Design for context.
Good design is considering up front what could possibly go wrong, and designing it out. A while ago I did some work with a business that had suffered for years with excessive invoice errors. To their credit, they had done a lot to eliminate the variations in their...
What can marketers learn from comics?
For no particular reason I was watching some comedy on YouTube recently, top comedians plying their trade. Great fun, but it struck me that there was a lot that we marketers can learn from the techniques that permeated all the routines I watched. Comedians may be...
The secret sauce of marketing.
The currency of marketing success starts these days with a simple word: Attention. How to get it, keep it and leverage it. In the crowded world we are in, it is the secret sauce of marketing. Every day we are assaulted by messages, millions of them, yet we...
8 reasons the opportunity for consumer goods SME’s has never been greater.
Think about it. Many domestic competitors are gone, sent to the wall by combinations of the high $A, the power of the retail duopoly to call the tune with prices and terms, house brand expansion, and poor management. Coles and Woolies have lost some of their grip as...
How to Design a winner by staying out of the way.
Few of us are designers, although most would like to think the contrary Few things get stuffed up more than design, and it is normally because a good designer was nowhere near the project. You did it yourself, or had the intern do it, the boss's wife, or you...
5 ways to avoid brand prostitution in FMCG
The primary tool used by retailers to attract customers is the discount prices that they offer on their suppliers products, largely funded by those suppliers. As you read all the literature and case studies on brand building, and reflecting on my own experience, the...
Three by four marketing equation for success.
How do you win business in a competitive world? I know for sure it is not getting any easier, but the advice on how to do, and stories of how to be rich in 15 minutes a day seem to abound. Perhaps I don't take advice well? It is pretty clear to me, after 40 years of...
The 6 ways to benefit from losing a tender
Most of the businesses I work with are medium sized, at best. Most have a significant functional capability that can deliver great value, but they often do not have the 'grunt' in other areas to get over the line with large customers. Many of them are in businesses...
What fly fishing can teach us about lead generation
When I can, I fish for trout with a dry fly in mountain streams. It can be cold, obviously very wet, frustrating, but oh the joy of the feel of a fighting trout on the end of a 2kg breaking stain line, and a light rod. Often you sneak up a stream all day and...
Why many small businesses fail with digital marketing.
Imagine you discover a compound in your kitchen that will cure cancer. You know it works because it cured your mother. That would be a really amazing feeling, to be able to make a huge difference to peoples lives, and find instant wealth at the same time. Imagine...