Getting amongst it. Your brand that is.

How often do you get amongst your customers? Your channel partners?

Could you say what they looked like, what they said to others as they were handling your products?

It's great to be excited about your new ideas, your new packing, TVC and service offering. You need to be excited to be able to get others excited.

But how will you get customers excited with you? First, you need them to notice and listen to you. For that, they need to trust and like you.

Rule no.1 of how to get people to like you from How Win Friends and Influence People: Become genuinely interested in other people.

Rule no.1 of developing trust - it has an inverse relationship to how much you focus on yourself rather than focus on the other person.

So, the number one rule about getting people to talk about your brand...it's not about you.

So, get amongst it and see what your customers are all about. Guaranteed you will learn a new, powerful insight about them each and every time you get amongst it.

Here's five ideas how:

• Have a bi-weekly channel partner safari - be it walking around retailers, popping in to see your partners' office or surfing some new online shopping options.
• Adopt a store - if you have 50 people in your company, with a little coaching, you can have live and direct feeds from 50 of your customers, using just your staff.
• Stroll. Stroll through where your customers live and shop.
• Become your own ethnography team. Arm a bunch of your team with cameras, notebooks, markers and a travel ticket and a juicy list of things to observe. Come back for a private screening where you share stories and artefacts. It may not be robust, but done regularly will begin to paint a real picture of your consumers.
• Be (politely) inquisitive. Next time you're shopping your category and you notice a customer buying, ask them why. It works for Richard Branson! Maybe you could invite them over for tea and biscuits with the team?

You? What ways do you get amongst it with your customers?

Back to the love...

Is it just me or have you too stopped bothering to read the articles about the changing nature of the advertising industry? Like a twisted self-introspective fairy tale, articles depict a combination of sky falling, big bad wolf coming, ark-building, fleece-chasing and the search for El-Dorado.

It's boring.

Isn't a industry which exists to help brands and people connect meant to be all about them, not us.

Call me (happily) simple.

In the words of David Ogilvy, A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself. Works for agencies too.

Stop talking about yourself. I'll try to stop talking about myself.

Let's talk about amazing people, amazing brands and what makes them great.

Always great for inspiration...http://www.lovemarks.com/ (Dettol is trending up - who would have guessed!)

Photo credit: The Chicagoist

Eleven ideas to celebrate the depression

Recently I read a statement delivered by the esteemed NY Times Economics Columnist, Paul Krugman to the ANA.

"History tells us that we should not count on any kind of recovery anytime soon," he said. "The economy is depressed because people don't want to spend."

It was reported as a pronouncement of ongoing doom and caution.

What if we keep it real and accept that people are just behaving the way they need to in order to look after themselves and their families. This is our customers adjusting as needed to live well in the future. Surely this is a good thing?

So, to celebrate our customers newly focusing on that which is important to them and responding in new and creative ways to the challenge, here are 11 ideas to help customers celebrate the depression:

1. Send your customers a surprise bonus - just because. An extra something, a discount, $10 off their bill, some ideas on how they can use your service more efficiently.
2. Use your power to help your customer. If you have large purchasing power, special relationships with suppliers or unique access to places and objects - how can you leverage this for your customers benefit?
3. Do less. Charge less. Ask your customers what they can do without to pay less.
4. Support customers' re-focused lives - what about supporting local volunteering organisations, holding a street-long open dinner party or supporting walking to school?
5. Facilitate re-training and re-employment activities - start / wrap in a re-training program at your business that supports people that may have had forcible employment changes. Help them help each other.
6. Promote the great new more financially conscious lifestyle people are living, publicly. I saw a great campaign with luscious luxe green styling with the message "saving is the new spending". How can you make your customers feel proud of their new conscious choices?
7. Spend less as an organisation. Tell people people about it and the fact that this means that you did not need to put up your charges to them.
8. Spark a 'tight-ass tuesday' dinner party idea for customers. Share recipes, images, theme ideas and social linkages to help them do it.
9. Sponsor a council to create local free events for your area.
10. Utilise your space. Is your foyer, meeting rooms or carpark unused at times - how could you share this with customers to help them achieve their goals more cost effectively?
11. Support people to get and stay engaged in their community, irrespective of their work status. A great example of this is the Innocent big knit.

All of these celebrate the reality of people being more conscious and financially responsible whilst supporting your goal of increasing awareness and loyalty.

I don't know about you...but I'm feeling ready to get out and celebrate right about now :)

You? How are you helping customers celebrate the depression. Or do you think this is unreasonably fluffy for cash-constrained marketing budgets to contemplate?

Image Credit: Life Magazine (via http://www.chrisperruna.com/category/misc/)

simple inspiration

Delving into the stack of books in the dying-to-read-when-I-make-the-time pile, I was flicking through the second Love-marks book when I came across a really powerful statement that resonates with me both as a business owner and a brand-professional.

“I am not interested in competing, I’m interested in making a contribution.”
Horst Rechelbacker – founder Aveda.

So much hype goes into watching, analysing others. Often seeking to emulate others’ successes. But the brands which have true meaning are exactly that – they focus on their meaning, purpose and customers – sod the rest. The rest can follow if they want to.

Why focus all your energy on where your energy on your competitors when you could be focusing all of your energy on where you brand and business want to be.

The most iconic brands are not revered for their competitive ability (although an important tactical advantage), they are revered for their place and contribution to people’s lives.

(4 Jan, 2009)