In the marketplace of social media, personal brand ambassadors are moving centre stage. In the search for authenticity, a brand needs to have more than a single voice for the brand, it needs a series of talking heads and beating hearts to amplify your brand through waves of social media. These personal brands are not … Continue reading
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A brand with focus, embeddedness and adaptability, will win
These are the principles that define the Great Repeatable Models in business according to Chris Zook, partner at Bain and Co. (Thanks Chris!) Digging a little deeper and looking through the window of brand strategy, I decided to ponder Zook’s principles of greatness and consider the implications for brand planning and design. So here they … Continue reading
Brands that succeed in social media need to undergo a power shift
Like any change in the “go to market” strategy of a business there is an inevitable change in the alignment of power within the organisation. Just as product siloed organisations typically failed in their efforts to align themselves around customer segments, today sales and marketing executives fear to unleash themselves into the power shift required … Continue reading
Invest in brands where CEO’s care for customers
Whenever I hear people talking about the dark side of capitalism, I turn to the principles of Warren Buffet, which remind me, that the best of human nature can bring immense success. In his letters to his investors, Buffet shares that he invests in companies where CEO’s care about customers. Buffet has found the genuine … Continue reading
Position your brand to join the conversation in the marketplace
Smart brands work with trend setters and opinion leaders to position their brand to become part of the conversation in the marketplace. While 70% of people trust what they hear from peers, only 15% trust advertisers. In fact Harvard Business Review cites, the net promoter score, that is the word of mouth measure, is the … Continue reading
Mavens – finding those who carry the message of your brand
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, he talks about the spread of new ideas and behaviours, as creating a social epidemic. For marketing this means creating a viral brand, one that spreads through word of mouth and trend setting. Certainly in the post mass media era, if your brand does not have some viral … Continue reading
Our emotions are a guidance system that can take us to what we really want
For many people, emotions are a mysterious impenetrable black box over which we have little understanding. For others, emotions are fluffy gushy things. For me, I see emotions as a guidance system that can take us to what we really want. It was Charles Darwin who first understood the relationship between survival and our emotions, which … Continue reading
“Principles based capitalism for the 21st Century” as touted by Warren Buffet
Does it pay to be good? Once upon a time, business measured customer satisfaction (and some laggards still do) as the universal measure of good. A decade after this had been adopted globally, the penny finally dropped that satisfaction literally means ‘enough’, which is not good, as enough means, no more. Now business uses advocacy … Continue reading
Position yourself for success or your competitors will position you for failure
Australian economist, Craig James, once asked me, did I feel it was sustainable for a business to “opt out” and hold their ground and not pursue growth….great question, got me thinking. The answer is “to stay still is to shrink” because the world is moving around you. Customer needs are changing and competitors are constantly … Continue reading
Your face to the world is your brand
Hearts and Minds research has uncovered customers struggle with brand credibility when a brand is merely eye candy or worse still, a string of syrupy hyperboles. The face of the brand needs to be both authentic and resonant. A strong brand, like a great leader, faces the world – with a clear and robust value … Continue reading
Thought Leaders Circle 