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 change you’re…

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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. We leverage story to perform valuable sales and marketing…

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The Noisy Bell And Napkin Worthiness

John Lydgate was right, “you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” And yet a huge part of our job as business leaders, entrepreneurs and product creators is to meet a standard that pleases most of the people we serve, most of the time. Feedback—the information and reactions we receive about our…

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The Story Creates The Customer

Have you ever noticed what happens at the organic cafe? As the customer places an order he asks what’s in it. This happens almost every single time. The experience, our posture and products—the story, create the customer. When we encourage people to believe something matters, we attract the kind of people who care about that…

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The New Consumer Relationship

In the days before self-service shopping and before every home had a fridge, the responsibility for daily grocery shopping fell to women. The consumer was someone who came to passively buy what was on offer. While a 1955 focus group could persuade Birdseye to make fish fingers from cod rather than herring—that was where the…

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Who Is Your Customer?

Joan works as a personal trainer at the local gym. She looks old enough to be someone’s grandma, but I don’t think she is. Unlike most women her age who live around here Joan doesn’t wear a wedding ring. She visits the same cafe for breakfast every day, but not at the same time because…

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Demographics Vs. Worldviews

It’s impossible now to presume everything about your customers just because you know their age, sex and postcode. In a digital world, that enables ever increasing possibilities and choices, people are no longer constrained by location, age, or gender, and they are not so easy to put into a box either. It’s far more helpful…

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Your Customer Is The Hero

“Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.” John Barth I know your products are beautiful. I also read on the packaging that your juice is packed full of vitamins. And anyone with an eye can see that your designs are amazing. Knowing all of the facts about how great you are and…

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