Astonish Your Customer(s)

Sell to an existing 'Tribe'

Which is easier?

a) Listening to and creating a product for an existing tribe

B) Creating a product and then finding a tribe for it

Apple stores get more visitors in a quarter than all the Disney properties in a 12 month period.

Listen to the Apple tribe, find out what it wants and give it to them.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Dream Bigger

"There’s one story that Carmine Gallo thinks will sum up Steve Jobs’ career at Apple. 

An executive who had the job of reinventing the Disney Store once called up Jobs and asked for advice.  Steve’s advice? 

Dream bigger. 

I think that’s the best advice he would give us today and the advice he will continue to offer to Apple as its Chairman.  See genius in your craziness, believe in yourself, believe in your vision, and be constantly prepared to defend those ideas."

TY: Carmine Gallo 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Career Lessons from David Ogilvy

Career Lessons from the Father of Advertising

By Chris Prentice

David Ogilvy, the "father of advertising," would be turning 100 this month if he were still alive. Though Ogilvy died in 1999, the advertising and career advice he gives in his 1963 classic, Confessions of an Advertising Man, still stands up today.  For example, Ogilvy discovered that little brands can compete with big brands by acting like them.  When Ogilvy opened his shop in 1948, it was long before the days of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, now owned by WPP Group Plc, and a leader in the industry. To make ends meet, the agency worked on mostly small accounts such as Wedgewood, Hathaway shirts and Schweppes.  In a risk few others would take, Ogilvy dedicated the entire media spend of these accounts to just one magazine, The New Yorker. By doing so, he brought small brands up to the level of larger ones by acting like them. These campaigns made Ogilvy one of the most recognized names in the ad business. Think big and act big when building your campaigns -- and your career. O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

 

Don't worry so much about a big launch day

It looks good in the news but almost all the mega-hits (Starbucks, NetFlix, Jet Blue, Amazon, facebook, Nike, IBM, Sam Adams, Burt's Bees) didn't start out that way.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

TY: Seth Godin  

Be a threat

I watched the local high school basketball team the other night with a friend. The big man on the team kept catching passes at the foul line and did very little with the ball, other than pass to a teammate - never turned to face the basket, nor looked to shoot, nor dribbled to the basket.

My friend started yelling at the big man when he caught the ball, "Be a Threat!" 

What a great mantra for marketers, "Be a threat".

Be a threat to your competitors, the status quo (in all its forms). 

How could you and our brand be a threat - follow one or more of the paths used by Apple. Apple didn't invent these methods, they just utilize them routinely and fearlessly. 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Be like APPLE

1. Have an inspiring and crystal-clear reason-for-being that transcends the product (celebrates the individualists, the rule breakers, the pioneer because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do)
2. Break (hard) with the conventional wisdom of your industry (see below)
3. Celebrate & fight for a very specific audience (even if it is niche at the start) 
4. Eat your young (killed the Mini when it was best selling iPod)
5. If you come into a huge & highly competitive market late - Wow 'em (iPhone, iPod)
6. Launch im-perfect products and introduce rolling improvements (limitations of original iPad) 
7. Pick fights with Goliath (Gates & Microsoft, Music industry)
8. Use a minimalist approach to packaging (product exterior, outer cartons)
9. Make complex things intuitive and simple (device operation)  
10. Don't launch unless you know the consumer will think and say "Wow" when she holds & uses product 
11. Use multiple layers of design to delight shoppers and users (when you have a product in your pocket or hand for hours everyday, your relationship with it is profound, human and emotional)
12. Be aware of, steal and apply ideas from others (a. "Think Different" campaign/positioning that relaunched company inspired by Nike; b. Wanted the Apple II to be the first personal computer people used in their homes, so sought inspiration in the kitchen appliance aisle at Macy's; c. Used Ritz Carlton operating model and concierge service to create Apple Stores )
13. Scratch your own itch (create products for yourself because you are your audience; be idea led rather than consumer led)
14. Everything is marketing and all must reinforce one another (core product, individual elements of core product like ear buds, customer support, outer carton of products, store employee attire, video tutorials, way you answer the phone, etc.)
15. Create advertisements that actually sell the features and benefits of the product (iPad)
16. Say "No" to most ideas, even if they are great, if the idea is a distraction or off course 
17. Kill failures fast (Cube) 
18. Hire people that are genuinely passionate about the mission; who have a track record of meaningful accomplishment; diverse skill sets 
19. Solve problems (Genius Bar)
20. Charge a premium price and reap high margins (see above)  
21. Set and maintain very high standards and then raise the standard (see above) 
22. Listen to your employees who interface with people who use your product (Apple store employees & Genius Bar)

This is my take from what I have read and observed about Apple over the years. For a more expansive and better view of Apple, read this article from Fast Company magazine.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

(re)Align - Never invest ahead of the learning

P&Gs Align brand team was developing a probiotic pill whose daily use could alleviate the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (30 million sufferers in U.S.) The idea was brimming with disruptive potential. A pressing problem with no adequate solutions. "The team stair-stepped to market, never investing ahead of learning." P&Gs Align group reframed its approach to one that was more "invest a little, learn a lot." Instead of trying to come up with a definitive answer about Align's potential, members of the brand team identified which assumptions would have to be true to create a business about which P&G could get excited. Two questions they zeroed in on: Would doctors promote the solution? Would consumers take the probiotic every day? "The training helped us narrow down to the critical things we had to answer before we and management were comfortable moving on to the next step."

Instead of putting all their eggs in the shelf-life basket, the Align group decided to offer the product on the Web as an over-the-counter supplement. P&G didn't invest big in advertising. Rather, its existing pharmaceutical sales force promoted the product to doctors in three cities. By selling to consumers online and being able to track sales histories, P&G was able to learn whether consumers were trying Align and repurchasing. "The most surprising thing was how word of mouth spread." "We were only [focusing] in three cities, and in four months we had online sales in 49 states."

Borrowing from birth control packaging, the P&G group created an Align blister pack with days of the week on it to remind consumers to take the pill every day. 

The team talked to people taking the product. They videotaped consumers' touching stories. Some of the stories were amazing. These interviews would come in handy later.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

Creating or Finding a perfect storm

Seth Godin talks about how Halloween became the monster event, seemingly all by itself, rather than as an orchestrated marketing strategy by some monolithic entity. 

He says, "You can't make a perfect storm, but you can find one". 

To me, Seth is saying that you should stop with the angst over trying to create the new or create an audience for your new thing.

Instead, find the audience that has already formed, will be there year after year, is always open to new, bigger, better ideas and give them what they might want.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

Who is worth listening to

Is it the loyalists, the screamers, the complainers, the vocal fans, the silent fans, the professional critics, the amateur critics, the competitor's customers, the uninitiated, the lapsed users, the heavy users, the idiots, the geniuses, the accountants, the President, the bloggers, Oprah, Martha? All of the above? Prioritize the different groups? None of the above? 

Who will give you the best advise?

The best answer may be a combination of inputs from Bob Hoffman of Hoffman & Lewis and Seth Godin. 

Seth says "listen to your "Sneezers" - the people who tell the most people about you (good or bad). Listen to the people who thrive on sharing your good work with others. If you delight these people, you grow. " 

But what if you are just starting out and/or you don't have sneezers?

Find the people who sneeze about products similar to yours and see what they think of you. 

Bob Hoffman thinks that appealing to the heavy/high yield user is the key. Given their knowledge and use products in that category, they pay the most attention and are the de facto experts in the category. Also, it is the brands that attract the most heavy/high yield users that dominate a category.  

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Value or Volume

Polly LaBarre, co-author of the fantastically insightful and educational book, "Mavericks At Work", asks this important question that should be constantly posed by any brand steward. 

How do you grow in ways that increases VALUE, not just volume?

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.