Blog
Businesses That Matter Reward Loyalty in Ways That Matter
Add a meaningful dimension to your loyalty offering to make it matter more to your best customers, your business, and the world. Your most loyal customers are no doubt financially important to you. But, is your loyalty program just a transactional system, or is it also a rewarding hug for the people loyal to your business? In other words, does your loyalty program have both an ROI and an ROM (return on meaning)? Something for Nothing Everyone loves to be rewarded for being a good customer. Points and perks are powerful ways to say “thank you”. The strongest loyalty programs...
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Feelings Are the New Values in Workplaces That Matter
Aligning employees, getting them engaged, and creating a workplace that people not only love to work in, but strive to get a place in, is the “holy grail” for many companies. And with good reason. Without a workplace that people find gratifying, a company runs the risk of having employees working at cross purposes, working at half speed, and spending more time looking for a new job than doing their current job. In our “Meaningful Workplace” paper we talk about the need for companies to change the way they reach out to employees in the age of meaning. No doubt, your...
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Are We Really In The Age Of Meaning?
In our white paper, The Age Of Meaning, we explore the challenges and opportunities this new era presents to business. Referring to economist Umair Haque’s contention that we’ve left the “age of opulence” – a time of hyper-consumerism based on the mantra of “bigger, faster, cheaper, now” – we make the point that the age of meaning didn’t suddenly appear. There was no “Breaking News” story, no Twitter trending topic, and no planned downtime for a total system upgrade. It crept up on us, through current events that jarred our...
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Survey Shows CMOs Starting to Recognize the Need to Matter
IBM regularly surveys CMOs to identify trends. A recent Forbes blog post by consultant Avi Dan reports an interesting finding from the latest survey. The traditional marketing funnel is now a series of loops, as people turn to the many new options for learning about, and being influenced about, a product or service selection. In this environment, purchase decision making changes dramatically. More and more factors are considered, and more and more of them become “deal breakers”. Today, the final cut will come down to the businesses, products, services and brands that have good...
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C-Suite Confusion, Fear and Disagreement
It’s little wonder someone like musician David Carroll was inspired to produce a music video – that went viral – about United Airlines’s cavalier attitude toward him when he complained about how they badly damaged his guitar in transport. “United Breaks Guitars” – cited in an excellent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit – was a wake up call to United. But its point about the importance of responsive customer service in the on-line age doesn’t seem to have penetrated the business world as yet. As the infographic summarizes,...
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This is a Time of Positive, Constructive and Gratifying Change…
We published a white paper on The Age of Meaning, in which we review the many implications this new era holds for business leaders. Here we’d like to explore our claim that, “This is a time of positive, constructive and gratifying change…”. Positive change Why do we see this as a time of “positive” change? Because the thrust of this change is well-intentioned and seeks nothing less than to make this world a better place. Customers and employees seek out businesses that care about, and act responsibly about, environmental, social and workplace issues....
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Creating a Presence That Matters, Silo by Silo
Hugh Macleod makes the point that many companies diminish the impact of their overall presence by a creating fragmented experience across numerous, uncoordinated silos. In his cartoon, Hugh refers to communication channels, but each of these silos are often multiplied by other silos within companies (e.g. products, divisions, etc.). Regardless, each “silo owner” has their own “strategy”, which in the absence of an overall brand strategy they understand and respect , is whatever they think will work best to reach their short-term goals. Far better that your business...
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“We Cannot Solve Our Problems With the Same Thinking We Used to Create them.” ~Albert Einstein
One of the challenges of modern business is to get people engaged, motivated and gratified to either work for you, or do business with you. For numerous reasons, people (formerly known as employees and customers) are more demanding of whom they work for, what they buy and whom they buy from. This sea-change of popular attitude, beliefs and behaviors have caught many businesses by surprise. Why? Because they haven’t begun to adapt their way of doing business to the reality of how people think, feel and act in this, The Age of Meaning This is a critical time for business. It’s a...
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Why What’s “Under the Hood” Matters Less These Days
These two photos were recently featured on a blog we came across, and vividly reminded us about how technology is disappearing from view and being replaced by other purchasing criteria. On the top left, a Mercedes from 1982; top right a recent Mercedes concept car. On bottom left, Apple II from 1977; bottom right, 2012 Apple Retina MacBook Pro. From heavy industry to high tech, progressive and confident manufacturers are literally hiding the “technological guts” of their machines and devices. Once the heroes of marketing, turbo chargers and CPUs are now relegated to powering...
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Finding a New Place on the Spectrum of “Wow”
Many clients say they want to create a feeling of “wow.” But, there is a spectrum of wow experiences, and it is important to find the right place on that spectrum for your business, product or service. On one end is the, “OMG, I couldn’t believe it, it was sooooo cooooool” kind of wow. This is a fun sort of wow and best experienced in person. However, “OMG wows” tend to be momentary in nature; the power of the experience, while intense in the moment, fades quickly away. Also, it is very hard to convey the full feeling of that kind of wow to other...
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Irritating Ads Give Way to Conversations That Matter
For too long, marketers have relied on TV ads to create “awareness” for their products and services. Relying on the ideas of “impact” and “frequency,” the most aggressive TV ad marketers have proved so irritating that people reached for the remote, bought TiVos, or simply stop watching television. Today smart businesses are recognizing that the most effective way of getting people to know about, try and buy their products and services is through word of mouth. And the most effective word of mouth – be it delivered through social media or through...
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Schools That Matter Truly Matter to Parents
With the state of education sparking parental fears and a plethora of schooling options prompting parental confusion and anxiety, smart schools are looking for ways they can matter more to parents. Of course, kids are the primary “business” of educators, but every learning institution needs to reach out and convince parents that their school is the best option. The secret lies in taking all the good that happens within your school and transforming that into thoughts that will prove personally relevant and emotionally important to parents – given their mindset, concerns and...
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Is Your Brand a Noun or a Verb?
“I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process—an integral function of the universe.” – Buckminster Fuller Many brands feel like nouns. They are simply static “things” that are devoid of feeling and meaning. But then there are brands that are clearly verbs. They are about action, moving forward and changing the status quo. They help people create meaning through their engaging and generous actions and behavior. They are evolutionary processes that help people advance, achieve more and find greater satisfaction. As such, they become an...
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Beyond Identity: Achieving a Presence That Matters
A new product or service is ready to be launched. A logo, a set of colors and a design look and feel are decided. A brand guidelines PDF is published. And, for many people, a brand has been established. But for products and services to survive in today’s world, much more needs to be done. In today’s world, branded products and services need to go beyond establishing an identity and create a presence that truly matters. Going beyond brand guidelines, they need to take on a presence-defining behavior that engages, enchants and gratifies people – by linking what the brand does...
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“Why?” Is A Good Question. “Why Is That Good?” Is A Better One
Seth Godin recently posted about the value of asking “why?”. He points out that “because I said so” is not a valid answer. This reminded us of the question we’re always asking our clients, “why is that good?” Our question comes from the experience of hearing business people talk about their offerings using the superficial and meaningless mumbo-jumbo of jargon. To help them get below the surface – and to uncover the meaning that lies beyond the jargon – we ask them repeatedly, “why is that good?”. For example, “Why is it...
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