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Apple Closing the Perception-Value Gap
What is a brand? Brand is a most useful asset for an organization. Brand is a short form to express a core truth and encapsulate expectations, stories, memories, and relationships that compel us to hire a service/product to do the job we want done. When the brand delivers on those expectations, we pick it again.…
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Values-Based Service is not Lip Service
Anita Roddick's The Body Shop sold lipstick. You bought something much bigger — you bought an ideal. Do you want to know why I liked her so much? In her I saw a kindred spirit. A true entrepreneur at heart, she used her business instincts and savvy to invite people to the right kind of…
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The Opposite of Fluff
The latest sales figures on tablets and smartphones, the rise of Google, and rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter in the last few years say it all –- the new paradigm is caveat venditor, or let the seller beware. In the palm of their hands your customers have the tools and the access they need…
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Amazon a Good Example of Content Strategy to Keep Business Promises
In brief: Jeff Bezos' yearly letter to Amazon shareholders is a strong example of using content to openly keep track of business promises made and kept. Every year, Amazon.com's CEO Jeff Bezos writes a letter to the company's shareholder to review how his decisions and actions affected the business. This is indeed an example of…
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Why so Many Companies Fail to Deliver on Customer Service
It is disheartening to experience such a race to the bottom. This past week I made three separate inquiries about a recent booking to American Express Travel, the last one on Twitter because I was hoping against hope… No response. From a company where I have been a loyal customer since 2002. American Express refers…
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The Most Obvious and Important Realities
In a 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, author David Foster Wallace shared with students his take on the Truth with a capital "T" and the real value of a Liberal Arts education. The most obvious and important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. The Glossary captured a…
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Connecting Talking with Doing
In short: doing is more compelling, it forces you to make sense of your logic and apply it within a real life scenario, focuses attention, encourages discipline, it makes good use of time, and you learn from it. So why is it so hard to make the connection between talking and doing? We should get…
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You Don’t Get an Award for Doing what Everyone Else is Doing
Nor you win by doing what you're told. You do well when you do right by your customers. This tweet by Rob Campbell crossed my stream tonight, right after an energizing conversation at The Bean Cast (link to the show later) with guests Chris Baccus, Executive Director of Digital for Golin Harris, and Rose Cameron,…
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The Customer is More Than Just a Customer
"In today’s environment, the customer is more than just a customer; more than just an “advocate”; she’s a channel, creating leads by recommending your product or service to her friends; she’s your partner, suggesting improvements to your distribution and supply chain; she’s your co-worker, trying out new products and giving you quick and accurate feedback."…
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You Can Walk Out Any Time
By keeping your promises. They keep you grounded into the life that feels your own, and yours alone. You can walk out any time and deliver. And, as Ben Affleck said last night at the Oscars, you can't hold grudges. It's hard, but you can't hold grudges. Yes it matters that you get up again…