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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The Marketing Disconnect

Potential customers have unlimited choices and are in no rush to make a decision. You on the other hand, need customers to choose your product or service, and to do it in the quickest time frame possible. It would be easy to believe that because you need more people to choose your product today, you…

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The Most Important Lens We Have

As business owners and team leaders we view our businesses through various lenses. We have a financial lens, a success lens, a marketing lens, a service lens and on and on depending on how complex our organisation is. We measure our performance in a hundred different ways, often neglecting the most significant metric of all—customer…

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Questioning The Questions—The Truth About Your Data

You’ve probably been on one of those calls to a service provider where having pressed, one, then two, then one again and being on hold for fifteen minutes you finally get to speak to a human being. Sadly, the undervalued team member at the call centre is charged with doing his best to troubleshoot his…

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The Secrets To Consistent Marketing

Consistent marketing… Demonstrates a clear understanding about who the product (and thus the marketing) is for. Focuses on the change being created for the customer rather than on what is being sold. Aligns with and reinforces the company’s purpose beyond a single bottom line. Communicates love for and to the customer. Doesn’t feel like marketing.…

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The Characteristics Of Beloved Brands

Earlier this week Bob Lefsetz wrote the following line in a post about Elon Musk; “We know greatness when we see it, we clamor for it. We want to get closer to it.” We also want to emulate it—to understand the qualities and characteristics that elevate certain leaders, businesses and brands above the rest. Analyse…

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The Business Of Enough

There’s a tiny cafe in Midtown with room for exactly three people to stand up inside. They open from 7 until 5 on weekdays and close at 3 on weekends. The two staff working behind the counter are always smiling and engaged. They clearly love what they do. Lucid doesn’t have a website or another…

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How To Be Valued In Any Marketplace

Mike is ‘in sales’. He takes care to dress well, to tone down his tie and give a firm handshake. He begins every conversation with a prospective client by first introducing himself and then sharing his perspective about why he’s there. It’s no surprise that Mike is met with hundreds of rejections each year from…

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The Easy Way To Create A Mission And Vision Statement

There’s something beyond skill, talent, investment and resources that powers the most successful companies, and that’s a clear sense of where they are going and why. When you have a compass it’s not only easier to get to where you want to go, it’s also possible to take people with you. I’ve written previously about…

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The Gap Between Saying And Doing

You will have seen this image of a goldfish making a courageous leap from his bowl on countless websites. It’s meant to convey a message about a company that’s not afraid to challenge the status quo, of course it’s now so ubiquitous, it does exactly the opposite. Nobody in the marketing department got fired for…

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