Mar 15, 2011
Posted on Mar 15, 2011 | 0 comments
I just got back from a ski vacation in Park City UT.
While in Park City my wife parked our rental car in a metered parking area. She didn’t realize it was a metered zone and as a result did not pay. (This was one of those areas where you have to pay a central meter box then return to your car with the receipt to put it on the dash).
When we returned to the car after lunch, we had received a “Parking Violation”.
Check this out….
What a cool way for a town to create good will for its guests. And I think this concept has a lot of potential for your business as well.
How could you “penalize” a client or employee of yours for stepping out of bounds but still create a ton of good will in the process?
Mar 7, 2011
Posted on Mar 7, 2011 | 0 comments
With today’s global and hyper-linked economy, businesses and business owners are finding it increasingly difficult to create a business model that has sustainable profitability. The simple fact is, it is simply too easy for competitors to match your point of differentiation if you rely on the standards of product innovation or increased service offerings. It is too easy to quickly and cheaply knock off a product or a service. And if you find that you have discovered a profitable niche, it won’t be long before a competitor will arrive to make it less profitable.
Part of the cause of this is of course the internet. Information about what is going on in the marketplace is moving so quickly that in many cases there is zero lag time from the launch of an innovative product to the arrival of a competitor matching its features and benefits. Should we just throw up our hands and give up?
Absolutely not.
Right now innovation is the big buzzword in the consulting circles. But the next big thing will be crafting remarkable experiences for your customers. In other words, the point of differentiation that will make one company remarkable over another company will be based on the experience the customer has with the brand, product and/or service.
This goes way beyond what is happening now. Designing amazing experiences for their customers will be a holistic approach to creating value. It will be woven into the fabric of the organization and choreographed to elicit the exact experience and subsequent emotion that is desired. The end result will be a remarkable experience that a customer will be happy to pay for.
Apple is a great example of a company that is leading the way in crafting remarkable experiences. They use extraordinary design and a passion for creating a great user experience to develop remarkable products and services. From the design of the product, to the packaging it arrives in, to the experience of using the product itself, the entire experience is well thought out. The end result is a loyal fan base willing to stand for hours in the rain to get access to the next experience the company offers.
Compare this to something like the purchase of a car. Even though the car could be a miracle of modern engineering, the experience of actually purchasing the automobile is mired in old school thinking. Even the luxury brands like Lexus and Mercedes fall shorts here.
So how do you go about creating a remarkable experience for your clients? One way to do this is to craft an amazing story that has the client in the role as the hero in journey. Using the key elements of the ancient stories of myth, you craft an epic journey of the hero from beginning through the middle to the end. By carefully considering each stage of the story you can begin to see opportunities to improve the users experience with your brand, product or service.
It does not have to be complex. Nor does it have to be elaborate and expensive to execute. But it does need to be complete. It does need to be congruent. And it does need to elicit a positive emotional response.
Think about the experience your clients have when they work with your brand. Is it remarkable? What can you do today to craft a story and experience for your clients that will separate you from your competition?
Mar 6, 2011
Posted on Mar 6, 2011 | 0 comments
Thomas Alva Edison, the great American inventor, had a little interview trick he would use to determine if someone was innovative enough to work in his idea factory. Thomas would take them to lunch and order them a bowl of soup. If they put salt in the soup before tasting it, he would not hire them.
He believed if you salted your soup before tasting it, you had too many preconceived notions and would not be a very good innovator. Are you salting your soup before tasting it?
Mar 5, 2011
Posted on Mar 5, 2011 | 0 comments
The other morning I was driving to an appointment. My route took me by one of the self storage places for folks to keep their stuff when they have too much of it.
Normally this type of business would not have caught my eye. I am not in the market to store excess junk (I mean stuff) so it doesn’t normally register.
But this particular morning was different. You see, there was a limo parked out front. And so, curiosity got the better of me and I looked at the scene and wondered, why is a limo parked in front of a self storage facility.
Of course there are many reasons a limo could be out front. It could be for sale, it could be for rent (the owner of the facility is diversifying), it could have broken down, etc). But that is not the point of this post. The point is, that the scene was so unusual that it caught my eye. A limo in front of a swanky hotel would not have elicited the same reaction. Nor would one at the lead of a funeral procession. These are places a limo is expected. But a limo in front of a self storage facility doesn’t fit my preconceived notion of where a limo should be so I looked.
I wonder how much of life is like this. That we go right past a million things without giving them a second glance until we run across something like the limo that wakes us up. I think marketers know this which is why they try to wake us up with wacky ads and crazy stunts. Just to get a brief sliver of our attention. They, in effect, put limos in front of self storage facilities.
In our own lives, I think it is important to put a few limos in unusual places as well. To create an unusual scene of sorts to wake us from our slumber. I for one will look…
