Archive for the ‘Differentiators’ category

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Be a plug-in my friend, not a cog

April 25th, 2012

Due to certain experiences recently, companies lay offs, general economic gloom something a friend told me not so long ago has come back to me with timley meaning; “Darragh, be a plug-in and not a cog“. Basically this means that you avoid fitting into the company machine, do not conform to medirocracy, do not be pushed into becoming a comdity. Think differently, work differently be different always look for new ways of creating value, look for new problems to be solved, don’t be another cog in the machine, another brick in the proverbial wall.

Fitting in is attractive

Fitting in to the machine is tantleisingly attractive especially if there is, and there usually is, pressure from the rest of the cogs to do so. Being out on your own at moments is quite difficult to handle and makes you question yourself…Doing the right thing in the wrong place can causes a lot of pain.

Being a plug-in does not mean that you only look out for yourself and do not create value for the company, on the contrary we are talking about being innovative, creative, focused and active. However, it does mean that you cannot be replaced like a cog. You plugin into the company like nobody else, you play things differenly and there is no real way to duplicate that, that is the risk for the company and the benefit for you. In addition to plugging in you can also plug out and look for another socket (opportunity that fits better).

Solve new problems, create value for others; be a plug-in my friend!

I think it is very admiral to see people who strive to innovate, to break moulds. But those that I most admire are those that do so while always looking for a balance between working well with the rest and being different.

Be a plug-in and look for new sockets, new problems to solve and new ways of creating value for others.

 

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Posted in Differentiators, Innovation, Market Driven

When the sun comes up; time to change

April 4th, 2012

With all that is changing in the world recently; politically, socailly, economically, ideologicaly etc we are well and truely in crisis. I believe that this crisis is being prolonged as we do not or cannot change, either way, change is the solution and lack of change is the pain being felt.

All of this brought to mind an African proverb I heard some time ago, long before this crisis started and I think it sums up this brave new world very well. You can interpret it has being positive or negative, that will depend on the individual and I think that the change that is now needed will also start with the individual and work it’s way up to bigger things.

When the sun comes up..

Every morning on the Africa plain, a Gazelle wakes up
It knows that it must run faster than the fastest Lion or it will be killed
Every morning in Africa, a Lion wakes up
It knows that it must, at least, run faster than the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death
It doesn’t matter if you are a Gazelle or a Lion

When the sun comes up, you better start running

 

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Posted in Differentiators, Innovation, Market Driven

Branding, why you need to create a new category.

December 15th, 2011

Branding, the importance of categories

As I mentioned in my previous post on branding, the main goal of any branding program is to differenciate your brand from all others and favourably influence the consumer in her / his purchasing behaviour.

The best way to ensure your brand is differentiated to the maximum is to have no competition and the best way to do that is by creating a new category. If you do not create a new category you
the consumer’s mind as LEADER, FIRST, THE ORIGINAL, PIONEERS; you will simply struggle against the competition to try and find space in an overly packed existing category.

When you think about Cola, prestigous cars and tablets what brands come to mind?

Coke created the category of COLA, it didn’t accept the category of “soft drinks” it created a new category and it dominated it. Mercedes created the category of the prestigious car, and iPad created the Tablet. When it comes to their respective categories these brands are the LEADERS and being leader implies you are the best; nothing succeeds like success. It is proven that people subconsciously associate (the greater majority) the leader with the best. One of the biggest and recent examples is the Tablet, who do you think of when you think of the Tablet? iPad right, you associate the brand as the leader in that category, why? The brand created the category and was first, leader….the best, at least in the mind.

Be LEADER from the very start

So how did these brands dominate their category? They created it! Sounds simple and the basics of branding are that simple, the challenge is defining the category in respects to your target audience and their needs / market problems. That is where the hard work comes in, in addition you have to work to get the message out there and make sure it sticks, that when people that about your category they think of your product, Tablet = …?

Ultimately you want your brand to be known for something, you have to define what that is and create a category for it where it is LEADER straight away.

Brands are born through PR; let the media do the work

The way to give birth to a brand is through Public Relations, that’s when others (the media; social or traditional) talk about your brand. How do you manage to get interest in your modest brand? Different question, same answer; create a new category. The media like to talk about things that are news worthy and they want to be the first in telling the story, they are interested in the category and your brand gets attention for being the pioneer in the new category, they are not so interested in an additional brand in an existing category.

This has a two main benefits, first; people don’t want to listen to you talking about your brand (everybody talks favorably about their own brands) they want to hear others talking about your brand. This creates more credibility. Secondly, you could not generate the same momentum as the media can. So remember, create the category and let the media bring it to the market. Great examples of this have been Starbucks and the body-shop, their advertising budgets where tiny when they started out, they created a new category and let the media talk about it, well, they helped the media be first in telling the story:-)

What about you?

So think about whatever project, product, brand you are working on, it could even be your own personal brand, and think what category would it belong to? What could you do to your brand to enable you to create a new category? 

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Posted in Branding, Differentiators, Market Driven, Marketing