The Innovation Imperative | LinkedIn

The Innovation Imperative | LinkedIn Key quote: "If you want your business not to have to re-invent its market with every new product, then you want your customers to have confidence in whatever it is you do. You want customers to trust that you you are on their side. Apple, Amazon, USAA, Ally Bank - these are the kinds of companies whose customers would follow them anywhere."

Honest and open communication and trust go hand in hand.  If you are extreme in your honesty and communication it will be a force multiplier.  

To Give Your Employees Meaning, Start With Mission - Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer - HBS Faculty - Harvard Business Review

To Give Your Employees Meaning, Start With Mission - Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer - HBS Faculty - Harvard Business Review  I think inspired and passionate employees are the fuel to all other success.  I am sure the content in this article has been written many times before, but it can't be written enough.

Best Practices and Craigslist

Everyone loves best practices but just following many commonly accepted best practices you don't create greatness. Look at Craigslist.org, would a consultant come in and suggest a company create the craigslist.org experience?  My guess is no, but it is an amazing story of growth.   I tried to build this blog around what I believe are really meaningful best practices.

Why Online Retailers' New Pricing Strategy Will Backfire - Rafi Mohammed - Harvard Business Review

Why Online Retailers' New Pricing Strategy Will Backfire - Rafi Mohammed - Harvard Business Review Key quote, "When a retailer uses dynamic pricing, it's only a matter of time before those who realize they've paid significantly more than others for the same product start screaming "unfair." This is when the big problem erupts for a retailer ‘ the trust component of its brand is at risk." Every interaction is a reflection on your brand and losing trust can kill a brand. Honest and open communication is critical to keeping trust.  

Updated Word of Mouth with reasons

Updated the word of mouth principle page to add some reasons for following the principle...

Five Reasons
1. Low cost of acquisition
2.Trusted relationships have much more influence
3. Like people have like needs
4. Makes the customer feel involved in the organization
5. It is a strong measure of the health of the organization

Update to the Vision topic page

I just updated the vision page to include some reasons for creating a vision that you share with your customers.

Three Reasons For A Unified Vision Statement

1. Align your goals with the customers
2. Allows your company to focus on what will bring true success, not technologies or strategies
3. Your vision correlates to the growth and success

8 things I learned at Dell World 2012: Church of the Customer Blog

8 things I learned at Dell World 2012: Church of the Customer Blog First off I love the use of Net Promoter Score and second I think conferences are another aspect of content marketing that is interesting.  I am not sure about the ROI on a conference, but an event should definitely help build inspiration, evangelism, and word of mouth.

Is Content Marketing a Fad?

Content marketing is very popular now, but I would not be surprised to see the trend fade.  Why? Because many brands are not going to see the bang for their content marketing buck.  The reason is that in order for content marketing to be successful the content has to be engaging.  There are two ways to develop engaging content make it entertaining or have it provide value in your life.   For examples, look at RedBullUsa.com for entertaining and Home Depot for value.  Brands can provide value when they talk about things they know.  Too many brands are trying to create engaging content talking about things outside their expertise.  For instance, a grocery chain might write an article about mountain climbing.  I dont really want to read about mountain climbing from my grocery store, but I would read about recipes or how to buy the best fruit.  If a brand is going to create content outside of their expertise, it better be amazingly entertaining like Red Bull.  It is hard to develop truly entertaining content. 

The reality is that content marketing should not be a fad, it should be fundamental to a business.  It is about delivering a great customer experience, improving your offering, and introducing yourself to people.  All of those things are fundamental.  So the words "content marketing" may be mentioned less at some point in the future, but great companies will incorporate the practice into what they do.

Levers

Everyone wants to be able to pull a lever and enact change.  In fact, for many leaders lever pulling is almost an addiction.  They say, "X is not growing fast enough, do Y" or "Z is too expensive, what are you doing about it?"  The truth is, like any addiction it may feel good in the short term, but lever pulling has long term consequences.

For Brands, 2012 Is The Year Of The Story. So Who's Telling It Best? | Fast Company

For Brands, 2012 Is The Year Of The Story. So Who's Telling It Best? | Fast Company - I am glad this concept is getting so much traction.  Stories really connect the customer to the product on multiple levels.

Zynga earnings: Do the FarmVille maker’s latest troubles mark the end of the latest tech bubble? - Slate Magazine

Zynga earnings: Do the FarmVille maker’s latest troubles mark the end of the latest tech bubble? - Slate Magazine Good quote, "The major difference between today’s Internet companies and ones that were founded during the dot-com bubble of the 1990s is that modern firms believe they’re changing the world." Having and following a good vision makes a difference.

Wal-Mart Tests Same-Day Delivery - WSJ.com

Wal-Mart Tests Same-Day Delivery - WSJ.com - Great idea, but my prediction:  This isn't going work for Wal-Mart.  I see a brand/vision alignment issue here.  This is Walmart's vision, "We save people money so they can live better."  I really like that vision because it is focused on the customer and their real objectives, but it is hard for me to see how this ties to that vision unless it is executed extremely well.  

Seth's Blog: Useful and believable promises

Seth's Blog: Useful and believable promises "If your marketing isn't working, it's either because your promises aren't useful (and big) enough or we don't believe you're the one to keep them." This is so important, imagine that if your company was so honest that your customers always believed you, how much impact would your words have then?  

In all things Brand, in nothing brand (Part 2)

When I previously introduced this concept, I mentioned how important it is to focus on your real Brand.

Here are three key reasons to focus on your Brand:

• Your vision is meaningless unless it is reflected in your actions 
• Every interaction is a reflection of your organization 
• How you operate is your best marketing

You can see, your Brand is less about what you make, and much, much more about what you do.  Your brand is how you execute your vision.  

Your vision should be the same for your company and for your customers

Your vision statement for your company should be the same as it is for your customers. Why? Because what you want for your company should be in perfect alignment with what you what you want for your customer. Your company is in business to make it happen. This is probably fairly controversial in a world of vision statements where the focus is being number one or two in a market or having a PC on every desk, but here are three reasons for having a single unified vision statement: –Align your goals with your customers’ goals –Allows your company to focus on what will bring success, not technologies or tactical strategies -The size of the vision correlates to your market and growth I will go into more detail about this in the future and it will become clearer as I provide examples, but think about this for now: As a customer all other things being equal, with whom would you rather do business? The company whose vision is for you to be successful or for that company to be successful? Plus, a customer centric vision statement lets the customer know how doing business with you will affect their lives. The reality is that the most successful companies are doing this today.

What is I View The Top?

I VIEW THE TOP is a mnemonic for a collection of eleven marketing principles I developed (developed may be the wrong word, curated perhaps?) that I believe are key to both growth and long term success as an organization. Those principles are Inspiration and Passion, Vision for the Customer, In Everything Brand (in nothing brand), Evangelists, Word of Mouth, Tell Stories, Honest and Open Communication, Enemies, The Price is Worth it, Open New Markets, Perform Miracles. The goal of this website is to provide more insight on my thinking about those principles and to find relevant, topical articles that help highlight them.

In all things Brand, in nothing brand

You are probably wondering what this means. At its core it means you need to look at your vision and then define your Brand as everything related to delivering on that vision. Why the capital ‘B’ Brand and the small ‘b’ brand? Capital ‘B’ brand are all of those things that you do that are related to your vision, that is your real Brand, small ‘b’ encapsulates all of those hour long discussions you have over colors and photos and the perfect copy. There are a lot of people who will tell you those are your brand, but they are not (unless you are a creative agency). If an hour discussing colors takes you away from an hour developing your real Brand, that is wrong. Branding is a key concept to marketing and there have been many, many books written on branding. Searching Amazon.com there are over 3000 books on branding. Branding is crucial, but the most crucial aspect of branding is that everything is branding and more than that your employees, your customers, your management, your board must live your brand. Every item in this on this site is part of the brand and the key that will differentiate your company is the extent to which it is incorporated. You cannot be too extreme in implementation.