When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.Marilyn Strathern, “Improving Ratings” in European Review

In the face of the current complex business environment, most businesses strive to seek the simplified so that they can gain clarity and make effective decisions quickly.

It’s this desire that has produced flawed metrics like the Net Promoter Score (NPS)—a single measure that supposedly predicts business growth.¹ Despite the desire, there is no holy grail metric: The original NPS study only verified past behavior, despite claims of being able to predict future behavior; and, there is enough evidence that should make any company hesitant to use it as an indicator.²³⁴

You’re a CEO—the leader of your enterprise. You aspire to continually guide your business to ever-greater growth and profitability.

Because you’re forward thinking, your eyes are set on a long-term vision. Although your board and your investors may demand continuous short-term, quarter-over-quarter improvements, you understand that making decisions to win only in the short term—when they’reat the expense of long-term relationship building—will damage your business. And as a CEO your main job is making effective decisions to help ensure the long-term sustainability of your enterprise.

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Your memories are not created through your experiences, rather they are created through the stories you tell yourself and others about those experiences.
Joshua Medcalf, Chop Wood Carry Water

Inherent in a brand is the promise to solve a need.

Customers try brands because they believe they have the potential to consistently solve a problem they face: they have the potential to make life easier.

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And he [Carl Jung] pretended, or told it in a way, as if she really had been on the moon and it had happened. And I was very rationalistically trained from school so I said indignantly, “But she imagined to be on the moon, or she dreamt it, but she wasn’t on the moon.” And he looked at me earnestly and said, “Yes she was on the moon.” Marie Louise von Franz, Matter of Heart

What we call something has more power than we realize.

It’s because words are more than just a group of symbols that just signify an object or idea: They go further than that to the point that they act as a stand in for that object or idea. In other words, they are a symbolic representation of the object or idea. And, symbols have great power because they act as a host of multiple meanings and layers of meanings within a single structure.

The symbolic power of words is why we choose the term Brand Lovers to refer to a company’s most passionate—and highest spending—customers.

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As long as I can remember, I’ve had an interest in esoteric subcultures. Early on it was comic book collecting, then Magic: The Gathering, then sleight of hand, and then cocktails and bartender culture.

All of these subcultures share a common feature: they have conventions to bring like-minded people together.

The events at these conventions usually aren’t the big draw. Instead, it’s meeting friends new and old over drinks at the newest bar that opened or a late night fourth-meal in the back of a Denny’s.

Humans have an innate desire to come together—it is one of our basic needs. And, breaking bread together is one of the strongest ways to form bonds.

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All major brands try to get their customers to be loyal to their brands. This should be called brand loyalty.

Cult Brands focus on being loyal to their customers. This should be distinguished as customer loyalty.

Do you see the difference? Continue Reading

The purpose of business—creating a customer—and your customers—at a human level—aren’t changing. 

But for many businesses, it’s time to make a change toward having a deep understanding of their true purpose and their customers.
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