Stand Up And Out From The Crowd

We had friends up this weekend and we visited our local ‘tourist attraction’ (yes, we do have them up round here!), The Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife and Falconry Centre , in Dinnington. It’s a great place  for all the family and one of their latest features is The Meerkat Mansion, where, yes, you’ve guessed it, there are some meerkats!

The meerkats themselves were very sweet, but that wasn’t the thing that made an impact on me. I was amazed as I watched them playing. EVERY SINGLE PERSON who came up near them sang or said something related to, or made reference to comparethemeerkat.com - and I mean ‘everyone’! Little kids, teenagers, adults and grandparents!!!!

Now, I know it doesn’t prove anything in terms of ’spend’, but if there was an ever an example of being ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’, then meerkat Aleksandr Orlov is certainly up there. He’s got films, videos, a facebook page with 647,959 ‘fans’, he ‘tweets‘ and has a ‘real’ family history!

According to a report in the Guardian, the Comparethemarket.com website is now the 4th most popular price comparison website – way ahead of it’s ranking in the low teens in a very crowded market only a couple of years ago, so it’s certainly had an effect. Interestingly, when you do ‘lead the way’, others try to ‘follow’, but not always as successfully’. Go Compare’s response, the fat opera bloke was apparently voted as the single most irritating advert of 2009 by consumers in Marketing Magazine.

Marketing is not all about ‘hype’, but part of it is certainly about getting noticed.  Mr. Orlov has certainly ’stood up and out’ – and that’s a great start. ‘Simples!’

Happy Birthday Homer!!

The Simpsons are 20 years old this week! I think they’re a great example of 3D!

What can we learn from Homer and his family? Well, rather than hold them up as great role models, I’d like to focus on the shows themselves. In the early days, the shows completely ‘broke the pattern’  – there had literally been nothing like them. The great thing is that they’ve continually built on this over time and proactively evolved with time.  Here’s producer and writer David Mirkin on that evolution.

The shows have maintained their ‘relevance’ and reflect the changes in the ‘marketplace’ – you might even argue that they don’t just ‘reflect’ it, but actually ‘influence’ it?

The key is that they lead it through innovation, creativity and the result is that America’s longest running sitcom is a ‘benchmark’ to compare others by.

I know that not everyone likes them, but that’s another characteristic of Dramatically and Demonstably Different businesses – they create ‘raving fans’, but are not necessarily to everyone’s taste.  The challenge is to create ’sufficient’ raving fans – Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge, Maddie (oops ‘Maggie’ – sorry!) (and of course ‘Santa’s Little Helper!) have done that brilliantly over the last 20 years.

Here’s to 20 more!

Free ebook – (Re)Thinking in 3D…..

I’ve written a new book! It’s all about Thinking in 3D – That means creating a business that’s 

‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different‘! 

Basically, it’s a short set of ’rants’, raves and ideas aimed at engaging, stimulating and challenging you. 

If you enjoy the blog, I’d like to think that you’ll enjoy this too. The main reason being that there will be a few bits and bobs you’ve read before here on the site – see it as ‘going back to the gym’ – you still need to work those muscles!

I’ve called it:

(re)thinking in ‘3D‘….. and the best bit is it’s FREE!

 

If you like it please send it on to others….. and let me know what you think about it too please!

You can

download it here!

Hope You Have a ’Delightful’ Christmas!

Which Tribes Work For You? Get ‘Trotting’

I was introduced to a new ‘brand’ yesterday. I’m sure for many of you, it’s not news, but Peppa Pig is awesome!!!! She attracted thousands into Sheffield yesterday to switch the Christmas lights on. Seth Godin talks about the power of Tribes, well the Peppa Pig tribe is strong and powerful, even if the vast majority of them are female and under 6!!!

The number of pink coats and bobble hats sat on top of Dads’ shoulders was amazing. OK, they may not have the specific spending power themselves, but I can’t help thinking that they have huge influence, and judging by the thousands of families wandering around the City Centre, it’s quite clear that they are not scared to use it!

Lots of other businesses seemed to be benefitting too, and that was a key learning point for me – which ‘brands’ or ‘tribes’ can you benefit from through association, or even ‘partnership’? I don’t mean just ‘hanging on’ to someone else’s ‘glory’, but a proactive win – win association.

So, a little question:

• Who are the ‘tribes’ that you should be targetting?

More importantly,

• What do they want
• How can you give it to them?

So, start sniffing around and get ‘trotting’ to find them!

Are You Dealing With Your ‘Little Ones’?

Here are two lovely examples of  ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ business cards (courtesy of the Holy Kaw website). Obviously, I’ve no experience of the latter’s services (honest), but they do ’stand out’ and suggest a forward thinking approach.

We all know that your logo isn’t your brand and your business card is not generally the thing on which buying decisions are made.

However, it can, and does, contribute to the overall ‘customer experience’ – and generally, because it tends to be given at the beginning of the ‘experience’ can make an impact (and raise expectations).

It’s a great example of the ‘little things’ that can make a difference. As ever, it’s worth pointing out that everything that your customer (or prospective customer) experiences can do one of three things:

1. - Positively reinforce your brand
2. - Negatively reinforce your brand
3. - Be ‘neutral’ – Does nothing

The challenge for us all is that as a minimum, we need to eliminate all the ‘negatives’ and then work on ways to create more ‘positives’, no matter how small.

Remember, lots of those little ‘positives’ can all add up and create that ‘1+1+1=10′ impact!

Where are your little ‘1’s?

What can you do to make them ‘add up’?

Michael Owen: Athlete, Ambassador, Icon and Embarrassing

The news that Newcastle United footballer Michael Owen has had a 32 page brochure produced to ‘introduce’ him to potential employers gobsmacked me.

If ever there was an award for a pretentious piece of marketing, then this has to be up there!

The brochure is called ‘The Athlete, The Ambassador, The Icon’ and the best bit has to be his ‘Brand Values’. There are 21 of them including ‘Fit & Healthy’, ‘Technical’ and ‘Devoted’. Tell that to the Newcastle United fans who saw him miss lots and lots of games last season!

Brand Values are not about what you say, they’re about what people ‘experience’.

I’ve nothing against Michael Owen – my problem is with the ‘marketing’ people – it’s embarrassing to call it ‘marketing’, but that’s how it will be labelled.

There’s a nice little article by Mike Norrish in the Daily Telegraph about it.

Old News is Bad News

I often suggest people ’stand in their own queues’ meaning have a look at what your customers see, hear, experience when they get in touch with you. It means ‘ringing up your own business’, ’standing in the reception or shop front’ or ‘visiting your own website’.

One of the things I see (quite often) on websites is ‘old news’. What I mean by that is, I visit the ‘news’ section of the website to find out what the company (a prospective supplier perhaps?) has been up to, and to get a feel for their businesses successes and developments before I ‘engage’ with them. It never fails to amaze me that the ‘latest news’ is months, even years old!

I visited a PR agency’s site recently and their ‘latest news’ was from January 2008!!

If they can’t do their own PR, what hope they got in doing mine? What does that say about the business – nothing’s happened in 18 months?

Of course, you don’t have to have a ‘latest news’ section, but it can show you’re moving forwards, you’re progressive, and can help highlight your successes, innovations, new ideas, developments and achievements. 

They say ‘No news is good news’, I say ‘Old News is Bad News’!

If all you’ve got is ‘old news’, I’d be tempted to get rid of the page.

A Birthday ‘Engagement’!

My friends at branding experts Purple Circle are celebrating their 18th birthday!

It’s about time they became grown ups!

They’ve come up with a great way to ‘enage’ with their clients and celebrate the anniversary.

The Purple Circle ethos has always been about having ’shed loads of ideas, and their red shed has played prominently in their branding and promotional work over the years.

As Director John Lyle explains in his blog, to ‘reverse’ the normal creative process, they’ve asked their clients to get creative this time and interpret the ’shed’ in the best way they see fit.

They’ll be posting the client ideas on shedloadsofideas.com. I think it’s a lovely way of getting clients involved, demonstrates their ‘values’ and way of doing business, and it’s a bit of fun too!

For what it’s worth, here’s my idea – Never one to miss an opportunity, it’s a shed made out of my ‘Thinking in 3D’ books!

The Negative ‘Myths’ About Business Should Be Fired!

I’m no fan of  The Apprentice. Jill watches it, so it is on in our house (even when there’s a big match on Sky!). I know it’s only TV, and it’s ‘entertainment’, but my frustration is that everything is so ’simplified’.

In last night’s episode they had to ’rebrand’ Margate. This in effect simply meant producing a poster. Branding is NOT about posters. All The Apprentice does is reinforces the myth that branding is advertising.

It might not mean much to a lot of people, but I do think  that The Apprentice reinforces a lot of  ‘old fashioned’ and ‘negative’ myths about business and leadership. Here are just a few of them:

1. selling has to be aggressive
2. leadership is about telling people what to do
3. getting on is about shafting others
4. long term relationships don’t seem to count for much
5. to be a boss, you have to be a b*Xtard

Of course business is about ‘winning’ and making money, and maybe I’m naive, but I feel it’s about long term relationships, it’s about win-win, it’s about creating a culture of forward thinking, constructive challenge and innovation. It’s also about helping those people around you excel.

I’m not knocking Sir Alan Sugar, he’s obviously been very successful and I suspect that maybe my ‘nicey nicey’ way of doing things doesn’t make great TV!

I just don’t like the messages The Apprentice sends out to people about business.

Each to their own, of course, and I’m sure if Sir Alan met me, he’d tell me ‘Andy, Your Fired!

Finally, for those who did see the programme and saw one team trying to ’sell’ Margate to the gay community, they missed a big trick – they should have renamed it Mar’gay’te (Sorry, couldn’t resist!).

Don’t Be ‘A One Night Brand’…

Here’s a great presentation from Alain Thys of Futurelab, the global marketing strategy consultancy. He suggests that we need to rethink our approach to marketing and there’s some good stuff in there – my favourite is ‘Don’t be a ‘one night’ brand’ which means develop ongoing relationships with your customers. 

He reiterates one of my key beliefs that a key driver has to be about focussing on customer ‘engagement’ to enhance those relationships. The presentation is from Slideshare, and for more information on Alain’s thoughts and views, check out his blog.

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