The Best Brand Stories

The best brand stories…. Are experienced and felt. Create affinity, not simply awareness. Are perceived in micro-moments that are remembered, long after what’s pitched is forgotten. Give people ways to belong, not just reasons to choose. Are less about what the brand says and more about how the customer wants to feel. In a digital…

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What’s The Endgame?

As anyone who has ever played chess will tell a beginner, every move must have a purpose. You don’t move a piece unless you have a reason for doing so, or before you understand what the next move is likely to be, and the one after that (depending on how your opponent responds). One single…

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How Will We Get Them To Like Us?

A more important question to ask and answer is: “Why should they like us?” You can’t ask people to believe in your story without giving them something to believe in. Image by Andreas Ivarsson.

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The Difference Between Strategy And Tactics And Why You Need To Know

Imagine your business mission and vision as a mountain in the distance. Your strategy is the route map—the path you choose that’s going to take you to that mountain. Tactics are the steps you take on the journey to advance your way along that chosen path towards the mountain—thus realising your vision. MISSION AND VISION—Where…

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What Are Your Competitors Failing To Do?

Like many new mothers Jessica Alba wanted to buy non-toxic baby products, they were incredibly difficult to find information about and source, this inspired her to found The Honest Company. Dave Gilboa lost a $700 pair of glasses and couldn’t afford to replace them, his experience was the seed of an idea that became Warby…

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What Marketing Is Not: 5 Common Misconceptions

When we think and talk about, teach and practice marketing we are often working on the assumption that marketing is one or all of the following: 1. How we make people want things. 2. Tactics, communications or activities designed to get people do what we want them to do. 3. The way we sell something.…

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Five Brand Storytelling Lessons From Jamie Oliver

Who could forget how Jamie Oliver burst onto our screens in the UK almost twenty years ago? While most celebrity chefs of the day adopted the posture of the hero, showing us how to follow their rules to the letter, Jamie made aspirational cooks around the world the hero of the story by making cooking…

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Social Media: Just Because You Can, Does It Mean You Should?

To anyone who has ever paid for advertising social media seems like a marketers dream. As entrepreneurs and business leaders who want to attract more customers, it’s tempting to buy into the hype that social media is the answer to our lead generation problems. Now that we can access an audience in digital captivity, why…

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The First Rule For Making A Better Product

Do you remember a time when you went to dinner at that restaurant everyone was talking about? You probably booked the table days, if not weeks in advance and told friends how excited you were about going. When you arrived the staff were polite, you got a good table and the meal was well cooked.…

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The Reasons People Buy From You

“People tell us who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.” —Donald Draper, ‘The Summer Man,’ Mad Men, season 4 Our customer’s motivations have two things in common—they are surprisingly few and they are also universal. What’s driving your customer to buy your product…

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