“A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve. It must deliver greater value to customers or create comparable value at a lower cost, or do both … delivering greater value allows a company to charge higher average unit prices.”
Michael E Porter, strategy visionary
“In business, barriers to entry are required to generate superior returns … by definition, only sustainable barriers to entry can support sustainably outstanding performance … If we use the term strategic to describe an activity that is designed to enhance the long-term value of a business, then strategy is exclusively about establishing or reinforcing barriers to entry.”
Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald, Ava Seave – The Curse of the Mogul
“There are times – usually just before we make a buying decision – when we want facts and figures to help us decide. At these times, a rational, no-nonsense approach tends to work best. But mostly, marketing works in a different way: creating emotional associations, so we feel good about brands when we encounter them again later. This kind of brand advertising needs to charm and seduce us. Not persuade us. And as with other sorts of seduction, playfulness and humour work rather well for brands. They disarm our critical faculties, creating warm feelings towards brands.
Research shows its those feelings that drive long-term ROI. Advertising lacking charm can have the opposite effect. It raises our defences so we scrutinise its claims more critically … the net effect is poor sales and lower profits. Especially over the long term.”
Les Binet & Sarah Carter, ‘How not to plan’
You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology.Steve Jobs
H/T Dave Trott
“Why do young men fight in battles? Is it for the long-term future of the country? Is it for the greater glory of your country? Is it for great ideas, like democracy? No, they care about their mates. Their immediate small group – their squad – and not letting them down. That’s why young men and women are prepared to do extraordinary things in battle…
You won’t get people to think about their future concerns – help them to think about their current concerns. Go for the immediate stuff that’s right in front of regular folk … Think about how you can help them worry less about them, give easily achievable goals and bring them on the journey with you”
Jon Leach, strategist (quoted by APG)
Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Nothing else we can do as marketers even comes close to the impact of creativity on effectiveness
Peter Field, advertising expert
You can lure people by arousing their curiosity, but the best way to keep them interested is to offer them something different.
Jurgen Wolff, scriptwriter
Pussyfooting isn’t memorable. Soundbites are.
Miss Sloane, from the movie ‘Miss Sloane’
A change of perspective is worth 80 IQ points.
Alan Kay, personal computing pioneer
