From Bernadette Doyle’s Client Magnets newsletter
A metaphor that I often use to describe the Client Magnets approach is the image of two boys in a garden. One of them is frantically chasing after birds; the other just stands still holding out birdseed in his hand and waits. Instinctively most of us recognise that the latter will be more successful. Yet most sales and marketing techniques involve some form of chasing with the net result that prospective clients are scared away.
I linked to this paper on wicked problems the other day and Chris Corrigan commented “there’s a lot in that paper eh?”. Which is true.
I’m experimenting with marketing less and listening more
Just back from another extraordinary gathering at Medinge where the community that has produced Beyond Branding meets each summer. I was planning to keep this
Passion brands bring people together based on common interests and excitements. I’m particularly interested in ones created from the bottom up, as opposed to driven by producers concerned mainly with profit.
Interesting research from Stanford suggests that exciting brands get more trusted after making mistakes and putting them right whilst more “sincere” brands start with more trust but lose it more easily. Perhaps the sensible interpretation is that second-guessing customers can be a waste of time!
Michael Hammer’s new book, The Agenda, is about the rise of customer power. But is customer-centricity really such a good model for business and society?
Thanks to Matt Tucker at Smith Associates for telling me about What Brand Are You. It strikes me that lots of companies waste money on
The AntiBrand: blackSpot sneakers, a project by Adbusters attacks Nike directly. In doing so they take on what has become one of the great icons
We live in a world of too much marketing and too much branding. People’s faith in advertising has fallen to new lows as we simply
So the Abbey National is rebranding itself this morning. As I write this entry, they are revealing their new look, their shortened name (just “Abbey”)
Andrew Stickland writes entertainingly about coincidence correlation chance and the downsides of human’s ability to see patterns. Well spotted Jon Howard. Like Jon, I enjoyed Andrew’s ingenious idea for an
At IMC John Hagel has given a good 15 minute provocation on the topic of the attention economy. Renee Hopkins Callahan has done a good summary at Fast Company as
New Statesman – What they say and what they mean Funny and largely true Tools for White Guys who are Working for Social Change « Thought-provoking My favourite is '9.
Sam Deeks writes about leadership and congruence. Makes sense to me. The problem is a preference for avoiding the discomfort of looking at and considering changing our own behaviour. Unsurprisingly
