What choices are you giving?

 

Can you make it simpler?

So what if you know?

When will you be applying?

Why did you say it?

Perhaps consider the truth?

What's in a name?

Are you willing to invest?

What are you denying?

What should you face?

What's so good about you?

How good can you be?

Can you include this shot?

What else is mandatory?

Do they have to believe it?

Is it compelling enough?

What did you promise?

Do you say it often enough?

How attached are you?

We are all attached to predictability. Because it gives us stability, it assures us what we assume to be true. Tomorrow will be a lot like today. That’s good. My schedule will not be disturbed. My sales will be well, predictable.

To stand out and to sell more, you need to take risks. You want to sell a lot, you want to be picked by the consumers, you need to be well, a little unpredictable. 

That’s risky. So you fall back into the line. And you still expect to sell a lot.

When do you let go?

 

How much courage do you have?

It’s interesting. Most brand owners know that they need to be different from their competitors to win. They start by creating very differentiated products. But once they start marketing and branding, they look at what everyone else is doing and they want to do exactly that. 

It’s the differentiation that made you stood out, boss. Continued differentiation will make you win. Don’t change the course now.

How much creativity do you have?

Which part of marketing is hard?

I think every brand owner, and I mean owner. Not the marketing manager working for the owner, needs to identify what is the most difficult part of marketing is to him (or her). Once you identify what is the most difficult part, you focus on it. That is, of course, if you agree with me that the most difficult part deserves the most focus.

In our experience meeting with brand owners, the biggest challenge is to guide them to see their most difficult parts. For most, it is the levels of investments they need to invest. It’s difficult to part with hard earned money. We understand. But first, you need to pay attention to that difficult part, and then you can move forward.

Do you have the right attention?

Do you know about the Streisand Effect?

I didn’t until I read it at The Economist. 

Briefly, The Streisand Effect refers to an action you take to suppress a piece of information online that in effect makes it worse and gets spread around even more than if you did nothing. 

What are you trying to hide?

Can you just listen?

Even if you disagree or you have made up your mind, it’s ok to just listen. It’s the mark of an educated man. 

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”  
– Aristotle.

How educated are you?

What miracle are you looking for?

A brand can do this. When you have a strong brand it can do that. Brand drives everything.  

Please, don’t be a brand extremist. A brand can be a powerful thing when used correctly in the right context. But branding won’t solve your business problems caused by operational issues, financial incompetency or management idiosyncrasies.

Volvptates commendat rarior vsvs (In all things moderation).

Can your brand cure you?


 

How do you market a commodity?

When cheap gets cheaper, whatever you sell eventually becomes a commodity. 

How do you sell a brand?

 

What are you good at?

Are you good because of your size or because of your skills? Then why equate how big you are to how good you are? And when choosing a business partner of any kind, should skills come before size?

Be size blind and skills sensitive when making a choice.

How big do you want to be?

Who do you know?

It’s who you know, not what you do. 

It’s who knows you, not who you know. 

The sad part is you are busy getting to know people instead of getting good at what you do. Eventually who you know and who knows you must know you are good at what you do.

What are you good at?

What does your name mean?

Having a name and a logo doesn’t mean you have a brand. When that name and logo means something to someone, then you have a brand. And the stronger that meaning is to them and the stronger the link of that meaning is to innate human impulses, the stronger your brand.

What does your logo symbolizes?

Where’s your battle field?

If you are going to equate marketing to the art of war, you are going to be missing out on a lot of things. Are the lessons there in the art of war books? Well, if you look hard enough, I am sure there are also marketing lessons in Barney the Dinosaur videos.

Seeing things through the right lenses at the right time is important. You know that already. But worth reminding.

What colour is your binoculars?