Marketing

11 May

The reason our stories, messaging and marketing fall flat is that the people we want to serve are not motivated by our need to be seen, to be heard or to close a sale. People—your audience, customers and clients—are motivated by their need to be seen, heard and understood. Bernadette Jiwa, The Right Story
Despite the amount of money companies spend on customer insights, most companies don’t value true insights. Insights should tell you something new; they should change the way you think. Yet, most companies reward predictable results instead of game changers.[1. Gary Klein, Seeing What Others Don’t, 2007.] On average, companies value “insights” that confirm what they’re already doing. At best, they want “insights” that only slightly modify what they’re already doing. But, are these insights really insightful?
01:24 / Inspiration / Marketing
19 Apr

Cult Branding was founded on Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. Maslow’s hierarchy offers a simple framework for understanding customer behavior: humans have inherent needs that they try to fulfill—consciously or unconsciously—in everything they do. Although Maslow’s hierarchy offers significant explanatory power, it does not provide a complete explanation of brand loyalty. A more complete explanation involves taking a step back from Maslow and understanding how humans react when something happens to them.
14:45 / Marketing
29 Mar

Every marketing company claims to have “the answer.” But, solutions to marketing problems aren’t simple 2+2=4 answers. Solutions to marketing problems are like learning acting: Sanford Meisner, one of the greatest acting teachers of the 20th century, would sometimes expel students from his class, not because they were bad actors and didn’t have a chance in the field, but because he knew he wasn’t the right teacher for them.
19:05 / Leadership / Marketing
22 Mar

What makes a theatre production great is what makes a brand great. This shouldn’t be surprising: strong brands are expressions of a core idea that their customers love; and, great shows make us fall in love with language, a character, a relationship, an idea, or pure visual beauty—something that cuts to the core of what the show is really about.
16:40 / Marketing
15 Mar

If we want to know what a business is, we have to start with its purpose. And the purpose must lie outside the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society, since a business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
At some point in the past, you developed a marketing strategy to create customers and your marketing tactics worked well and they became a standard practice. The purpose of business hasn't changed since then, but the environment has.
16:00 / Marketing
21 Dec

Authentic Branding Diagram

While revolution must be led from the top, it rarely starts at the top. The spirit of revolution already exists in the hearts and minds of motivated employees and loyal customers. It shows up in the individual stories that employees tell about the work they do. And it shows up in the individual stories that customers tell about the products they love. Often a leader need only act as a kind of managing editor, shaping the stories to align with a shared vision.Marty Neumeier[1. Marty Neumeier, The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation, 2008.]

Despite what many agencies still claim, brands aren’t logos or taglines and they can’t be made or changed with a single ad campaign.

A brand is a living entity with three elements: vision, culture, and customer. These elements influence each other and collectively create a perception about the company. That perception is the brand.

There’s more than one way to create a brand. But, we think there’s only one way to create a brand that will be relevant now and in the future. And, that’s creating an Authentic Brand.

17:42 / Leadership / Marketing