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This idea created what will probably always be the third-worst workshop I have ever been involved in (I might be tempted to write about the other two another day). We'd been asked to work with another consultancy, who were leading this session but not open to collaboration. The most senior of them dramatically introduced a new technique that everybody in the room had heard of: laddering. "It's important we do this, because we are ambitious for you" (inward groans) "and we wan

I've seen a fair bit of chat recently about differentiation, distinctiveness and uniqueness. Some of it falls into the 'angels dancing on the head of a pin' category, but one comment stood out, because I think it is bad advice. "Don't be better , be the only " was the gist of it. I couldn't agree less. (Unless, perhaps, it's for a brand looking to enter a market or sector.) The concept of the USP was first put forward in 1961, and it's been misleading people ever since. Perha

A long time ago, I joined an advertising agency and found that the media and creative strategy on one of my to-be accounts had already been signed off. Worse, the commercial had already been shot. The Agency should have been. Our client’s brand was a weak No. 2 in the market. To close the gap, the Agency had developed a commercial that was full of “category cues”. It said all the right things. It was beautifully written and produced. It tugged all the right heartstrings. Cons

Bain & Co, among others, tell us that 90% of B2B buyers start any submissions process with three potential vendors in mind. It’s known as the Day One List, and it’s critical. Because 86% of decisions to buy go to one of those three. It doesn’t matter what sector, or how complex the product/service is, that’s what happens. If you’re not on that List, your chances of success are small. And how do you get onto the List? Bain give three factors: (1) the buyer has personal experie

Yesterday, I received another email from someone promising to transform my business development through an AI model his company had...

"Marketing" begins with the word "market". So should every brand strategy, advertising campaign and new product or service development....

"The secret of success is constancy to purpose" (Benjamin Disraeli). Ah, yes, but..."The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"...

Every project we've worked on has, obviously, involved some degree of change. Of all the factors in managing change successfully, I think...

https://www.linkedin.com/company/2356344/admin/page-posts/published/ There have been some great articles recently talking about the...

Remember when ‘best practice’ ended up being far from best? Because everybody started to follow the same path, and of course landed at...

If you're not the former, you'll be the latter . And being undervalued is dangerous territory for any business, any brand, or any...

Companies should have only one core value

That's not as negative as it might sound. Some of the strongest brands have built their position through opposition: "We're No. 2 - we...

You know all that stuff about "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it"? It's not true. You need to be able to describe...

Of all the lessons to be learned from the Covid pandemic, the most brutal, and the most enduring, are about resilience. Most...

More than 20 years ago, I was leading a team making a crunch presentation to a client's leadership team. The client was very much a...

That was a phrase I used to hear as a very young - and extremely fortunate - account manager in what I still believe to be the best...

l was delighted to be invited to co-host an event recently, brilliantly called "How to be a raspberry in a sea of vanilla." The people...