competition
166 posts
Success Is…
Not surprisingly there’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about winning. It’s a subject that’s never far from our minds, especially if we’re leading or building a business. Conventional wisdom dictates that someone has to come out on top, and if we believe this is true we want it to be us…
The Forgotten Power And Purpose Of Story
As business leaders and entrepreneurs, our motivations for understanding the power of story are clear—we want to create compelling narratives so more people will hear, believe and buy into our stories. We know we can use story to inform, educate, entertain, inspire and importantly, persuade people.
The Upside Of Ignoring Your Competition
In his memoir Bryan Cranston (the actor who plays Walter White in the cult drama series Breaking Bad), describes a mental shift he made about auditions twenty years ago. He and the other actors would smile politely at each other while they sweated it out waiting for their turn to audition. Every per
Creating A Sustainable Advantage
The two bookstores on Bourke Street have very different layouts, but they mostly stock similar titles. The three nearby cafes all serve eggs, porridge or toast for breakfast. Both convenience stores along the street stock the same brands of chocolate, snacks and emergency litres of milk. And the web
How To Leverage Results Based Marketing
In sales and marketing and in life we devote an extraordinary amount of time to finding the words to describe the value we create. We labour over marketing copy, taglines and slogans that will attract, persuade and entice. We get so preoccupied with ‘the marketing’ that we forget the first step in t
The Power Of The Customer’s Story
Mike, the guy who sells bus tours in Times Square doesn’t do permission marketing. He has 60 seconds to find a way to engage his prospective customer—a wary visitor in a strange city who isn’t anticipating being interrupted. Mike is competing with dozens of other street vendors. He’s also got the gi
Lessons From The Best In B2B Brand Storytelling
It’s easy to think of great examples of B2C (business-to-consumer) brand storytelling. The list of B2C companies that leverage storytelling to engage with their customers’ grows daily. The perception in many B2B (business-to-business) companies is that it’s easier to engage with customers through st
The First Rule Of Increasing Brand Awareness
Sustainable growth is the goal of every business and conventional wisdom tells us that in order to grow we need to command more attention. Ironically, when we begin thinking about how to increase brand awareness we often shift our gaze internally. We work on differentiating from our competitors. We
The 12-Word Strategic Plan
Have you ever found it difficult to plan, communicate or execute on a project, idea or strategy? This 12-word framework will help you to get clear on where you’re headed and why—enabling you to lead yourself or your team and achieve your objectives. It works for projects big and small, both personal
Consumers Don’t Just Want Better Products, They Want Better Narratives
Sixty years ago, when the world was smaller, people wanted to pay once for something and for the thing to last. We transitioned to an era where we no longer knew as much about the provenance of a product. That fact changed our perception and expectations of quality. We were a little more forgiving a
The 12-Word Business Plan
Have you ever struggled to illustrate or articulate how your business or idea creates value? This 12-word framework is the simplest way to do it. Take a look at how we could map Blue Apron’s business plan using the 12-word framework. Blue Apron’s 12-Word Business Plan OPPORTUNITY People want to eat
What Is A Strategy?
In business, we use words that are designed to help us to better understand, articulate and achieve our objectives. Often those same words end up doing exactly the opposite. ‘Strategy’ is one of those words that can tie us up in knots if we allow it to. Imagine you’re on a riverbank. The place you…
Trust Vs. Hype
Malcolm Gladwell announced his new podcast last week. Before the first episode even aired it had jumped to #2 in the iTunes charts, topping long established shows like This American Life. It’s not just Gladwell’s record for writing bestsellers that’s driving people to the podcast. It’s that we trust
The Instructions We’re Looking For
It was probably Stephen Covey’s ‘7 habits’ that got us addicted to the idea that success had a formula, one that could be pinned down by a number and executed in stages. Now we’re wired to seek it out. The headlines we see in our digital publications are proof. We are tempted by the notion…
Getting On Your Customer’s Radar
Many brands believe the biggest challenge they have is creating more brand awareness. If they could only get on the radar of potential customers then many of their problems would disappear. And yet brands like Macy’s and Ralph Lauren that have built awareness for decades are struggling to remain via
How To Reach Your Customers
Here’s how our customer’s time was spent across the various media platforms in 2015. Print 4% Radio 13% TV 36% Internet 22% Mobile 25% Here’s where we spent our dollars trying to reach them. Print 16% Radio 10% TV 39% Internet 23% Mobile 12% While we’re spending money in places where fewer of our cu
Quiet Success
Success for my parents, was having a fair day’s work to do, for a fair day’s pay. Success was having money left in your pay packet at the end of the week after the bills were paid. Success was having the wherewithal to take care of your family and contribute to your community—often in ways…
Beyond The Point Of Sale
Many marketing strategies focus on the point of sale. Most great brand stories focus on what happens before and after the point of sale. We win by considering who the customer is, and helping him to become who he wants to be. This happens by understanding his story beyond the point of sale. Image by
From Awareness To Loyalty
The purpose of your brand story and of every piece of marketing material is to move a prospective customer from awareness to loyalty. When we imagine the customer decision journey as a timeline it’s clear that we need to treat customers differently according to where they are on that journey. THE CU
The Importance Of Customer Cues
Ira’s cafe is tucked away at the bottom of a narrow city centre laneway. Without regulars who live close by Ira’s place is dependent on converting tourists and weekend shoppers into diners. Every neighbouring cafe stations a host in the small doorway waiting for passers-by to make a decision. Ira ta
