assumes that she’ll have a five-star experience. She’s expecting more than a better bed, thicker carpets and fancier facilities. When a five-star hotel gets a one-star review, it’s an indication that something went badly wrong. Of course, guests a
To Do Or Not To Do
We wake every day with solid ideas and imperfect plans. And yet every day we stall. We blame time. We await readiness or motivation, or both. We rationalise about tomorrow being better. We make assumptions about what it takes to be good enough. We allow doubt and uncertainty to take hold. We wait. F
Making A Mark
Regular customers know when Effie has the day off from her job at the city centre convenience store. They sense her absence as soon as they walk in. The coffee machine hasn’t been cleaned. The shelves haven’t been restocked. The music isn’t playing. Customers aren’t stopping to chat. There’s a diffe
Forget Which Way The Wind Is Blowing
When the disco diner opened on a warm Summer night in a flurry of pink neon, accompanied by loud music and cheap booze, the owner felt reassured he’d found his tribe. But as the evenings grew shorter and the nights colder, his confidence began to waver. The evolving messaging on a pair of sandwich b
