Brand Thinking
Authenticity
“Authentic brands don’t emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies.
They emanate from everything the company does.”
—Howard Schultz
10 traits of highly sought after designers
Great work can be found anywhere. But a relationship? A trusted partner? Those things require much more than software skills.
I’ve learned that most people are looking for the same 10 traits in every designer. Spoiler: Actually being good at design did make the list.
Cost reduce or value increase?
Again, Seth Godin is spot on:
Organizations that want to increase their metrics either invest in:
Creating more value for their customers, or
Doing just enough to keep going, but for less effort and money.
During their first decade, the core group at Amazon regularly amazed customers by investing in work that created more value. When you do that, people talk, the word spreads, growth happens.
Inevitably, particularly for public companies, it becomes easier to focus on keeping what you’ve got going, but cheaper. You may have noticed, for example, that their once legendary customer service hardly seems the same, with 6 or 7 interactions required to get an accurate and useful response.
This happens to organizations regardless of size or stature. It’s a form of entropy. Unless you’re vigilant, the apparently easy path of cost reduction will distract you from the important work of value creation.
The key question to ask in the meeting is: Are we increasing value or lowering costs?
Race to the top or race to the bottom, it’s a choice.
The best kind of self-promotion
The feeling we leave our clients and customers with (about themselves and not us) as they walk out the door is the best self-promotion money can’t buy. No amount of pleading and persuading beats the delivery of an exceptional experience that the customer wants to repeat.
~ Bernadette Jiwa from The Story of Telling
Details
The details are not the details; they make the product.
– Charles and Ray Eames
Conversational writing kicks formal writing’s ass
How often have you read website or marketing copy that uses words we’d rarely use in conversation?
Clever copy shouldn’t simply make the writer appear smart; it should make the reader feel understood. Words are free, and they are the most potent resource every one of us has access to.
This excellent article from The Story of Telling nails it! Read the full story here >