Latest Thinking Archives

Drive progressive profitable growth with a finely-tuned marketing engine – 3 steps

Marketing engine? What? Why? A marketing engine or ‘model’ or ‘system’ is the proven way to profitably market your brand / business. It’s a hugely valuable asset that pays dividends in the short, medium and long term. ‘Proven’ means that it delivers. This means that time, money and expertise have been leveraged to try different […]

5 steps to attract, create and retain super-high value customers

We all know that customers who recommend your brand to others are valuable to your business. If these customers strongly recommend your brand to others, then it has done something for them that they love. So, I call these customers Brand Fans. Typically, they are the least sensitive to the prices your brand charges and […]

Tips and focus points to help you take your business to the next level

Welcome to your first set of success tips and focus points which will help you to take your business to the next level. Over the coming weeks and months, you’ll receive a fresh set of topics to consider and focus on. These are critical building blocks that come together to make a significant difference to […]

6 proven steps to strengthen your brand’s proposition

Crafting your brand and enhancing its proposition – where to begin? Being the best solution for specific customers or audiences is a great place to start. But who? And how? Here’s a proven process… Step 1. Identify the most valuable customers for your brand The most valuable customers should not be considered as one group […]

Your most valuable customers – what you need to know

“I don’t know the key to success, BUT, the key to failure is trying to make everyone laugh” – Bill Cosby, Comedian One of the most important secrets to creating sustainable, profitable growth for your brand and business is to focus your resources on delighting the groups of customers who are the most valuable to […]

Your most valuable customers and the criteria to help you identify them…

It’s widely known that the most efficient and effective way to profitably grow any business is to focus resources on delighting the most valuable groups of customers. If your brand/business is successful in achieving this, it is likely to be growing 2.5x faster than the competitors who are not so successful at delighting these people. […]

5 Killer Tips for Preparing a Great Business Strategy…

“In preparing for battle I’ve always found that plans are useless, but planning is essential.” (Dwight Eisenhower) I’ve been involved in preparing many different types of business strategy over the last 20 years. When I step back and consider what has produced the most successful outcomes, these tips capture what I’ve found to be most […]

How to stay ‘on-strategy’ – 5 tips for success!

If defining successful strategy isn’t challenging enough for most businesses, then implementing the strategy and staying true to it – being ‘on-strategy’ – is another challenge in itself. I’ve been involved in defining and implementing many different types of strategy over the last 20 years. Here are some solid success tips informed by my experience: […]

Strong business brands – create customers 13 times more likely to purchase. Now that’s worth having!

“All successful businesses need a strong brand.” – Karen Brady. Yes, that’s ALL businesses – yours included! Why did she say this? Karen has experienced at first hand, the frustration of trying to grow businesses without a strong brand and a clear sense of purpose. This is what drove her, personally, to re-define weak […]

Why branding is more than a logo – five key points to consider

In a commercial context, brands are all about connecting customers to businesses. Your logo and its ability to send out the right signals about your brand and what it represents is an all-important connecting tool in your business armoury. But it’s not the only tool. To make that logo as powerful as possible and to […]

6 Tips on how to create a Brand Strategy to deliver 10x, not +10% growth!

Given the choice of ‘pushing on an open door’ or ‘pushing water up hill’, what would you choose? I imagine that most of you will go for the open door, especially if the outcome is likely to be better. Defining a strategy to create +10% growth can often feel like pushing water up hill. But […]

Why 40% of your people could be undermining your business success!

Do you ever wonder just how motivated and engaged your employees are? When people are clear about their role and how their contribution makes a difference to the success of the business, they tend to feel committed to progress within your business and empowered to perform. But what about the people who aren’t fully engaged […]