Dangerous Kitchen | the go-to-market authority

The HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Strategy in one illustration

2011-07-29T14:45:18Z

I was discussing the importance of “core purpose” with a client when their newest team member (a newly minted marketing MBA) piped up and argued that “The core purpose of a business is to make money.” I was gobsmacked. (Really? That’s what they’re teaching? What do you call an observation that is simultaneously obvious and [...]

Walking the gemba

2011-05-26T16:52:22Z

If customers can’t tell you what they want, how can they help you develop a differentiating strategy? By walking you through gemba. Gemba is a Japanese word for “the place where things happen.” The term comes to American companies by way of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) movement where gemba refers to the place where the [...]

Innovation gives birth to companies — not the other way around

2011-03-31T15:18:57Z

If your company yearns to innovate like a start-up, forget about it. Start-ups are no more innovative than anyone else.

The Truman Show of the marketplace

2011-03-15T18:07:09Z

Competition is a creation of buyers. It is The Truman Show of the marketplace. The buyers are the show's producers; your company is Jim Carey’s Truman.

Does your brand have a direction?

2011-03-07T17:57:52Z

Good brands last by evolving with the times. That means a good brand strategy doesn’t just position a brand at a moment in time, but establishes a direction for the brand to evolve and innovate as new competitors emerge and categories evolve. Your brand direction should be aspirational and extensible. It is not a thing [...]

Oprahfy your business

2011-02-10T20:32:03Z

Like the Oprah Winfrey Network, take your business from serving customers to leading them and you'll develop a long-term comptetive advantage that's impossible to copy.

Customers can’t tell you what they want

2011-02-02T21:51:22Z

If you’re not doing a Voice Of The Customer (VOC) project, you should. Just be careful how you use what you learn. Using VOC to benchmark how well you are meeting expectations is a fine practice — for operations. However, using VOC as input for designing new products or services is the beginning of the [...]

Definitions matter

2011-02-02T21:52:53Z

We talk to people all day long about marketing. Sometimes these conversations start off a little confusing or disconnected — like we’re talking about completely different things. So I looked it up. Wikipedia defines marketing as “the process of selling or promoting products to customers to further enhance sales.” No, that’s sales promotion. If you [...]

A lesson from the phone company

2010-10-15T15:22:07Z

Lately I’ve noticed an overabundance of smiling, sincere, over-the-top customer service. At the bank, big box stores, utilities, government offices — organizations are starting to re-learn that a huge part of their customer experience depends on the social skills of service reps. It’s all well and good, and I applaud their efforts, but these companies might [...]

“Hello, I’m _______”

2011-02-02T21:54:39Z

Positioning your product or service is probably a waste of time. First of all, it’s hard. Saying specifically and succinctly what you are means saying very generally what you are not — a difficult thing for those who talk to shareholders. That’s why taglines like The ultimate driving machine are so rare, while taglines like [...]