Continuing my series of answering questions sent in by you, this week’s question asks about the all–important values of an organisation. We recently came up with a set of values and rolled them out to everyone in the business. We even have them up on posters around the office but I still...
Continuing my series of answering questions sent in by you, this week’s question asks about the intersection of sales and customer service. Our customers are reluctant to switch over from dealing with their salesperson to customer service. How can we get them to deal with customer service? To bring a customer centric approach...
Continuing my series of answering questions sent in by you, this week’s question asks about brand management. How can a small company manage a brand effectively and economically given the shortage of manpower in lean-running SMEs like mine? It seems a huge task. (Brand management as I see it is maintaining...
In the first of what I hope will be lots of great questions, here is one about how to handle brand when a company splits in two. Due to circumstances beyond our control our business is being split in two. How do we handle the brand which has become well known...
I’m going to make it short and sweet this week. I’ve recently had a number of conversations with people where my brand advice to them ended with the following statement: Everyone is not your customer. It should be obvious and some companies do get it. Too many don’t. There are plenty of...
I’ve been thinking about, working with and generally immersing myself in what it takes to build a brand for many years now and I’ve always had an internal war going on about which is more important – skill or will. Not that it’s a contest, because in truth you do need...
PART 1 Where does your customer’s experience start? When they walk into your store or wander into your website? When they talk to a sales person? When they go searching for something on Google? When they see or hear your ad? When they use your products or services? Sure these are all...
There are plenty of things your organisation does that builds your brand. There is also a pretty long list of things only you care about and which do virtually nothing to build your brand. High on that list (if not at the top) is what I have come to think of...
Everyone in business has to form partnerships of one kind or another. Sometimes they are a massive joint venture, sometimes they support operations, and sometimes they are just obvious marketing ploys wrapped up in a partnership bow. Like the one highlighted in a recent Oliver Burkeman article. It seems hotelier Marriot has...
In 1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott wrote a book called Flatland. I’ve always loved the analogy of that book and recently was reminded of it during a RadioLab podcast. Nothing is more dangerous to a business or a brand than stagnant thinking or being mired in the same whats and hows forever. In...