Today, the success of all businesses whatsoever, hinges on how much they are able to manage the emotional needs of their customers. You are in the motion business. Customers do business in pursuit of emotional experiences. And when they find it, they return to the same business and become devoted to the brand because of the way the business makes them feel. The real key to earnings is repeat customer. Emotion builds connection, consciously or unconsciously.
Science has partnered with the psychology of performance and has provided us with stacks of statistics that emotion drives our decision making, even in business. We make emotional choices and then back them up with logic, reason or data. That is to say, what we feel is more important than what we think. Although we might choose to indulge ourselves in the facts and try to convince ourselves that our decisions are based on logic. It’s really our unconscious emotional-side that keeps pulling us beyond our reason, demanding a connection between us and the business we patronize. Dale Carnegie was tight when he taught that, ‘When dealing with people let us remember we are dealing with creatures of logic but emotion.’ Whatsoever meets a man’s emotional need is the most important thing in his life at that point in time.
Our humanity is defined as the ability to involve ourselves emotionally in everything we do. Man, whether male or female is an emotional being. And that humanity is most evident in our feelings. Feelings are the way we personalize our thoughts, ideas, and reactions. People do things for their reasons (not your reason), and those reasons are emotionally aroused by the way they feel.
Emotional bonding is the single most important element you can integrate into your business in today’s business culture. Emotional connection always precedes economic ones, the way the heart comes before the head. If you ignore the former, you lose the later. Mind-share often comes before market-share. You can rarely move people into action unless you first move them with emotion.
‘The purpose of any business’, Scott McKain , a business executive said, ‘is to profitably create emotional connections that are so compelling to customers, that loyalty is assured.’ He also added, ‘Today’s customers are saying “good is not good enough”. If you want my business, amaze me. Knock me out. Make an emotional impression I won’t forget.’ Not only has the quality of ‘product-service’ changed in recent times, expectation of the people who buy these ‘product-services’ have changed. If you don’t understand and change the way you relate toy your clientele you are going to be out of business soon.
Everybody has a ‘product-service’; it is what you do beyond the ‘product-service’ that makes all the difference in business. How your customers feel about you in the marketplace can be much more important than what you are selling. I have come to realize that customers blend the facts about the quality of your product and delivery of your service with the feelings they have about the experience of doing business with you. ‘As times are changing, so is the standard desired by customers. No longer are they searching for excellence: now they are pursuing something that would make them go, wow! They want to experience a product or service that does more than simply satisfy them: they want to be amazed’. Those were the words of Tom Peters.
How much are you fulfilling your customer’s needs on the emotional stand point? The value of any business is measured by what it means to the buyers. People prefer and refer businesses that represent an amazing memory to them. Always remember that what people think about your business is not as important as what they feel about it. The devotion you get from your customer does not necessarily spring from your ‘product-service’. Loyalties develop when clientele feel emotionally engaged in the outcome they attain in a transaction. Whether they buy a product, bank in XYZ bank, shop in a certain store or use a salon. This even extends to ones place of religious worship. When customers feel good about your ‘product-service’, they tell their friends about it.
If you will ever track your clients’ loyalty, large sum of them came from emotional connection they have with you, more than the quality of your ‘product-service’. No one would care about you business that much, except they are emotionally linked to it. You can turn your business as a tool kit for touching you clients’ emotion while you serve them. This, however, requires some skills. Let me give you some tips:
See things from your customers’ private goggles. See what they see.
Pay attention to feelings than you would to their money. For the money to come, the feelings must be richly touched.
The primary mode of the emotion is non-verbal. We can hardly conceal our true emotions. Our faces most times tell what’s going on in us. Look at the faces of your customers. Make it a habit and you will learn a lot about what they feel about your business. Nothing could be so interesting in business like meting the emotional needs of your customers. I gave a client some ideas on how to manage their customers emotion, and the response have been highly positive. You too can achieve the same result.
The bottom line is that your customers are going to have an emotional experience because of their contact with your organization, whether you like it or not. Your responsibility and challenge is to provide them with the kind of emotional connection that will inspire loyalty; the more powerful the connection, the greater the success of your business. How are you factoring emotion into your business? You can as for professional help. It’s up to you to make your business happen.
Tony Ajah is a highly consulted Business Growth Strategist. His ideas have been helpful to businesses in Nigeria. He also serve as Creative Director, Smartspeakers Resources, a Lagos- based firm that is into soft skills development.
tony@smartspeakersng.org ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk 08051403056
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Unmasking the New Face of Business
Business is a journey; a game that has no finish line. Interestingly, the face of business has changed, or rather has been unmasked. It’s no longer the usual thing you may have known but one with a new rule. If you don’t like change, you might discontinue yourself automatically from business, no matter your level of accomplishment. If you stand still where you are in business, you get run over quickly.
Andy Grove, Intel CEO once instructed, ‘There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance; miss that moment and you start to decline.’ What does this tell us? Frank Tarkenton, a management consultant writing on Strategies for Business Success summarized the answer thus: ‘No matter how great your victory today, tomorrow is a new game with new plays and new opponents’. There is a great danger in complacency especially now that the course of ‘businessing’ has been redirected.
With the emergence of the new business economy, it has been preceded by a new business model and culture, which carries with it new strategies, new tactics, new weaponry, new approach, and new sweet result that is ‘wow-wrapped’. Better is better. And this business order is better. It’s a reinvented business that adds value in the most meaningful way. And here, whoever has the best practices rules.
What is the nature of this new face of business? This is business with total humanness – ‘the human side of business’. It’s the point where the heart marries the head to provide the best deals that enriches both parties. Business is a means of touching lives in a way that tells people (your clients) that you understand their needs, and are willing and able to meet those needs. We are human being first and every other thing else follows. Every deal should reflect this humanness shared by every one of us. Before now, we have been playing down on this salient aspect of business. Today, it’s no longer a minor aspect of business but the major.
There has been a swift and successive progression in the order of ‘businessing’ the world over. You would recall that doing business in yesteryears was centered on raw materials, then to goods, then to services, and to the rave of the moment, which I call ‘the experience-ful’ business. This shows the sequence of human maturity and degree of business sophistication up until now. (We might not exactly say what will become order of things tomorrow. The best is yet to come).
For instance, a ‘service-based business’ as we know is a pure transaction that is some what dry and often straight to the point. It may have succeeded in the time past but now it is gradually fading away. On the other hand, an ‘experience-based business’ is a terrific happening, a thrilling adventure that is worth your time and money. You get it and ask for more. It adds to your story and something to share with pals and loved ones. For instance, you receive a ‘product-service’ from an organisation, and from there a whole new life begins.
Take the example of a saloon service. If the price was the only issue, you’d simply go to the cheapest one. But you care more about the depth and stability of service offered that transcends beyond making hair. Call it a relationship, care or warmth, you are right. When you get that (s)he doesn’t end up becoming your hair dresser but a trusted friend and partner whose business progress you deeply care about. If you’ll recall, almost every business thrives on relationship and relationship thrives on trust. If you are in doubt, think on what got you hooked to those you patronize most.
Let me illustrate this using the experience I had in Accra some time last year. I needed to barb and was attracted by a good looking saloon and went in. Frankly speaking, I was given a clean cut. But beyond that the barber gave me something beyond service; he bonded with me. That was a kind of experience inherent in his brand (business). When I needed another cut, I wasn’t surprise that I went there not minding the distance. Did you get that? Even here in Nigeria, I am a fan of that saloon.
Any one who has become my trusted associate has bought my heart and allegiance, and I’ll gladly open my purse for him. What else does a business wants? Business is not just service-oriented, but also people-based, and love-engrained. It knows where to strike and strike hard.
Experience is the language of this emerged business enterprise, whether you sell a product or offer a service. Tom Peters, the Americas management guru taught, ‘Big leap takes place when the experience dimension enters the mix’. This mix is nothing other than using everything within you reach in treating your customers the way you would love to be treated. To achieve this, an outfit has to reinvent its entire business system to be people-focused. When you do, you attract exceptional loyalty from customers who would eventually lead you to your business growth and profitability.
‘The secret of success in business’ Aristotle Onassis sais,’ is to know something nobody else knows.’ The beauty of knowledge comes when acted upon. Now that you know, what will stop you from elevating your business to a new height and make it compliant? Ready. Aim. Fire!
Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist whose ideas have helped businesses in Nigeria. He is also the Creative Director of Smartspeakers Resources, a Lagos based firm that specializes in Soft Skill Development.
www.smartspeakersng.org tony@smartspeakersng.org ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk +234 805 140 3056
Andy Grove, Intel CEO once instructed, ‘There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance; miss that moment and you start to decline.’ What does this tell us? Frank Tarkenton, a management consultant writing on Strategies for Business Success summarized the answer thus: ‘No matter how great your victory today, tomorrow is a new game with new plays and new opponents’. There is a great danger in complacency especially now that the course of ‘businessing’ has been redirected.
With the emergence of the new business economy, it has been preceded by a new business model and culture, which carries with it new strategies, new tactics, new weaponry, new approach, and new sweet result that is ‘wow-wrapped’. Better is better. And this business order is better. It’s a reinvented business that adds value in the most meaningful way. And here, whoever has the best practices rules.
What is the nature of this new face of business? This is business with total humanness – ‘the human side of business’. It’s the point where the heart marries the head to provide the best deals that enriches both parties. Business is a means of touching lives in a way that tells people (your clients) that you understand their needs, and are willing and able to meet those needs. We are human being first and every other thing else follows. Every deal should reflect this humanness shared by every one of us. Before now, we have been playing down on this salient aspect of business. Today, it’s no longer a minor aspect of business but the major.
There has been a swift and successive progression in the order of ‘businessing’ the world over. You would recall that doing business in yesteryears was centered on raw materials, then to goods, then to services, and to the rave of the moment, which I call ‘the experience-ful’ business. This shows the sequence of human maturity and degree of business sophistication up until now. (We might not exactly say what will become order of things tomorrow. The best is yet to come).
For instance, a ‘service-based business’ as we know is a pure transaction that is some what dry and often straight to the point. It may have succeeded in the time past but now it is gradually fading away. On the other hand, an ‘experience-based business’ is a terrific happening, a thrilling adventure that is worth your time and money. You get it and ask for more. It adds to your story and something to share with pals and loved ones. For instance, you receive a ‘product-service’ from an organisation, and from there a whole new life begins.
Take the example of a saloon service. If the price was the only issue, you’d simply go to the cheapest one. But you care more about the depth and stability of service offered that transcends beyond making hair. Call it a relationship, care or warmth, you are right. When you get that (s)he doesn’t end up becoming your hair dresser but a trusted friend and partner whose business progress you deeply care about. If you’ll recall, almost every business thrives on relationship and relationship thrives on trust. If you are in doubt, think on what got you hooked to those you patronize most.
Let me illustrate this using the experience I had in Accra some time last year. I needed to barb and was attracted by a good looking saloon and went in. Frankly speaking, I was given a clean cut. But beyond that the barber gave me something beyond service; he bonded with me. That was a kind of experience inherent in his brand (business). When I needed another cut, I wasn’t surprise that I went there not minding the distance. Did you get that? Even here in Nigeria, I am a fan of that saloon.
Any one who has become my trusted associate has bought my heart and allegiance, and I’ll gladly open my purse for him. What else does a business wants? Business is not just service-oriented, but also people-based, and love-engrained. It knows where to strike and strike hard.
Experience is the language of this emerged business enterprise, whether you sell a product or offer a service. Tom Peters, the Americas management guru taught, ‘Big leap takes place when the experience dimension enters the mix’. This mix is nothing other than using everything within you reach in treating your customers the way you would love to be treated. To achieve this, an outfit has to reinvent its entire business system to be people-focused. When you do, you attract exceptional loyalty from customers who would eventually lead you to your business growth and profitability.
‘The secret of success in business’ Aristotle Onassis sais,’ is to know something nobody else knows.’ The beauty of knowledge comes when acted upon. Now that you know, what will stop you from elevating your business to a new height and make it compliant? Ready. Aim. Fire!
Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist whose ideas have helped businesses in Nigeria. He is also the Creative Director of Smartspeakers Resources, a Lagos based firm that specializes in Soft Skill Development.
www.smartspeakersng.org tony@smartspeakersng.org ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk +234 805 140 3056
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Heart of Branding
The Heart of Branding
The subject of branding is a very serious and important issue as far as the present business climate is concerned. I regard it as the soul of any establishment. Every organisation, whether great or small, has a brand, or best is a brand.
To put us in the right atmosphere, let’s briefly throw a light on what a brand is. A brand is the sum of the good, the bad, the ugly (written or unwritten) about a given venture. It‘s your best or worst product, service, and the identity or image you communicate to those who see you or do business with you. That is, the totality of your company and its business model.
For years, companies have devoted tremendous resources to branding. They know that well developed brands enlarge market share, attract and create customers’ loyalty. In a society of so many choices, being different could be the determining factor in the decision making and market behaviors, since it is in human nature to associate with the known object or thing relative to the unknown. Branding is about recognition (awareness), articulation, memorization, and preference. You may have heard this statement: in the sea of sameness brands must stand out.
A brand is a living thing. Originally, branding began as an outside thing – an exterior differentiation of a given ‘product- service’ from those in the market place. Today, things have changed. There is a shift from the external concentration to something entirely different. What worked well some time ago is now loosing their grip. That’s the nature of the world you and I live in. What actually is the true representation of a brand?
The Duality of Branding
There are obviously two faces of branding, which is more like a double-edged sword. We have the visible and the invisible brands. Visible brands are the often seen, the often heard, the often hyped and the often projected. It is the brand container. The invisible brands, on the other hand, are the salient part of the organisation. It’s often not seen like the former but strongly felt; it’s the brand content. While the visible brands attract, the invisible brands keep.
What is this invisible brand? Why is it so powerful and needed in today’s business place? The answer is very simple: it’s the heart of branding. This emphasizes on the soft attributes of a ‘product-service’ - Attributes such as convenience, comfort, trust warmth, companionship, beauty… Just mention all the good intangible qualities. What else does a true brand represent?
True brand is an encounter, an impression that shapes people’s perception and attracts people’s respect for it. The essence is the imprint it plants on the minds of the market. It creates a kind of feeling, emotion, and develops an affinity to those who encounter what the enterprise has to offer.
Branding should be from the heart. Do you still remember the maxim? ‘The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart’. The heart of branding is the authentic brand that represents you in totality. Real brand is personal and answers the question of who you are. It’s about what is inside you and your organisation that is saleable to the public.
Building an intangible brand is about your frame of mind – a departure from the norm; the conventional service thing that is devoid of humanness. It’s not enough to say that a product works or that a service is superb. Does it leave you with an unbeatable memory? That’s what will guarantee you business future, even as the competition is becoming increasingly fierce in each passing day.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. General Motors once went into art, entertainment and mobile sculpture which coincidentally happen to provide ‘experience-ful’ transportation service. And they are still there, improving by day. Cars of the future will be sanctuaries and complete suite, with mood lightening and thrilling. (It’s already happening but that’s just the beginning).
We are starting to realize that whatever ‘product-service’ we use is who we are; our identity. And so, we are always selective looking for what goes beyond ‘quality’ to ‘extra-quality’. Be it in banking, buying something from a departmental store, patronizing a restaurant, or watching a TV station.
As an assignment, fashion great ideas to suit your ‘product-service’. Think of it in terms of story, adventure, and you’ll hit the essential nature of your reason for being. Let it provide something ‘extra’ to make it thrive in the new economy. A strong brand needs to create a story that sticks to almost every listening ear. This will strengthen the brand and give it a presence. Let people feel your brand, taste your brand, smell your brand, touch your brand, use your brand, talk your brand, and ultimately become devoted to your brand.
I have personally tried to know what makes a great brand. There might be more than one reason but one thing keeps reoccurring; outstanding brands are value-based. And the more value they add, the more money they make. Isn’t that interesting? They make every contact you have with them unforgettable, whether you buy their product or are engaged in their services. Here, you are delighted at turn of every event. Their ‘product-service’ goes beyond meeting needs to helping define who you are. They make you want more, and they are full of fun and wet every caller’s appetite. Some people may buy from a weak brand but they easily switch allegiance. But great brands have club members and fans who help promote them. What is value to you? Give it to your customers. I think it’s a right place to start.
Day by day, the value-added proposition of businesses becomes more and more intangible. Set your brand apart, cultivate the culture of intangibility. Let what you’ve got be ‘experience-creating’ brand. Intangible brand transforms your product and service into experience and solution. The feeling associated with using a particular brand is the fundamental basis for its value. This is the core of that brand; the fuel that keeps the flame aglow. This type of brand makes a company influential and increases her sphere of dominance.
One more thing before I close, a brand reflects and project integrity which clarifies one great thing: uniqueness. And that uniqueness makes a dramatic difference in the hands of its receivers with a powerful touch. The heart of brand is drawn from our inner being, and our emotion is one of it. I mean, authentic brand goes into the heart and comes from the heart (of the enterprise). Did you get that?
How can you make that dramatic difference that will stick with people? A difference that will eventually become your trade mark? Branding is more about meaning and not just marketing. It is internal and not external. It is about deep company uncompromising conviction that sets it apart from the rest. What is the heart of your own brand? Thrive on it.
Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist whose ideas have helped businesses in Nigeria. He is also the Creative Director of Smartspeakers Resources, a Lagos based firm that specializes in Soft Skill Development.
www.smartspeakersng.org tony@smartspeakersng.org ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk +234 805 140 3056
The subject of branding is a very serious and important issue as far as the present business climate is concerned. I regard it as the soul of any establishment. Every organisation, whether great or small, has a brand, or best is a brand.
To put us in the right atmosphere, let’s briefly throw a light on what a brand is. A brand is the sum of the good, the bad, the ugly (written or unwritten) about a given venture. It‘s your best or worst product, service, and the identity or image you communicate to those who see you or do business with you. That is, the totality of your company and its business model.
For years, companies have devoted tremendous resources to branding. They know that well developed brands enlarge market share, attract and create customers’ loyalty. In a society of so many choices, being different could be the determining factor in the decision making and market behaviors, since it is in human nature to associate with the known object or thing relative to the unknown. Branding is about recognition (awareness), articulation, memorization, and preference. You may have heard this statement: in the sea of sameness brands must stand out.
A brand is a living thing. Originally, branding began as an outside thing – an exterior differentiation of a given ‘product- service’ from those in the market place. Today, things have changed. There is a shift from the external concentration to something entirely different. What worked well some time ago is now loosing their grip. That’s the nature of the world you and I live in. What actually is the true representation of a brand?
The Duality of Branding
There are obviously two faces of branding, which is more like a double-edged sword. We have the visible and the invisible brands. Visible brands are the often seen, the often heard, the often hyped and the often projected. It is the brand container. The invisible brands, on the other hand, are the salient part of the organisation. It’s often not seen like the former but strongly felt; it’s the brand content. While the visible brands attract, the invisible brands keep.
What is this invisible brand? Why is it so powerful and needed in today’s business place? The answer is very simple: it’s the heart of branding. This emphasizes on the soft attributes of a ‘product-service’ - Attributes such as convenience, comfort, trust warmth, companionship, beauty… Just mention all the good intangible qualities. What else does a true brand represent?
True brand is an encounter, an impression that shapes people’s perception and attracts people’s respect for it. The essence is the imprint it plants on the minds of the market. It creates a kind of feeling, emotion, and develops an affinity to those who encounter what the enterprise has to offer.
Branding should be from the heart. Do you still remember the maxim? ‘The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart’. The heart of branding is the authentic brand that represents you in totality. Real brand is personal and answers the question of who you are. It’s about what is inside you and your organisation that is saleable to the public.
Building an intangible brand is about your frame of mind – a departure from the norm; the conventional service thing that is devoid of humanness. It’s not enough to say that a product works or that a service is superb. Does it leave you with an unbeatable memory? That’s what will guarantee you business future, even as the competition is becoming increasingly fierce in each passing day.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. General Motors once went into art, entertainment and mobile sculpture which coincidentally happen to provide ‘experience-ful’ transportation service. And they are still there, improving by day. Cars of the future will be sanctuaries and complete suite, with mood lightening and thrilling. (It’s already happening but that’s just the beginning).
We are starting to realize that whatever ‘product-service’ we use is who we are; our identity. And so, we are always selective looking for what goes beyond ‘quality’ to ‘extra-quality’. Be it in banking, buying something from a departmental store, patronizing a restaurant, or watching a TV station.
As an assignment, fashion great ideas to suit your ‘product-service’. Think of it in terms of story, adventure, and you’ll hit the essential nature of your reason for being. Let it provide something ‘extra’ to make it thrive in the new economy. A strong brand needs to create a story that sticks to almost every listening ear. This will strengthen the brand and give it a presence. Let people feel your brand, taste your brand, smell your brand, touch your brand, use your brand, talk your brand, and ultimately become devoted to your brand.
I have personally tried to know what makes a great brand. There might be more than one reason but one thing keeps reoccurring; outstanding brands are value-based. And the more value they add, the more money they make. Isn’t that interesting? They make every contact you have with them unforgettable, whether you buy their product or are engaged in their services. Here, you are delighted at turn of every event. Their ‘product-service’ goes beyond meeting needs to helping define who you are. They make you want more, and they are full of fun and wet every caller’s appetite. Some people may buy from a weak brand but they easily switch allegiance. But great brands have club members and fans who help promote them. What is value to you? Give it to your customers. I think it’s a right place to start.
Day by day, the value-added proposition of businesses becomes more and more intangible. Set your brand apart, cultivate the culture of intangibility. Let what you’ve got be ‘experience-creating’ brand. Intangible brand transforms your product and service into experience and solution. The feeling associated with using a particular brand is the fundamental basis for its value. This is the core of that brand; the fuel that keeps the flame aglow. This type of brand makes a company influential and increases her sphere of dominance.
One more thing before I close, a brand reflects and project integrity which clarifies one great thing: uniqueness. And that uniqueness makes a dramatic difference in the hands of its receivers with a powerful touch. The heart of brand is drawn from our inner being, and our emotion is one of it. I mean, authentic brand goes into the heart and comes from the heart (of the enterprise). Did you get that?
How can you make that dramatic difference that will stick with people? A difference that will eventually become your trade mark? Branding is more about meaning and not just marketing. It is internal and not external. It is about deep company uncompromising conviction that sets it apart from the rest. What is the heart of your own brand? Thrive on it.
Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist whose ideas have helped businesses in Nigeria. He is also the Creative Director of Smartspeakers Resources, a Lagos based firm that specializes in Soft Skill Development.
www.smartspeakersng.org tony@smartspeakersng.org ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk +234 805 140 3056
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The Business of Marketing
The Business of Marketing
Every business is marketing, and marketing is a serious business. No business exists without marketing – it being the critical area of your enterprise. The success and failure of any business is entirely down to how the business is marketed; the sure business maker and breaker. There is no business except one buys or sells something. And none of those things will happen without marketing. No matter the model of your ‘product-service’, you are in the business of marketing.
I discovered that the number one business challenge is marketing. Research has it that more money is ‘wasted’ in marketing than in any other human activity (outside government). Think about it. Businesses all over the world struggle because they simply haven’t found ways to generate constant streams of customers and keep them buying time after time. That may be the reason why Peter F. Drucker once said, ‘Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from customer’s point of view.’
Every business is the same. They need a steady supply of clients, and once they’ve got them, they need to keep them. You business is there to meet a need, and a need is no but a market. Marketing, indeed, is abroad discipline. Sometimes, it’s scarcely known to some of us, including those who claim to be experts. (We might not go in to that now).
One significant thing that counts in marketing is the customers’ perception of your ‘product-service’. Your duty as a good marketer is to create the right perception. Marketing is a game of mental warfare; a battle of perception, and not of product or service. The rule of this game is manipulating those perceptions so as to appear as the best and also the most preferred. There are no best products, not even one. All that exist in the world are perceptions in the mind of the customer or prospect. Come to think of it, the only realities you and I can be sure of are those of our perceptions. (The observer’s perception is his reality). What choices of car do you drive? What brand of toothpaste do you use? It’s all in your perception. Quality is nothing but personal-power we transfer or confer on a given brand product.
Perception is a mind-game. Today, what wins in the market is not just the ‘market-share’ but ‘mind-share’. You can’t win the market battle if you’ve not won the mind battle.
All ‘product-services’ that are hitting it big in the marketplace are persuasive. And persuasion comes from altering of perception. Businesses are nothing but what people perceive it to be in the eyes of the market. Here, every appearance is reality. Never joke with it. An establishment cannot claim to be what it thinks it is, but what people think it is. After all, your business is not there for you except for the people you serve – the market.
The better the customer is understood, the better you are able to fulfill the customers’ needs, and also win his or her approval. Always have it in mind that you are in the business to determine the primary target market’s wants and needs better than your competition, and deliver it to them.
Perception does not work in isolation. Quoting Sergio Zyman, ‘Marketing is comprised of everything a company does from how its product is packaged, to how it is positioned in the eyes of the consumer through ad and promotion. All these things define the benefit to the user.’ We would look at those things that would help put your business in the heart of the market. In my own term, marketing is anything that you do to attract and keep customers. Here are two of them.
Simple Marketing Intelligence
Positioning: By positioning, you create an image in the minds of the target market, establishing the desired perception for your ‘product-service’ relative to others. Writing on the subject, Al Ries and Jack Trout in their book, Psychological Positioning said, ‘Positioning is not what you do to a product; it’s what you do to the mind of the prospect.’ That is quite indisputable.
Knowing whom you are marketing to, and the character of the person is a huge plus in the business of marketing. You aim and fire with a precipitating positive effect.
Strategic Visibility: Market visibility is everything. When people see you often, they perceive you as superlative. Constancy of appearance is suggestive. If you are in doubt, ask Coca- Cola who spend millions of dollars annually to remain as the most visible beverage drink. Visibility builds credibility and increases ‘preferability’ and profitability. Your business abilities and potentials are not as important as your visibility.
It’s what people see that they feel, think, believe, support and profess. Great businesses make news. Are your business ideas strong enough, take them to the media. Adopt every method possible to be heard and seen. Announce yourself until the market starts announcing you. Above all, be very strategic about it.
The ultimate purpose of positioning and visibility is to engender adequate attention in the marketplace. Attention is what everyone and business live for. I know you need attention as much as I do, whether as a person or in your business. Attention is money; big money. What businesses are competing for is attention. And those who know how to generate enough of it smile to the bank.
When it comes to business, if you don’t toot your horn, you lose in the market. When you win in the market, you win in business. ‘Competing in the market place’, John Collins taught, ‘is like war. You have injuries and casualties and the best strategy wins’. With this fresh insight, make effort to blast into the mind of the market and watch the result. Of a truth, business has just begun.
Tony Ajah is a Business Development Expert whose ideas have helped businesses in Nigeria. He is also the Creative Director of Smartspeakers Resources, a Lagos based firm that specializes in Soft Skill Development.
www.smartspeakersng.org tony@smartspeakersng.org ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk +234 805 140 3056
Every business is marketing, and marketing is a serious business. No business exists without marketing – it being the critical area of your enterprise. The success and failure of any business is entirely down to how the business is marketed; the sure business maker and breaker. There is no business except one buys or sells something. And none of those things will happen without marketing. No matter the model of your ‘product-service’, you are in the business of marketing.
I discovered that the number one business challenge is marketing. Research has it that more money is ‘wasted’ in marketing than in any other human activity (outside government). Think about it. Businesses all over the world struggle because they simply haven’t found ways to generate constant streams of customers and keep them buying time after time. That may be the reason why Peter F. Drucker once said, ‘Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from customer’s point of view.’
Every business is the same. They need a steady supply of clients, and once they’ve got them, they need to keep them. You business is there to meet a need, and a need is no but a market. Marketing, indeed, is abroad discipline. Sometimes, it’s scarcely known to some of us, including those who claim to be experts. (We might not go in to that now).
One significant thing that counts in marketing is the customers’ perception of your ‘product-service’. Your duty as a good marketer is to create the right perception. Marketing is a game of mental warfare; a battle of perception, and not of product or service. The rule of this game is manipulating those perceptions so as to appear as the best and also the most preferred. There are no best products, not even one. All that exist in the world are perceptions in the mind of the customer or prospect. Come to think of it, the only realities you and I can be sure of are those of our perceptions. (The observer’s perception is his reality). What choices of car do you drive? What brand of toothpaste do you use? It’s all in your perception. Quality is nothing but personal-power we transfer or confer on a given brand product.
Perception is a mind-game. Today, what wins in the market is not just the ‘market-share’ but ‘mind-share’. You can’t win the market battle if you’ve not won the mind battle.
All ‘product-services’ that are hitting it big in the marketplace are persuasive. And persuasion comes from altering of perception. Businesses are nothing but what people perceive it to be in the eyes of the market. Here, every appearance is reality. Never joke with it. An establishment cannot claim to be what it thinks it is, but what people think it is. After all, your business is not there for you except for the people you serve – the market.
The better the customer is understood, the better you are able to fulfill the customers’ needs, and also win his or her approval. Always have it in mind that you are in the business to determine the primary target market’s wants and needs better than your competition, and deliver it to them.
Perception does not work in isolation. Quoting Sergio Zyman, ‘Marketing is comprised of everything a company does from how its product is packaged, to how it is positioned in the eyes of the consumer through ad and promotion. All these things define the benefit to the user.’ We would look at those things that would help put your business in the heart of the market. In my own term, marketing is anything that you do to attract and keep customers. Here are two of them.
Simple Marketing Intelligence
Positioning: By positioning, you create an image in the minds of the target market, establishing the desired perception for your ‘product-service’ relative to others. Writing on the subject, Al Ries and Jack Trout in their book, Psychological Positioning said, ‘Positioning is not what you do to a product; it’s what you do to the mind of the prospect.’ That is quite indisputable.
Knowing whom you are marketing to, and the character of the person is a huge plus in the business of marketing. You aim and fire with a precipitating positive effect.
Strategic Visibility: Market visibility is everything. When people see you often, they perceive you as superlative. Constancy of appearance is suggestive. If you are in doubt, ask Coca- Cola who spend millions of dollars annually to remain as the most visible beverage drink. Visibility builds credibility and increases ‘preferability’ and profitability. Your business abilities and potentials are not as important as your visibility.
It’s what people see that they feel, think, believe, support and profess. Great businesses make news. Are your business ideas strong enough, take them to the media. Adopt every method possible to be heard and seen. Announce yourself until the market starts announcing you. Above all, be very strategic about it.
The ultimate purpose of positioning and visibility is to engender adequate attention in the marketplace. Attention is what everyone and business live for. I know you need attention as much as I do, whether as a person or in your business. Attention is money; big money. What businesses are competing for is attention. And those who know how to generate enough of it smile to the bank.
When it comes to business, if you don’t toot your horn, you lose in the market. When you win in the market, you win in business. ‘Competing in the market place’, John Collins taught, ‘is like war. You have injuries and casualties and the best strategy wins’. With this fresh insight, make effort to blast into the mind of the market and watch the result. Of a truth, business has just begun.
Tony Ajah is a Business Development Expert whose ideas have helped businesses in Nigeria. He is also the Creative Director of Smartspeakers Resources, a Lagos based firm that specializes in Soft Skill Development.
www.smartspeakersng.org tony@smartspeakersng.org ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk +234 805 140 3056
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Soft-Side of Business
At a first glance, many businesses in Nigeria have all it takes to hit it big in business locally and internationally. Of course, we are good business people with sound business acumen and savvy. I know that you will agree with me.
Ironically, countless number of businesses, including those favoured by political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL) factors, are still struggling in spite of huge investments. Something obviously may have gone wrong in their business equation.
You and I are familiar with the hard business operations like management, accounting, marketing, strategies, planning, and other operational models. Today, running a successful business has gone beyond having the money, minute, machinery, material, and the man behind the wheels like a military man on duty. It requires that pressing the magic buttons that produce the desired results. There is more to business that what we do presently.
It’s high time we looked at a new side of business that has emerged in the new economy –the soft side of business. This is the new business order which turns every other thing on in the business world. While the hard business is important, soft business is very, very paramount.
Suffice it to establish this premise: evidence everywhere indicates that the hard world is irreversibly softening. Our present, run by the intangibles, has gone soft and still goes softer by each passing day. This is the hallmark of the new world, or rather business dimension and you can gain a huge advantage by riding on this trend. Gone are the days when we relied on the physical or hard strengths to get results and take the lead. Times, indeed, have changed; everything has gone soft. Microsoft, the highest valued company today is a soft company.
The same change has hit our business life, which constitutes the core of our living. To keep your place in the present business economy, you’ve got to be compliant by basically going soft. Let me express it this way: it’s either soft or you rust.
The business universe is evolving and expanding daily. I know you would like to be left out. That would be very suicidal in this fast-paced business dispensation. You have in your hands the opportunity to escape being a business dinosaur.
As I pointed out earlier, what drives business has changed, and keeps changing; it’s no longer business as usual. The business operations no longer tilt towards the hard-side but the soft-side. What has brought us to our current business level may not take us beyond this point. There is indeed another side of business, the soft-side of business.
What is the whole idea of this new business paradigm? You may ask so impatiently.
The soft-side of business by definition is that aspect that meets the human pressing and usually unexpressed needs. It’s, in other words, business with human face, or still, the human side of business. This business model uncovers our ‘humanness’, touching our lives on a deeper level with immense intensity. It has the power to attract, keep and multiply clientele because it is human and speaks the language every one of us loves to hear. Who wouldn’t like it?
The challenges in today’s business life are most those of the intangibles, which over the years have suffer neglect, and also suppressed in most business deals. But the rule of the game has tainted for good.
This new-fangled business economy is based on the understanding that every person has a need, a drive, a motivation, a taste, a want and some yearning that they want met in the course of doing business. Check it out, in every business transaction; people are hungry for love, connection, respect, warmth, care, attention, relationship, and acceptance. There are never enough of them. And the tougher the times, the more important and scarce they become. In most cases, these virtues are value that the very transaction that brought us to the establishment in the first place.
How we are perceived as human beings is becoming increasingly important in the new business globe. And the difference maker in business today comes from this very side of business.
There are diverse sides of this business archetype. But for the purpose of this discussion, we would be looking at two main side of it: the emotion and the connection.
Join me as we examine the soft business that will make you win in the hard world o business. See you then.
Ironically, countless number of businesses, including those favoured by political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL) factors, are still struggling in spite of huge investments. Something obviously may have gone wrong in their business equation.
You and I are familiar with the hard business operations like management, accounting, marketing, strategies, planning, and other operational models. Today, running a successful business has gone beyond having the money, minute, machinery, material, and the man behind the wheels like a military man on duty. It requires that pressing the magic buttons that produce the desired results. There is more to business that what we do presently.
It’s high time we looked at a new side of business that has emerged in the new economy –the soft side of business. This is the new business order which turns every other thing on in the business world. While the hard business is important, soft business is very, very paramount.
Suffice it to establish this premise: evidence everywhere indicates that the hard world is irreversibly softening. Our present, run by the intangibles, has gone soft and still goes softer by each passing day. This is the hallmark of the new world, or rather business dimension and you can gain a huge advantage by riding on this trend. Gone are the days when we relied on the physical or hard strengths to get results and take the lead. Times, indeed, have changed; everything has gone soft. Microsoft, the highest valued company today is a soft company.
The same change has hit our business life, which constitutes the core of our living. To keep your place in the present business economy, you’ve got to be compliant by basically going soft. Let me express it this way: it’s either soft or you rust.
The business universe is evolving and expanding daily. I know you would like to be left out. That would be very suicidal in this fast-paced business dispensation. You have in your hands the opportunity to escape being a business dinosaur.
As I pointed out earlier, what drives business has changed, and keeps changing; it’s no longer business as usual. The business operations no longer tilt towards the hard-side but the soft-side. What has brought us to our current business level may not take us beyond this point. There is indeed another side of business, the soft-side of business.
What is the whole idea of this new business paradigm? You may ask so impatiently.
The soft-side of business by definition is that aspect that meets the human pressing and usually unexpressed needs. It’s, in other words, business with human face, or still, the human side of business. This business model uncovers our ‘humanness’, touching our lives on a deeper level with immense intensity. It has the power to attract, keep and multiply clientele because it is human and speaks the language every one of us loves to hear. Who wouldn’t like it?
The challenges in today’s business life are most those of the intangibles, which over the years have suffer neglect, and also suppressed in most business deals. But the rule of the game has tainted for good.
This new-fangled business economy is based on the understanding that every person has a need, a drive, a motivation, a taste, a want and some yearning that they want met in the course of doing business. Check it out, in every business transaction; people are hungry for love, connection, respect, warmth, care, attention, relationship, and acceptance. There are never enough of them. And the tougher the times, the more important and scarce they become. In most cases, these virtues are value that the very transaction that brought us to the establishment in the first place.
How we are perceived as human beings is becoming increasingly important in the new business globe. And the difference maker in business today comes from this very side of business.
There are diverse sides of this business archetype. But for the purpose of this discussion, we would be looking at two main side of it: the emotion and the connection.
Join me as we examine the soft business that will make you win in the hard world o business. See you then.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Redefining Success
Success is a word that has captivated the attention of all. It has gained more popularity and attracted more publicity than the greatest king whoever lived in human history. Everywhere you go; people talk about it with much relish. The word tastes sweet, sounds great and smells good. It is treasured more than gold, adorned more than a god, and ‘succeeds’ more than anything the mind of man could ever imagine. Even the devil himself wants to succeed.
Success is a subject that many great men have talked and wrote about, and many more are still on it. No other word could best describe how the society feel about it, except to say that success is everything, and everything thing that succeeds is success.
No wonder everybody has gone out there in search of this priceless treasure, which may have appeared elusive to many. Some have even gone beyond the ordinary means in search of success, yet to no avail. They at the end would curse their fate, and look for whom to blame for their failures.
Is that enough to say that the word success does not exist? Or is it a thing meant for the super-humans? If not, why are we not succeeding in our individual lives? We salivate at the thought of this magic word, maybe wait to take our eternal exit without a touch of it.
Indeed success is rare but attainable. It is an irony that under the same condition, some folks literally wine and dine with success. By every indication, they are success personified. What then must have gone wrong with the rest? Or could the success we know be different from theirs, or could be redefined. What is your own definition of success? What exactly is success? It is necessary that you know , to enable you go for it.
Thousand and one definitions have been made on this all important subject, by different calibre of people. But, how many of such definitions have defined what success truly is. Suffice it to say, how many of such definitions have stood the taste of time. That is just the point. A word wrongly defined would be misconstrued. And that is like leading the whole world astray.
Dozens have tried to define success as something that happens to us. But, when we separate success from who we are, we automatically become bunch of failures. Success begins with you as a person and it’s lived out. It is more of your nature than your activity. It is an intense journey into yourself. Every other thing outside this is secondary.
Of all the definitions of success I have come across, the one that makes more meaning to me than the rest combined is this: success is who you are. And who you are is what you are. In the words of Jim Rohn, "Success is not a set of standards from our culture but rather a collection of personal values clearly defined and ultimately achieved". And Herbert Casson added, ‘The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves’. So, true success is who you are.
Success begins inside out. Success we have known is a journey and not a destination. And the journey is an internal trip. To grow out, you must first grow in. Trying to be outside, what you are not in your inside is the genesis of all frustration. Life will always give you who you are because your nature will put limit to your performance and results. The world is designed to be piloted by man’s internal forces. Those who surrender their lives to external forces never succeeded.
There are no failures in this life, except men and women who see success as something happening to them and not something happening in them. They often mistake success for luck and end up locked. You are the success or the failure people talk about. Separate every successful work from the people who achieved them, what you have left is more or less failure. Just think of any great individual or body or organization or country that is very successful. What do you think have made them so?
At the centre of every success is the man. So, success is the man who succeeded. Success is internal and not external. Success is within and not without. Success is what you have, and not what you are given. Success is in the inner world and not in the outer world. Success is all about you as a person. And more of your being than your doing. Everything that happens to us is directly proportional to what is happening in us. Of course, life is not what is happening to us but what is happening in us. For you become outside, what you are inside. Jim Clemmer said it all, "We don’t see the world as it is, we see the world as we are". Come to think of it, you reflect outside what you are inside.
A man said, "The key to winning in life is what’s inside a person". And Wilfred A. Peterson also buttressed, "success is not confined to one part of your personality but is related to the development of all parts: body, mind, heart and spirit. It is making the most of your total self".
What more could be added to this? If your inner man is successful, it will be definitely show in your outer world. So wake up to reality and live your success. Why running to and fro in search of that you already possess. In you is the success that you need to succeed .Locate it, turn it on and you will become enviably successful. How? By working on yourself, with clearly defined goals and values. Then you will attract to your life that which you are Listen to this thought shared by Zig Ziglar, "You already have the ability necessary for success. Man was designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowment, with the seed of greatness". Isn’t that wonderful! You have to break in now to break forth.
I end with this word from a sage written on marble, "Not in the clamour of the crowded street. Not in the shouts and defeat, but in ourselves are triumph and defeat". I know you would not like to be defeated. Just tell yourself that you are the success that has long been announced. What are you waiting for to start succeeding? Develop yourself now and watch the amazing result in your life. You are lifted!
Tony Ajah
0805 140 3056
Success is a subject that many great men have talked and wrote about, and many more are still on it. No other word could best describe how the society feel about it, except to say that success is everything, and everything thing that succeeds is success.
No wonder everybody has gone out there in search of this priceless treasure, which may have appeared elusive to many. Some have even gone beyond the ordinary means in search of success, yet to no avail. They at the end would curse their fate, and look for whom to blame for their failures.
Is that enough to say that the word success does not exist? Or is it a thing meant for the super-humans? If not, why are we not succeeding in our individual lives? We salivate at the thought of this magic word, maybe wait to take our eternal exit without a touch of it.
Indeed success is rare but attainable. It is an irony that under the same condition, some folks literally wine and dine with success. By every indication, they are success personified. What then must have gone wrong with the rest? Or could the success we know be different from theirs, or could be redefined. What is your own definition of success? What exactly is success? It is necessary that you know , to enable you go for it.
Thousand and one definitions have been made on this all important subject, by different calibre of people. But, how many of such definitions have defined what success truly is. Suffice it to say, how many of such definitions have stood the taste of time. That is just the point. A word wrongly defined would be misconstrued. And that is like leading the whole world astray.
Dozens have tried to define success as something that happens to us. But, when we separate success from who we are, we automatically become bunch of failures. Success begins with you as a person and it’s lived out. It is more of your nature than your activity. It is an intense journey into yourself. Every other thing outside this is secondary.
Of all the definitions of success I have come across, the one that makes more meaning to me than the rest combined is this: success is who you are. And who you are is what you are. In the words of Jim Rohn, "Success is not a set of standards from our culture but rather a collection of personal values clearly defined and ultimately achieved". And Herbert Casson added, ‘The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves’. So, true success is who you are.
Success begins inside out. Success we have known is a journey and not a destination. And the journey is an internal trip. To grow out, you must first grow in. Trying to be outside, what you are not in your inside is the genesis of all frustration. Life will always give you who you are because your nature will put limit to your performance and results. The world is designed to be piloted by man’s internal forces. Those who surrender their lives to external forces never succeeded.
There are no failures in this life, except men and women who see success as something happening to them and not something happening in them. They often mistake success for luck and end up locked. You are the success or the failure people talk about. Separate every successful work from the people who achieved them, what you have left is more or less failure. Just think of any great individual or body or organization or country that is very successful. What do you think have made them so?
At the centre of every success is the man. So, success is the man who succeeded. Success is internal and not external. Success is within and not without. Success is what you have, and not what you are given. Success is in the inner world and not in the outer world. Success is all about you as a person. And more of your being than your doing. Everything that happens to us is directly proportional to what is happening in us. Of course, life is not what is happening to us but what is happening in us. For you become outside, what you are inside. Jim Clemmer said it all, "We don’t see the world as it is, we see the world as we are". Come to think of it, you reflect outside what you are inside.
A man said, "The key to winning in life is what’s inside a person". And Wilfred A. Peterson also buttressed, "success is not confined to one part of your personality but is related to the development of all parts: body, mind, heart and spirit. It is making the most of your total self".
What more could be added to this? If your inner man is successful, it will be definitely show in your outer world. So wake up to reality and live your success. Why running to and fro in search of that you already possess. In you is the success that you need to succeed .Locate it, turn it on and you will become enviably successful. How? By working on yourself, with clearly defined goals and values. Then you will attract to your life that which you are Listen to this thought shared by Zig Ziglar, "You already have the ability necessary for success. Man was designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowment, with the seed of greatness". Isn’t that wonderful! You have to break in now to break forth.
I end with this word from a sage written on marble, "Not in the clamour of the crowded street. Not in the shouts and defeat, but in ourselves are triumph and defeat". I know you would not like to be defeated. Just tell yourself that you are the success that has long been announced. What are you waiting for to start succeeding? Develop yourself now and watch the amazing result in your life. You are lifted!
Tony Ajah
0805 140 3056
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