Selling the nightmare: what happens to brands with weak strategy
It must be nice to be a dentist. They are an example of what we might call a “downside industry”, whereby people hire them not so much to achieve something good, as to avoid something bad. Downside industries don’t have to sell you an exciting or aspirational future; they simply have to scare you about […]
Fit in to stand out
I have been guilty, I realise, of giving brands two conflicting pieces of advice: You should stand out You should fit in You should stand out, of course, in order to lower competitive pressure, be noticed, and claim market territory. But you should also fit in, because this enables you to borrow certain well established […]
How conformity leads to conflict
Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene Romeo & Juliet __ Human beings are copying machines. This is the central idea of “mimetic theory”, which was put forward by historian René Girard to explain the motivations of human beings, the evolution of culture, and ultimately the rise of […]
Nickelback, Starbucks, and the power of in-authenticity
Everyone agrees, apparently, that it’s good for a brand to be “authentic”. So much so that it’s become one of those overused words that people are increasingly embarrassed to use: like “engagement” or “purpose” or “millennials”. We all know authenticity is good, there’s no need to go on about it. But then again… is it? […]
You are not your product
Many projects I work on begin with this rough scenario: Company launches product – sales grow – sales start to plateau – company doesn’t know what to do next The most obvious solution in this situation is to find some sort of “hack” (generally via marketing) to restart growth, but often this isn’t a realistic […]
Know your enemy
A couple of days ago I came across a great anecdote. It concerned the skirmish that broke out in the early 1750s between an Englishman called Jonas Hanway, and the hansom cab drivers of London. Hanway’s crime was being the first umbrella user in the city. Prior to that point umbrellas had only existed in […]
Be what your customers are not
Occasionally I’ve seen it noted that the more normal, safe, and suburban someone’s life, the more gruesome and unpleasant the novels they like to read. There’s a great line in the sitcom Peep Show where socially awkward Mark thinks to himself: “Look at me; I’ve got a girlfriend. A proper girlfriend reading a best-seller about […]
How to go where your competitors can’t
Thanks to the new Netflix drama The Queen’s Gambit (and the fact that new TV shows are starting to slow to a bit of a trickle), there’s been a lot of interest in chess recently. Now in general I think chess analogies map quite poorly onto business – as do those of military and sport. People […]
Why Most Businesses Have No Strategy
All businesses have a brand. All have a product. All have people, sales, marketing, and various other building blocks which add up to “a company”. But not all – in fact very few – have a strategy. I don’t mean to say here that most businesses have bad strategies (though quite a lot do). I […]
Nike and the concept of “cultural innovation”
When I want to make a point about strategy, I often refer to a famous brand in order to do it. So does everyone of course, and because there are so few brands out there who are strategically interesting, the same names always get repeated. To be honest I always feel a bit embarrassed to […]