Dream! Explore! Break the rules and push the edges!

My best ideas typically pop out of nowhere while showering or in the middle of the night. Yet some of my worst ideas get puked out on the conference room table. Gather your team and get some fresh air. It’s amazing how thoughts can flow when you feel the sun on your face and do something different.

Sure the economy is tough. It’s tough for everyone.

However, relationship building is critical when you are attempting to build a network of customers that are loyal. Not only are they loyal but they become your brand advocates or “raving fans”. This allows you to tap into their sphere of influence at no cost yet you will reap the benefits.

It’s really very simple. When you sell a luxury product, your market is not very large, period. This means you must ensure that your marketing dollars are spent engaging people who have the ability to even buy your product in the first place.

Take your time, cultivate and talk to the right people.

One nurtured customer could easily turn into a sea of raving fans..

Read Article: The Importance of Brand Heritage

The title is a bit vague, but read on and you will find clarity for certain.

There is no doubt that Social Media has taken the internet world and overall communication by storm.   The amazing communication breakthroughs we see taking place everyday are truly remarkable and improving at an incredible rate.  Seems glaringly obvious why everyone would jump on the bandwagon.   We truly live in an amazing time, don’t you think?

Let’s take a little stroll south of the border for a moment.

Have you ever been to any number of tourist beaches in Mexico?  Have you ever been able to enjoy some relaxtion without getting hassled to buy a plate or some genuine Chanel sunglasses.  I swear.. they are real….  Perhaps your name on a piece of rice (very useful to have around)?

Now, we have Social Media and a Mexican beach.  WTF?

Here’s the deal.  Social Media handled poorly is very similar to the “sales people” on the beach.  They are relentless in their approach.  You could be gazing into your loved ones eyes (sucking face) and they will gladly interrupt you to see if you want what they are selling.  They don’t speak the same language and don’t even care if you have a need for their product.  Showing value is not on their list of priorities.  It is strictly a numbers game for them.  They know that if they approach enough people they will likely get a sale.  Pretty simple and elegant in some ways, but completely annoying and horrible for building relationships.

This exact approach is sweeping Social Media like a virus.  People are constantly trying to sell, up-sell, side-sell… you get the point.  They are not speaking the same language.  They are not providing value.  They are not sharing with the intent to engage in a conversation.  They are simply looking for numbers in hopes to get a sale.  If you are looking for numbers then be transparent about it.  Don’t even bother throwing in a worthless post about your weekend because you simply appear less authentic.  Be yourself and live up to your call center mentality.

However, if you truly want to create something worth spending all that time tweeting and posting about then shake their hands in the virtual world and mean it.  You don’t need 1 million friends or fans if you are using Social Media the way it is intended and most useful to you and those in your network.

Adios.

If you know me personally you are likely to subscribe to the fact that I always have a point to make about something.

So here we go:

Attention: Business owners!

The economy is bad and has been bad for quite sometime. It’s no surprise and certainly not something you haven’t felt deeply. However, I was hoping to see it actually create more change, shift, innovation, etc., than it has. Let’s stop the marketer jargon of labeling it with “change” and “innovation” for a moment and go with this:

Hit the damn pedal on the right. If you don’t someone else will. You will be left in the dust with no one to blame.

Crush it or get smoked!

Sound harsh? Why? How could this be harsh. Businesses have had plenty of time by now to see what may be the End of Days, yet they are still paralyzed. I am not saying the current state of affairs is easy. Was it easy when you started your business? Was it easy to hire that first employee or signed your life away on that small business loan you personally guaranteed? Of course not. You are used to discomfort. In fact, entrepreneurs are the most uncomfortable group of yahoos you could ever hope to meet. It’s this discomfort that drives us to succeed and make a difference. Don’t let the current condition of the economy stop you from digging deep and finding solutions.

Guess what?

What you normally did, do or are thinking about doing may not ever work again. The rules are changing by the minute so grab your business by the horns and steer it in a new direction. Every business, no matter what the model is, can be redirected to a certain degree. Find your zen or whatever the hell you want to call it and get really outside the box on your thinking. Outside the box doesn’t mean you start printing a larger postcard for your mailer.

Here is an article by Seth Godin to illustrate some of the change I am referring to.

I am not advocating that everyone has the same situation or that everyone is suffering, but the status quo is what it is and it’s driving me crazy. There are businesses I see daily that could be doing so much more to move towards the BLACK it’s not even funny. Get out of the RED and get out of your mind. Go drink some tequila and enlighten yourself on the ideas that may lead to a complete reinvention of your business and more importantly, your life.

Good Luck!

Posted by Chris Brown on April 7th, 2009 in Marketing
Original Article

Rankings by Hitwise

You will never get in trouble for embracing the status quo and you will never become remarkable as well.

Return on investment is easy to measure. You put money in, you measure money out, divide and prosper.

But return on design? (Design: graphics, system engineering, user interface etc.)

Design can take money and time and guts, and what do you get in return? It turns out that the sort of return you’re getting (and hoping for) will drive the decisions you make about design.

I think there are four zones of return that are interesting to think about. I find it’s more useful to look at them as distinct states as opposed to a graduated line, because it’s easy to spend a lot of time and money on design but not move up in benefits the way you might expect. Crest might have a better package than Colgate (or the other way around, I can’t remember), but it doesn’t sell any more units…

Negative return. The local store with the boarded up window, the drooping sign and the peeling paint is watching their business suffer because they have a design that actually hurts them. Software products suffer from this ailment often. If the design actively gets in the way of the story you tell or the utility you deliver, you lose money and share.

No impact. Most design falls into this category. While aesthetically important, design in this case is just a matter of taste, not measurable revenue. You might not like the way the liquor store looks, or the label on that bottle of wine, but it’s not having any effect on sales. It’s good enough.

Positive return. We’re seeing a dramatic increase in this category. Everything from a bag of potato chips to an online web service can generate incremental sales and better utility as a result of smart design.

The whole thing. There are a few products where smart design is the product (or at least the product’s reason for being). If you’re not in love with the design of a Porsche 911, you would never consider buying it–same as an OXO peeler. The challenge of building your product around breakthrough design is that the design has to in fact be a breakthrough. And that means spending far more time or money than your competitors who are merely seeking a positive return.

Knowing where you stand and where you’re headed is critical. If you have a negative return on design, go ahead and spend enough money to get neutral, asap. But don’t spend so much that you’re overinvesting just to get to neutral. Watching a local store build an expensive but not stellar custom building is the perfect example of this mismatch.

If you’re betting the whole thing, building your service launch on design first, skimping on design is plain foolish.The Guggenheim in Bilbao would be empty if they’d merely hired a very good architect.