values Archives - Thoranna.is

I met a friend and former colleague the other day. She asked me what reaction I had got to my last blog post and email I sent out to my followers. The reason she asked was that someone had come to her and expressed her dislike. That person did not know how to react to my email, whose subject was: “No one wants to be an ass, do they, …?” It was clear that this person was offended by this.

My friend did ask them whether they had actually read the email, and it turns out that they did not, so there was no way they were going to get the joke – oh well…

My reaction: Sheer joy! I thought it was great! OK – please don’t get me wrong. It was not my intention to make that person feel bad in any way and I am sorry for that. However, I am very very happy when someone really hates the stuff that I do. Why? Because if someone hates it, it is more likely than not that someone completely loves it! And that is what I want.

Eenie Meenie Miney Moe

I have said it before and I’ll say it again. Marketing is all about building relationships. The stronger a relationship you* can forge the more likely people are to buy from you, buy from you again and to create more business by telling others about you. You want some people to hate you and others to love you. Let’s be realistic – no everyone is going to love you – it’s just not possible! Those that love you will not want to do business with anyone else but you, and those that don’t, well, if they hate you enough, you will definitely be talked about ;)

If everyone thinks you’re just ok, you* won’t matter enough to people for them to choose you over anyone else. If you are ok, and that one is ok and the other one is ok as well, people may as well use eenie-meenie-miney-moe to choose who they do business with. Or even worse, make their choice solely based on price – and that is when business will start to get really tought!

* please note that when I say “you” that refers to your business, product or service – but can also refer to you yourself if you are what you are marketing.

Be Pink!

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Why, oh why, do you do what you do? Have you ever asked yourself? I believe that there are better and worthier reasons for running a business than just making money. You can call me naive, but that’s the way it is. The fact is also, that businesses that stand for something more than just making money – well, they tend to make more money!

In her book, Passion Brands: Why Some Brands Are Just Gotta Have, Drive All Night For, and Tell All Your Friends About, Kate Newlin talks about what it is that makes people love certain brands. And loved brands have loyal customers that will not go elsewhere, but not only that, they spread the message and thereby create more business. It is clear from the book and its underlying research that the businesses that stand for something, have clear values and share those values and their outlook on life with their customers, those businesses reap the rewards of customer loyalty and better business.

That does not mean you can just slap something on to use for marketing. If you decide, for example, to promote the value of environmentalism, it is not enough to put one recycling bin out back and leave it at that. You need to take those values to heart, take them all the way and make them permeate everything the business does. Whitewashing won’t work. This is why it is better to actually find what matters to you, your employees and your customers and then build on that. I have a few favourite brands that have very strong values. Many of them do this really well. They may not be perfect – no one is – but they do this well. [Read more…]