Posts Tagged ‘customer engagement’
Who Is This Not For?
When we spend time thinking about growing our businesses we tend to focus on our ideal customers—the people we know we want to matter to. A great way to get really specific about who you are creating your products and services for is to think about who they are not for. The temptation in the…
Read MoreA New Book To Help You Create Ideas That Fly
I’ve spent the last two years writing, speaking and consulting about how to succeed by making your ideas resonate with the people you want to serve. My new book Meaningful: The Story Of Ideas That Fly is the culmination of that work. Our new digital landscape has spawned an entrepreneurial culture and the belief that…
Read MoreBefore You Pitch
At the end of the event a small group gathered around the presenter. He had flown in from Europe the day before and was bound to be jet lagged. Despite that he had delivered an informative and inspiring keynote about how his company—one of the most powerful brands in the world, used customer insights to…
Read MoreThe Ideal Business
Something unexpected happened while I was on the phone to my health insurer making a quick change to personal details. The operator threw me by asking if I wanted to reduce my cover (and thus, the annual premium). “No sense paying a fortune for something you don’t need.” she said. True—but when I began to…
Read MoreMost Marketing
Most marketing is designed to…. Get attention in the moment. Make people choose. Create awareness among many. Persuade people to decide. Most marketing is not designed to…. Build loyalty over time. Make people care. Create affinity with a few. Help people to feel good about their decisions. What makes your marketing unlike most marketing? Image…
Read MoreWhy We Have A Hard Time Communicating Value
No self-respecting (or smart) cafe owner would describe his drip-filter coffee as 85% boiling water. Instead he tells the origin story of the coffee beans and the slow pour-over brewing process that augments the flavour. The barista creates retail theatre while you wait in line. We all know that the line is also part of…
Read MoreThe 5 Building Blocks Of A Brand
A brand used to be an identifier, over the past seventy years it’s become so much more. Seth’s 2009 definition says it best. “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” We can agree then that…
Read MoreThe New Rules Of Winning
Just three months ago Volkswagen surpassed Toyota to become the world’s largest automaker. It’s clear that selling more cars in order to beat that competition had been the company’s goal for some time. As we’ve seen in the past week biggest doesn’t necessarily mean best. When we use shallow metrics to judge our performance we…
Read MoreHow To Make People Care About Your Product
The maître d’ had worked at the same restaurant for thirteen years and was ready for a change. He wanted to do work he was passionate about and decided to start a dog walking business—knowing that in order to succeed he needed to send a signal to prospective customers about how much their pets mattered.…
Read MoreThe Generous Marketer
Implements long-term strategies, rather than relying on short-term tactics. Puts the desires of the customer before the urgency of his business goals. Knows that mattering to his customers is the key to success. Cares about affinity, more than awareness. Notices, before asking to be noticed. Listens twice as much as he talks. Does not interrupt…
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