Tag: Branding
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Data is not the story. Nor is it marketing
Modern marketing is ever-more difficult to distinguish from data. But it is crucial that we put forth continued effort to separate them in order to best invest our resources. Here is my take on it. Marketing is the story. Multiple stories, actually! – The story about why and how you (the brand, product, team, individual,…
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Everything is Marketing. Marketing is Everything!
Everything we do and don’t do communicates something about us, our values, preferences, and personalities. It helps us build trust and social bonds to those around us, as well as to seek other places/groups where we can easily connect. This applies to individuals, small business entities, and large corporations equally. Humans evolved to communicate at…
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Listen, connect, innovate.
These three words will do wonders in EVERY relationship you have – both business and personal. As simple as it sounds, it represents a lifetime commitment of practice, patience, getting it wrong, and improving. LISTEN:It must start here. Hear the words others say as well as what they don’t say. By following the ‘anatomic rule’…
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Personalization is HUMANIZATION
YES. We are buyers, sellers, users, employees, partners, owners, influencers, interacts, and an unthinkably broad range of demographics. Most importantly, we are HUMANS We are individuals with passions, interests, dreams, hobbies, friends, people demanding things from us, challenges to navigate, and lots of ideas. Smart marketers understand the value in the first list. They build…
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Limits of Product Design
It is nearly impossible to design and build a product that will sell itself millions of times over! Great product design IS important. But Sustainable and growing revenue streams are built by stories, connections, and relationships of marketing, branding, and sales professionals. Period. Revenues can be generated without them. However, the default arena is PRICE – which is heavily slanted toward…
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Strategy and Execution
Execution is a valuable and important skill to have in business. It shows up as our history. We can easily look back at the sum of the decisions we make and assess a judgement – Did we execute well? But execution is only half (at most) of the story! Strategy and purpose are what drive our decision-making and will…
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Always Add Value
When business is booming… When things are slow… When you are absolutely confident… When you are in doubt… Find ways to add value to whatever situation you find yourself! Here are some common ways to start adding value. Listening and attention Compassion and understanding Sincere compliment Smile or tasteful humor Hope, new options, or a path forward Education or…
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Simplifying “BRANDING”
I wish I had a nickel for every time I had a conversation with a business professional about what branding is or isn’t; why it is valuable; when and how to invest in it; etc. Here is an overly simple solution for executives, owners, founders, as well as our friends and family members. Every time you see the word branding,…
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Uncertainty is the result of unclear VALUES.
Decisions are made nearly sub-consciously and are absolutely driven by emotions. Even the big decisions that are supported by mountains of data and have sweeping impact on thousands of people. Having clear values – whatever they might be – helps align information and resources to ease the decision-making process. They also help bring consistency to decisions made…
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What is Leadership in Marketing & Sales?
-It is building authentic connections with customers, clients, and users; as well as teammates, other departments, and internal competitors. – It is helping those in your sphere grow, benefit, find joy, minimize pain. – It is sharing knowledge and skills while constantly learning from others and trying new things. – It is about facilitating communication and trust. (notice that it is NOT…
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Is your business sexy?
My personal belief: confidence, consistency, something of clear value or benefit to me, and maybe a sense of humor … all without taking one’s self too seriously is #SEXY, #ALLURING, and #ATTRACTIVE. It is what I want! Though they are expressed very differently; I think it is what most people want in terms of product, service, and functionality,…
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Polishing Turds or Audience Selection
I admit it! On more than two occasions in my career, I invested massive amounts of my creative, persuasive, and story-telling energies into a product or company that I knew wasn’t going anywhere. It was torture! What separates successful #innovations isn’t how much spin or #marketing resources are applied. It is doing the challenging work to understand who can…
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Why People Love Brands
The foundation of every #Brand is psychological safety. People want to feel #heard.We want to feel #connected with others.We want to be part of a shared #future #Communicating that brand is done through #BelongingCues – subtle and authentic behaviors repeated over time that create conditions for collaboration, shared problem-solving, listening, and learning. People show love and support where they feel it reciprocated. Are you…
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Innovation and Product Life Cycle
Innovations are often mis-understood as being instant hits that immediately resonate with mass audiences and ‘virtually sell themselves’ based on their merits, coolness, or impact alone. This is NEVER the case! More accurately, all innovations follow the exact same sequence of growth as every other product. No brand, person, or idea can escape it. Following…
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Only Execute Fully-Funded Projects
A mentor talked with me about only executing fully-funded projects early in my career. I feel strong and confident every time I use this tip to make a decision about where to invest my energies. I have been burned every time I go against this methodology. As have countless others. One trick I have learned…
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To Brand Is To Be Human
Your brand is critical to attracting ideal clients/customers, defining expected quality, overall business stability, growth opportunities, and personal wealth. Meaning: without a defined brand, all the above is extraordinarily difficult. It has always been this way! By always, I refer to dating of early branding irons that go back thousands of years. More crucially, branding…
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Finding Your Marketing Sweet-spot
Marketing initiatives and strategies are as unique and diverse as humanity. There is NEVER a single best-solution for any brand, product, service, or industry. Rather, each marketing and leadership team must determine their own goals, outcomes, and objectives they wish to achieve with their efforts and find a range of nuanced tactics that serve them…
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How Do You Harness Engagement?
How do you build #engagement beyond social and digital platforms? Many consider engagement strictly as a buying signal and assign points or metrics as a form of progress towards a purchase. But there are many times when engagement is consistently very high, yet there is no opportunity to transact.– Industry Incompatibility: maybe respectful peers like…
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My 3yr Old Taught Me ALL About Engagement
Numbers can be a good reflection of our progress, but are NOT the actual target! Proof from my 3ry old:She mostly does what we ask/tell her to doShe always behaves in ways that are expected of her (tantrums ARE expected).She wants to be part of the things we do.She wants to contribute with her skills…
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Compound Interest For Marketing
Long ago, I freaked out when I read one of the first quarterly statements regarding the performance of my 401k. I was ALREADY LOOSING MONEY! Thankfully, someone slapped me out of my panic and reminded me that financial investing is all about money growing over time… as in 2, 3, even 4 decades. The same…
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Unique Value Proposition = Never-ending Revenue Stream
#Marketing, #Brand and #Sales channels ARE your unique value proposition – not merely a way to communicate it! It is time to re-design them to reflect their true power of building engagement and future-proofing your business. What exactly do I mean? Engagement is a signal that audiences trust you, your messaging, and/or your brand. Sometimes…
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Building Your Business Reputation
Ask anyone with a good reputation how they got it and you’ll likely get an answer similar to; “Doing the right thing. Even when nobody is looking, when it is not fun, or when it is difficult.” It is no surprise really, the extraordinary actors, musicians, athletes, and business professionals talk openly about how much…
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The Art of Business
Art changes the world as much as it changes the artist. It goes beyond the painting, sculpture, or poetry that are produced and connects us to our emotions. Then it brings us to a resonant frequency. The work we do every day is no different. The products we make, reports we file, and meetings we…
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What IS your Brand?
Brands are usually associated with a unique mark or logo emblazoned onto an item. But your Brand is way more than your logo. It represents a structured system of beliefs about the company, the products, the people, the customers, and the experience they can expect across all interactions. This structured system of beliefs can help reduce…
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Brand Foundation
Does your brand have a solid foundation? Does it have a structure that supports its growth both vertically and horizontally? We know how important it is to have a proper foundation for construction projects; yet often fail to consider the same consequences when it comes to our businesses. Before we can build better brands; we…
David R Frick 