There is always more than one dimension to what a customer experiences. Take for example a website you visit — first there are the words and images that you see — and then there is what you perceive beyond this. in effective websites, that motivate you to take action, return for more and give you a sense of belonging, these multi-dimensions are congruent. The essence of the brand and the knowledge that is presented are aligned with the values, the personality and the ‘inner’ profile of the brand.
An excellent reference work to support you to get clear about the ‘brand within’ is The Hero and The Outlaw by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson. This inspiring book gives a very powerful roadmap to building extraordinary brands through the power of archetypes – the mythical and cultural symbols and images that drive ongoing meaning and actions in our lives. Some well known brands ‘get it’ more than others… for example Apple’s logo – the apple with a bite out of it harks all the way back to the Garden of Eden – the archetype that Apple continues to express – the Rebel. Nike = the Hero, Victoria’s Secret = the Lover, Amex = the Ruler.
What stories define your business? What archetype are you living out? How could you be more congruent with this?
I’ve had my toes in the water of Twitter for a while now and I have found a bunch of good things about it. in just 140 characters it’s amazing how much knowledge can go around.
It is worth following smart people. Whilst you can follow more and more people, most of the cross talk is idle chatter. I’m way too busy pursuing the 4 Hour Work Week (I know- there’s something wrong with that!) for idle chit chat. But smart people share some really good stuff – usually a brief comment and a link to something pithy. This is where I have found magic.
Twitter is about serendipity - being in the right place at the right time. Getting the insight from someone else – just in the nick of time!
There is a spontaneity about sharing micro windows into your world. it takes some self reflection and a willingness to share yourself.
Then comes Precession. An idea that Buckminster Fuller first shared -
…what humanity rated as side effects are nature’s main effects. I adopted the precessional side effects as my prime objective.“
—R. Buckminster Fuller
In nature, honeybees inadvertently cross-pollinate flowers while they are going about the business of gathering honey. For us, pollination is their true purpose; for them it’s a byproduct. This gives a clue to Precession – and perhaps to Twitter too.
Here’s Lee Lefever’s intro to Twitter:
Where will Twitter lead us? Just where you are open to going! Twittervision gives more clues to a new world view. Fascinating!
Social media now accounts for 75% of the traffic on the top 20 Web sites on the ‘New Internet’. New rules have been firmly established.
Knowledge marketing is now the work horse of this new scene. The most fundamental principle that you now must embrace is “Teach – Don’t Sell”. The World Wide Conversation is hungry to find and share knowledge – but not to be sold. Your audience has a finely tuned antenna that won’t tolerate covert sales agendas.
Sharing knowledge has never been easier – with blogs, social networks, Wikis, instant Web sites, video and more.
So how come the ‘picture tells a thousand words’ principle is abused with PowerPoint presentations so habitually?
Death by PowerPoint is all too frequent – as master Presentation guru Garr Reynolds points out in this insightful set of sample slides (using SlideShare). With his distillations to communicate the essence of an idea he shines a light for knowledge marketers to learn from.
It’s sometimes a challenge to imagine what the future will look like. But some people are already inventing the way we view it, play with it and share it.
We’ll all become knowledge marketers in one way or another. Sharing, collaborating, conversing, teaching and engaging in creative pursuits.
This video gives a taste of the future for our connected communications and knowledge sharing:
I’ve always been interested in what makes life easier.
Personal and career pursuits have had this life narrative evolve over the years. My first career move was industrial design, then taking up naturopathy, yoga, natural health and new age retailing. Branding and marketing connected all of these and became a new business Brandwithin. A more recent evolution of my story brings education, knowledge marketing and the puzzle of the Internet as a turbo-charged medium for connection and transformation. It’s a fun ride!
There is a wonderful Lavazza coffee lounge in Chicago – and their story is refreshingly different to Starbucks.
Full of life – and the art of coffee – in larger than life pictures, as well as an engaging slide show to inform you of their back story on the ‘real’ coffee… (espresso is never translated, how crema makes the difference to taste…)
How simple it is to tell your story with a few pictures and the story that you know so well.
The Lavazza ‘theme park’ was doing a brisk trade in coffee and related breakfast fare, at the same time as entertaining and informing customers. A great way to build customer loyalty.
There is a usually a captive moment in any business transaction – always a good time to inform, entertain, engage and build the relationship with customers. Lavazza is doing a great job here.
Most of us delude ourselves about time. Our planning is wishful and then we get anxious and frustrated because everything takes longer. My Time Card is a cure for this universal malaise. It’s a great little piece of software available for PC and Mac. I use it to track all my time, from the moment [...]
Some principles are timeless – like the voice of authority, used increasingly well in so many niche businesses, blogs and Web sites – all made possible by the rise of the Internet and our always-on access to find anything we want. Robert Cialdini in his excellent book Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion illuminates the principle [...]
There’s a growing recognition in the marketing community of the power that flows from a “maven status”. Something about human nature is at play here. We all tend to place our trust in “experts”. Given the choice, we’d prefer to have our heart treated by the cardiology professor and our stocks managed by the TV [...]
SwingTags are both public and hidden clues about who you are and what makes you tick.Just like you can find what you are looking for online – you can also make it easy for others to connect with you when you set your SwingTags to be seen and found. Leave SwingTags in comments on blogs, [...]
An excellent reference work to support you to get clear about the ‘brand within’ is The Hero and The Outlaw by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson. This inspiring book gives a very powerful roadmap to building extraordinary brands through the power of archetypes – the mythical and cultural symbols and images that drive ongoing meaning and actions in our lives. Some well known brands ‘get it’ more than others… for example Apple’s logo – the apple with a bite out of it harks all the way back to the Garden of Eden – the archetype that Apple continues to express – the Rebel. Nike = the Hero, Victoria’s Secret = the Lover, Amex = the Ruler.
for a while now and I have found a bunch of good things about it. in just 140 characters it’s amazing how much knowledge can go around.
Lavazza coffee lounge in Chicago – and their story is refreshingly different to Starbucks.
