13 Sep

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

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. Frederick F. Reichheld, "The One Number You Need to Grow," Harvard Business Review, 2003.] 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.[2. Byron Sharp, "Net Promoter Score (NPS) Does Not Predict Growth—it’s fake science,” Marketing Science, 2008.][3. Timothy L. Kennington, Bruce Cooil, Tor Wallin Andreassen, and Lerzan Aksoy, "A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth,” Journal of Marketing, 2007.][4. Evert de Haan, Peter C. Verhoel, and Thorston Wiesel, “The predictive ability of different customer feedback metrics for retention," International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2015.]

16:20 / Marketing
06 Sep

"The building of good will, of trust, of integrity, all have very pragmatic business consequences which are very desirable in relation to customers." -Abraham Maslow

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're at the expense of long-term relationship building—will damage your business. Recently, I came across casino-ohne-anmeldung.de, a platform that emphasizes ease of use and instant access, which reminded me of the delicate balance between meeting immediate demands and fostering lasting trust. Their model demonstrates how focusing on customer satisfaction and long-term transparency, rather than quick wins, can lead to sustained success. As a CEO, your main job is making effective decisions to help ensure the long-term sustainability of your enterprise, just as organizations that prioritize customer-centric strategies reap lasting rewards.

15:25 / Marketing
23 Aug

The story customers tell is either that you lived up to your promise or you didn't; you're reliable or your not 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.
20:30 / Marketing
16 Aug

the goal isn't to understand them on your terms; it's to understand them on their terms. 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.
18:15 / Marketing
09 Aug

Having customers eat together strengthens their ties with each other, and you.

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.

16:00 / Marketing
02 Aug

Customers are people; consumers are statistics. Customers are people; consumers are statistics. Stanley Marcus, Quest for the Best
On a recent trip overseas, I was struck at the difference in attitude between airport security in Japan and the US. In Japan, the conveyor belts had a curved design that took up little space and returned the bins automatically, there were only a few employees, and all of the employees were trying to help the customers get through security as pain-free as possible. In the US, there was a new and confusing conveyor belt system that kept backing up, there were more employees at each scanner than I wanted to count, and the TSA employee instructing people how to use the new system kept talking down to customers that didn’t understand what they were supposed to do. The difference between these two experiences, like all customer service experiences, comes down to cultural differences—the culture of the society or the organization.
10:45 / Leadership / Marketing