These are some of his post at FB and we can learn a thing or two from him. The theme is just being unusual, thinking out of the box, or a purple cow.
It is the focus of most strategist. Do nothing exotic about your business model. Just make an outstanding unique product or ad, to be the most preferred and saleable
product in the market place
And profiting from you mistakes
1. THE BAD PEN (a recurring theme in his writings)
A bad pen in the batch can be your best teacher. It teaches you to make a better product. It can be your free consultant to improve your product and hence your company
2. The MISSING KEY
One day, Andrew Carnegie the steel business magnate found out that they could not start the factory because they could not find the KEY to the warehouse Then Andrew c ordered the
unthinkable - destroy and stop having a lock from thereon. What was the lock and key for - to prevent the 1% possibility of theft. What then was the solution: better system, better
process to stop the theft . The key could not be a bottleneck for running a multimillion project. There has to be a better way. How many times do we find bottlenecks in the business
that should not be there and stop the business. Find and remove them
3. The spotlight switch
This is about the concert of Bayonce that experienced a brown out. The team of Bayonce was prepared and anticipated this. And the concert was a success. And a PR was created:
to highlight the team of Bayonce - " Bayonce concert proceeded despite brown out" A great team, a great singer Turn a misfortune a disadvantage into a uniqueness, a shining moment, a
stand out
4. The empty table
The story is about Steve Jobs returning to Apple. Apple was on verge of collapse and bankruptcy after he was fired and other CEOs took over including Sculley, whom he recruited from
Pepsi Cola but fired him Steve looked at the list of the plethora of products And initially Steve Jobs said nothing. But he cleared the table - removed the other non performing products and
left just four. More products line: 1. Create confusion and chaos 2 Dissipate resources and management thinking and energy. 3. Destroys focus.
Application in marketing; the first 5 seconds is important. If it cant be explained in 5 seconds, then you cant sell it. If the ad cant stop the eye of the scroller in 5 seconds it cant sell.
Empty table enables focus, focus, focus
The successful billionaires are those who focus on one industry or product. Or activity. Conglomerates
are long gone So who are most successful: Warren Buffett Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg for staying focussed. Most successful ads are 7 words, some say it is 15 words. Too many tend to confuse
Again same thing: from nothing to nothing. (Pay Pal - Peter Thiel)
5. Inside out
This is reverse thinking, this is about stand out. This is about clothing Abercombie fitch Other clothing focussed on things that are visible - outside. Fitch focussed on logos and
graphics in the inside. They built identity inside and out. The bigger the logos sign the bigger the sales. Sales fettered out when they changed the strategy.
So the product must be presented what it does inside - the body, the label, not what it does outside It is one approach.
6 Lost luggage
Thsi happened to Southwest, Herb Gallagher airline One time it kep losing luggage. It could not afford that bad pr bad customer service. So Herb athered its ground crew and staff and conferred
on how to address this issue and they were able to solve this at a minimal cost. From pure team work and cooperation.
( A negative into a positive)
7. From missed call bug to an opportunity.
There was a bug that existed in a Motorola phone model. There was a buzzing sound in case there was a missed call It was a bug. Motorola did not solve this and use this bug aa a distinguishing
feature. Turning a glitch, a bug into an advantage
(disadvantage into advantage)
8. Less talk, less mistake, less talk more of mystery
This was entitled 11th KFC herb in the original post. As in Coca Cola x The secret formula. Secret missing words created intrigue and mystery in the product and makes the customer
interested. (Maybe the rationale behind Lazada mystery box)
Dont tell all. Leave something for imagination as in a strip tease show. Tease the imagination, the customer wants, and needs
9. Take ownership blames for bad product or service
Own it apologize dont hide or cover up. Customers hate lies and cover ups. Call for press con, Admit, be willing to recompense.
10 First hire - hiring for the future
Most hire for now. But Amazon in 1994 hired for the future For today in the person of Shel Kaphan. So hire for the potential: skill and leadership which will lead the company into the next decade. Your latest recruit holds the key to your future The destiny of your company lies in the hands of your latest recruit
11. Time is gold, time is precious, work on it in your business
Mark Z of Meta (FB) noticed that the magic time for the site to appear at the phone or computer is 3 seconds When it exceeds 3 seconds usage drop. Sam Walton convinced his board to invest
in satellite technology so that the Credit Card loads up in 45 seconds. This saves long quues and means say 500 customers more per day processed and multply this to 30,000 stores say $100 more sales means more revenue for the business
Its not only a legal obligation to serve your customers fast (under anti Red tape act), it is wise and sound business practice. as this example has shown
12. Make waiting time valuable (converting this into marketing tool/weapon)
Waiting increases customer annoyance and can generate bad rap for your business
Thus transform waiting time to increase customer connection:
1. In the CR put picture frames and or ads at the cubicle or at wash rooms (being practice by Alamaris)
2, Put mirrors and ads at elevator
3. Send gifts or notification to keep customers for delay in docs or other deliveries. Thus funeral packs and other freebies while waiting for interment
4. Merienda in office if the processing is taking a while or conversing with the customers
13. Selling benefits, solution to pain or highlighting gain, instead of a product
Rolex used to sell time, now it is momentous events like victories;
We used to sell plots, now its honoring memories.
Subdivision developers used to sell house and lot now its lifestyle
Resto used to sell food - now its healthy living. (As is for the foodstuff of student who was diabetic, and sold a keto diet combos for diabetics and is doing fine)
14. Smudges in products and packaging:
Ones products sold better on wrong printing of paper bags
Coca Cola smudges on its ads made the ad a standout and sold more
Starbucks write the name of the customer on the paper cups
15. Selling fantasy and the future
Thus many companies sell fantasy and the future in:
1 Games,
2. Theme parks
3. Movies
4. Toys
We love juwento and stories. That is why movies and TV are favs. And they help sell products
Many go into drugs to experience out of the world experience
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