A Better Business In 5 Minutes And 3 Easy Steps

I promised three steps and here they are: 1. Grab a drink, a blank sheet of paper and a pen. Switch off your phone and shut your laptop. 2. Now answer this question. “What will your customer say to her friend tomorrow to recommend you, or your products and services?” Don’t respond to anyone else’s…

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What Story Are You Selling?

It feels risky to put the words story and selling side by side in the same sentence. ‘Selling’ someone on something has had a bad rap since the days of snake oil salesmen with their bogus claims, snappy taglines and half truths designed to make people buy more of the average this or that. Although…

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Tiny Markets Of Someone

Mr Ryan owned a corner shop in the tiny Dublin suburb where I grew up. It supported his family and employed his children while they studied for over 20 years. He didn’t seem to worry when yet another big supermarket opened close by. Sure, he knew some of his customers would go there for special…

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The Best Brands Are Mirrors

The genius of the ‘Dove Sketches’ campaign wasn’t that it highlighted the issues women have around body image and beauty, it was that it held a mirror up to every one of us. It tapped into our collective vulnerability on a visceral level. Brands like Dove, Instagram, Harley-Davidson, Virgin, Nike, Moleskine, Dyson, Brene Brown, Apple,…

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Make It Look Like Duarte

It’s possible to hire someone to create a slide deck in the style of Duarte for less than the hourly rate of a half decent designer. It’s no longer good enough to have technical skill in a world where a client can access a million freelancers online and hire based on price and need. Yes,…

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Want To Make And Impact? Just Add Context

The path to success is littered with great ideas that don’t fly. Even a good idea won’t catch on if people don’t see the value in it. It’s not enough to have an idea that might change everything, you have to find a way to help people buy into it. The truth is it doesn’t…

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Rethinking The Great Email Smash And Grab

The world has conditioned us from toddlerhood to understand that ‘most’ is what matters. Even a two year old instinctively knows that having just one more chocolate chip cookie than his sister is a good thing. Life teaches you that the people with the most win and so the quest for more begins pretty early…

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What If You’re Neither Closer, Faster Or Cheaper?

There was no size 12 in stock, but there were two identical black dresses showing on ‘the system’, one in the City store the other equally far away (but not there in reality as it turned out). In a world of infinite choices where faster and cheaper is two clicks away, and free overnight shipping…

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The Future Of Branding And Marketing

The great brands of the future, will be built by those who have worked hard to gain the insight that enables them to whisper “we see you” to their customers. Shouting “notice us” just doesn’t cut it anymore. Image by Palo.

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Intangibles Have A Real World Value

Once upon a time earphones were ‘functional black’, until Apple changed everything by adding a layer of meaning to what was once a commodity worth nothing more than a few dollars. By making earphones ‘accessory white’ Apple gave iPod owners a way to be noticed and to belong. The most famous roof line in the…

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