August 22, 2011

Thank You Economy Take-Aways #2

VALUE is…
Fueled By Fans
Lets Give ‘em Something to Talk About
More gems I took away from Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest book The Thank You Economy:
- ‘In the Thank You Economy social media allows us to get fresh, visceral, real-time feedback, not stale focus- group opinions.’ Really agree with this. BE DiFFERENT Customer Learning is a process of continually discovering customer’s Secrets. Social Media gives us this capability in spades.
- ‘It just makes sense that the better you know your consumers, the better you can tailor your marketing to them, and the more likely they are to buy from you.’
- ‘Learn how to implement a culture of caring and communication in your business, scale your one-to-one relationships, and watch your customers reward your efforts by using their new and massively powerful word of mouth to market your business and brand for you.’ The power of Sneezing once again purported as the critical strategic marketing issue.
- there is a significant ROI on Customer Caring. Just ask Amazon why they invested $1.2 Billion to buy Zappos.
- no matter what obstacles an organization faces in The Thank You Economy the solution will ways be the same…. OUTCARE your competition.
- care more about your employees than your customers.
- we need a Chief Culture Officer in organizations to take care of employees.
- layer social media on top of traditional media to extend the conversation with people.
- ‘Good intent’ may be the single biggest differentiator in this new economy.
I recommend this piece of work. It has a very practical bent to it which will allow you to apply it’s concepts right away.

Cheers,
Roy


Join me on Twitter
Connect with me on LinkedIn

Posted 8.22.11 at 06:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 20, 2011

Saturday - Fueled By Fans

VALUE is…
Great Leaders = Superb Translators
Thank You #2
I have written many Articles on the importance of Fans to an organization.
About the need to focus on them for GROWTH created by the word-of-mouth virus. About giving THEM the prime choices and the best deals over others.
The one thing I haven’t talked about is the adrenaline push you get from your Fans to drive you on to new levels of performance. When your Fans go nuts about what you do. When they are delirious over your product. They can on sheer energy alone provide the motivation for you to vault your performance to levels you couldn’t do otherwise.
Take Care of your Fans and they will provide you with the Breakaway Emotional Energy needed for you to win.
A Fan = Your (Promoter, Growth Engine, Energy Source, Trusted Advisor, Friend, Ally).
Choose not to serve them at your own peril.

Cheers,
Roy


Join me on Twitter
Connect with me on LinkedIn

Posted 8.20.11 at 04:13 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 18, 2011

Great Leaders are Awesome Translators

Value is…
A Conversation with a Customer
Lets Give ‘em Something to Talk About
There are thousands of books out there on Leadership. What makes a great Leader? What critical tasks to they perform that set them apart.
One aspect of Leadership that rarely gets mentioned is The Translator.
Great Leaders are incredible Translators. They are able to take a complex strategy and make it simple, meaningful and explicit for people in their organization. They make it so clear that an individual can clearly see what they are required to do differently to support the strategy. 
What does the strategy mean to marketing? Sales? Billing? IT?
The Translator spends copious amounts of time articulating a Direct Line of Sight for every function in the organization. If an individual can’t SEE what they should to deliver to the greater good, how can they contribute?
They can’t. Results suffer. Progress is impeded. The organization stalls.
And that is a failure of Leaders that don’t see themselves as Translators.

Cheers,
Roy


Join me on Twitter
Connect with me on LinkedIn

Posted 8.18.11 at 05:58 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 15, 2011

VALUE is…..

I Like #1
Thank You #1
Lets Give ‘em Something to Talk About
The three pillars of BE DiFFERENT Marketing are:
1. Create VALUE not flog products and services;
2. Focus on your FANS, the people who care about what you do;
3. PACKAGE value to reflect a bundle of wants and desires as opposed to a narrow set of needs

The question I am always asked of this approach is ‘What is VALUE?’
First, it is different for every person. Everyone values different things. What is valuable to one person is of less or more value to the next.
Next it is the feeling or emotion people GET from what you supply. Value is described by words that complete the sentence: ‘I felt ...’ happy, surprised, joyfull, pleased, important, honored, amazed, listened to and cared for. If you create these feelings in the people that do business with you, you provide VALUE.
Value is typically derived from an experience. Think about the last time you were in a restaurant and you had an amazing experience. What made you feel incredibly delighted? Whatever it was defines Value. The personal service. The caring attention. The comfortable surroundings. The elegant atmosphere. The funny Server. The Chef that visited your table. All dimensions of the Value you received.
Marketing is in ‘The Feelings Creation Game’. Like it or not, your product doesn’t really matter as long as it works 24X7X365.
Get rid of the Chief Marketing Officer. Bring in the Chief Feelings Officer.

Cheers,
Roy


Join me on Twitter
Connect with me on LinkedIn

Posted 8.15.11 at 06:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)