Going from project to project, idea to idea, brandname to brandname without a common thread is wasted effort.
Each and everytime you need to start from scratch.
Whereas if you had a common thread, your personal brand, behind each and everyone you can ‘leverage’ the benefit of each. Such that each can help your future success.
That way you keep building a platform which allows you to springboard higher and higher.
Just a thought.
In what could possibly be the longest title of a blog post on this blog I just wanted to iterate.
If you’re speaking, running a workshop, doing a presentation – record it!
As a default, record everything, share the best of it.
These days we have incredible leverage and you never know when that content may come in handy. A future job interview, creating a new product, teleconferencing or webinars. If you’ve done something once you may as well capture it. At the least you can watch, listen and analyse yourself to look for improvements. That alone is worth the effort.
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How to? Grab a Flip Cam, great audio and video, easy for anyone to user (even those that you volunteer).
I was reading (yet again) another article on the latest Ferrari coming out and it struck me. That this movement, the Ferrari movement, it started from somewhere. Yes there was a time before Ferrari.
And I know that sounds dead obvious but step back a second. And relook.
There was a time before Apple; before Ferrari, before Justin Bieber – and what that means is what they’ve created is entirely possible for anyone to achieve, that is, do not get intimidated by what these guys achieve, it is entirely do-able, they all started somewhere, from an idea.
Interesting note via Twitter today, @EmilyRHarris sent me a note to this press release by SEGlet it reads:
“Owners and Building Managers can now list their rooftops as available sites for leases and partnerships for solar energy, wind energy, urban agriculture and more. SEGlet automatically calculates solar radiation, wind speed and direction, and climate data about each rooftop listed so that energy and urban agriculture companies can quickly qualify the rooftops as compatible for their projects.”
I only blogged about this a couple of days ago (Rooftops are abundant) – it’s great to see ideas in action (and so quickly). It’s quite serendipitous, with so many people in the world no idea is original (really), it’s about those that move on them.
Very technical, but essentially this is what Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell all do.
They share business stories that teach lessons.
Just the same way legends have been passed down, engaging stories with lessons behind them.
And guess what? It works, presenting the knowledge in that fashion gets cut through and if the objective is message absorption is the objective they (and you) win.
Stories that get through matter, speaking above or beyond peoples capabilities just alienates them. This is the exact reason why these authors do so well.
Yes.
A purposeful approach can definitely be a marketing strategy.
Should it actively be a marketing strategy? No.
It should be a way of business and THEN (and only then!) incidentally assisting with the marketing.
Weighing up the choice between a custom built system and open source? (assuming both are available).
It makes much more business sense to go with the open source version, that way you acquire a version that has grown off the back of failure, they’ve already made all the mistakes.
Building a custom system means it’s you that make all the mistakes and inherently pay for them.
WordPress (the engine behind this very blog) is a great example, by leveraging WordPress you tap into the collective knowledge & failiings of millions of installations.
Just a thought, open source is entirely applicable in business, especially when you realise that you’re buying the failure of millions.
What can you do with rooftops?
Some people are taking a stab at putting gardens on city rooftops (awesome idea!)
But what about suburbia?
My first thought is, create a business that acquires the license to use a rooftop, acquire as many as possible.
Then use this real estate you have effectively leased for many things, maybe solar generation? (then in effect you have your own power generation company). Advertising?!? Water collection (which you then sell on). The list goes on.
What would you do?
Everyone displays elements of both.
Do you create stories (through action)?
Or do you tell stories (which inspire action)?
Stories without action mean nothing. Action without stories don’t inspire.
When people swap, change, purchase something new, that’s when change happens.
That’s when they figure out they don’t need that software, or upgrade, or maybe they do.
The key is, to realise that this is both a threat and an opportunity.
This week I’ve made the shift from PC to Mac (well at least giving it a shot). Some software and services have made the shift, others haven’t, on the flipside though I’ve acquired new software/workflows. Interestingly all my cloud (internet) based services remain – Google Docs etc.
Identify the change/tension points and look at how you can help your customers with the process (and what it means for your business). What do they do to swap to your service? But also to exit?
(Note: often a streamlined exit for your customers means they are more likely to refer you to others but to also come back, Facebook case in point not allowing exporting of data.)
Earlier this week I made my first tv appearance (as a marketing commentator) on a local show called The Ad Show.
You can give it a watch over here on TVNZ on Demand.
(Apologies if international readers can’t watch it, if you can’t please let me know.)
Thanks to Top Shelf Productions and the team behind the show for inviting me along, it was an enjoyable experience!
Great topic, classic argument, be cool instead of trying to be cool.
For a recent interview we were talking about the swing (and if there was any) that has occurred during the recession.
The biggest thing I see, is that, consumers are more assertive with their spending, before they would let minor things slide. Now though they demand more (perceived) value for their dollar, and that value isn’t always a ‘functional’ benefit, it might be the ease of use an iPhone provides rather than an Android, or the time saving of a personal finance application or the status they get from using the service (or upgrade).
It’s all about catering an experience for each of your customers, it was beforehand, but now when people are assertive spenders even moreso.
Gourmet Supermarkets did will during the recession, as people would rather indulge on an afternoon experience with friends, whereas in the past they might have eaten out. It’s not that they’re not spending, it’s that they are rewarding those companies which cater experiences that create stories. These stories create status, memories and most of all a good time.
Visit Ronald.com (as in Ronald McDonald the McDonalds character) and in the top right you’ll see this phrase.
Hang on wait. How can you expect kids to understand that? You’re right they can’t.
If you run a reading score on that it puts the reading level at 13-15 (Flesch Reading Ease 68.94). Browse the site, it’s definitely aimed at younger kids. Much younger, more 5-10.
Come on McDonalds… if you need to say it’s advertising you’ve definitely crossed the line, and you’ve even crossed the line in a capacity that even your audience aren’t fully aware they’re being marketed to….shame.
Intel were in a bit of a sticky position, they wanted to grow but as part of the value chain weren’t recognised by consumers, people couldn’t see the insides of their computers.
Thus they built the Intel Inside brand and stuck a sticker on every computer that was powered by their chips.
They poured money into marketing to help establish the brand, generate awareness and recognition.
Suddenly consumers became much more savvy and willing to discriminate based on the presence of Intel Inside.
This is a great model for businesses that operate behind the scenes and are trending towards becoming a commodity, it allows you to establish value and ensure your continual part in the value chain.
I’ve seen clothing companies do the same with fabric standards ie Gore Tex… you can be any brand but you want it to be Gore Tex.
I am constantly referring to loose frameworks which provide a model for others to try and leverage with their own ideas. The Mint.com is one I mention frequently.
In short the Mint.com model is to…
Engage with your audience tremendously well and do so in an ongoing capacity, grab as much attention from the market as you can. This is exactly what Mint.com does with their blog.
Then provide direct paths to becoming a customer from this attention, you immediately capture both sides.
1) The most amount of attention you can get from your market (and get them talking).
2) Then leverage that attention to provide a stream of customers.
It’s such a nice balance of community, attraction and ensuring business gets done.