Motivating People To Buy

Imagine you have taken your children on a day trip to the seaside. It’s the perfect day, the sun is shining, the waves are lapping the shore and you’re having a day that you’ll never forget. There is a new gelato shop across the street selling home made ices at $5 a scoop. Clearly as…

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Where A Sale Begins

The sale of the first GoPro camera didn’t begin when the customer walked through the retailer’s door. It didn’t even begin with the huddle of engineers in the tiny innovation department at the factory. The first sale began in the lineup, as the surfers waited to catch a wave. A marketer’s story typically starts with…

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The New Story Of Value

Jen is a passionate entrepreneur who has been working on her project for over three years. This project is Jen’s baby—she lives and breathes it. You know the feeling. Jen was finally at the stage of trademarking her company internationally, and because she wanted to do things right she engaged a lawyer to file the…

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10 Brand Storytelling Lessons In 2 Minutes

Take two minutes to watch this advert from IKEA. Those two minutes are guaranteed to change how you think about marketing your business. This video is more than just advertising designed to sell something—it’s a home run in brand storytelling. Ten things IKEA did to make their story great 1. Understood their customer’s worldview. They…

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Clever Marketing

Do you remember those TV ads that succeeded in interrupting or engaging us for sixty seconds? That’s what we used to call clever marketing. Today, clever marketing is no longer about creating the best advertising campaign, it’s about understanding your customer’s worldview and how they want to feel—then delivering on that. Clever marketing creates value…

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The Story Behind Your Metrics

Lines out the door. An email list that is growing at breakneck speed. Dozens of five star reviews on Yelp. More users, subscribers or members all adding to the value of your platform. These are the stuff entrepreneurial dreams are made of. Measuring growth and how it happens feels important. But ‘more’ isn’t the only…

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Who Will This Matter To?

Conventional innovation and marketing wisdom reminds us not to come up with good ideas for products or services to sell, but to solve problems instead. People need to eat, but don’t have time to cook, so open a cafe or design a new food processor with an extra chopping function. The result is six ‘me…

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Sorry: Easy To Say, Not So Easy To Do

The assistant serving at the counter apologised for the long wait, then for not having received the order and finally for having no change. The cycle continued with every customer she served. There was a sorry for the wrong order given and one for the fact that the croissants hadn’t arrived that morning. And with…

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Satisfaction Vs. Sentiment

Have you ever filled in one of those, ‘we value your feedback’ customer satisfaction surveys at the end of a meal or a service call? Perhaps you have used them to ask customers to rate your service? The theory being that satisfied customers are the end game. Deliver on expectations and people will surely come…

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The Most Important Marketing We Do

Do you remember that time when the popular kid pushed you back into line and told you to and wait to be picked, or the day when your teacher told you not to speak up? Will you ever forget the moment your boss told you that you should suck it up, or the night when…

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