How Apple Succeeded, While Others Failed

When Apple designed their first store, they made sure that over half of it was dedicated to what they called, ‘solutions’. The store wasn’t stacked ceiling to floor with inventory, instead it was a wall-to-wall space of discovery. While most retailers were showing people what they had in stock, Apple was showing people what their…

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Why We Advertise

Ad spending is set to increase this year. And yet, some of the smartest and fastest growing companies on the planet elect to grow their businesses through word of mouth, by delighting their customers. So, why do we still buy banner ads? Is it because……? 1. Our products and services don’t create difference for our…

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Why Attention Is No Longer Our Scarcest Resource

If you want to capture someone’s attention you’ve got about ten seconds to convince them that you are the one. Attention spans are shrinking. People have so many demands, diversions and distractions right there in their pockets every minute of every day that it’s getting harder and harder to hold them. This is the reason…

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Value Is A Story We Want To Believe

If you’ve ever doubted that we are, as Jill Bolte Taylor says, “feeling creatures who think” just stop in the salt section of your local supermarket. Salt is as close to free as any product can get. You can buy a kilo for a dollar, or a Pink Himalayan variety for sixty times that price.…

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Is Getting More Blog Traffic Really Your Goal?

As traditional marketing (read advertising) becomes less and less effective businesses are turning to content marketing. The metric of many content marketers, as it was of advertisers is still more. How can I get more traffic to my blog? How can we turn our unique visitors into pageviews? How can we get more Facebook likes,…

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Do It Like You Mean It

I’m not sure if it was the fact that she was reading a hardback book that made me notice the woman at the back of the cafe. When was the last time you saw someone reading a hardback book? When I asked her what she was reading, she flipped it over. Self help—2014 was going…

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How To Be The Best In The World

LEGO® bricks are the best in the world. Competitors have tried to copy them over the years, but nothing comes close to a real LEGO® brick. So what’s the secret? To make a product that good you’ve got to continually obsess about design and production lines and quality control. But what makes LEGO® the best…

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The Secret Power Of Promises

Have you noticed that about a month out from Christmas people begin not to be able to promise you anything? “We’ll try to fit you in, but…you know how it is at this time of year. We can’t promise you anything.” Promises are the reason we trust the brands that we trust. Promises are the…

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The Question Your Competitors Forgot To Ask

The foundation of many businesses is a simple what. What do we serve and sell, for how much, at what profit margin? Getting stuck in ‘the what’ puts you squarely in the commodities business. If the value you create is purely tangible then you’re not giving people a reason to care about your brand, or…

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