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I’m proud to say I was interviewed regarding a Marketing and Branding topic for a blog called “The Entreprenette Gazette!” Check out the post here talking about the topic of rebranding:
Link here: Transform your old product into a new one
Check out President/CEO, Ricky Arriola, in The Miami Herald today talking about time management and productivity!
Read more here.
Ricky Arriola, CEO of Inktel Direct in Miami, is among the highly productive. He runs a 700-person company and chairs Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. He says being in good shape and exercising give him energy to stay productive. Weekly, he writes down his goals and includes deadlines and an action plan. He knows what he must do himself, and what to delegate. “The goal is to not get caught up in things that consume my time, but don’t get me a whole lot of productivity. I want to focus on the big things.”
Arriola carefully scrutinizes who he gives face time. “When things come up and people want my attention, I have to measure what they want, with whether it will further my goal. If not, then I think before I get involved.” He says this takes instilling discipline in his staff, teaching them to only request a meeting when it’s something only he uniquely can handle. “Otherwise I push back.”
This TED Talk is great. Simon Sinek describes it’s not what you do, it’s why you do it. People don’t buy what you do or how you do it, they subconsciously buy what you believe. It’s about first appealing to a Vision; “Be in pursuit of a dream,” he describes.
For example, Zappos. Their brand is all about a dream. They’ve achieved cult-like, almost Apple-like brand status at this point because of their promise to “Deliver Happiness to the world,” notably their customers, vendors and employees. It may sound dumb to some, but that’s their dream, that’s their brand and that’s what underlies the conversation when they talk about their WHAT and their HOW (selling shoes, Free Returns policy, etc). People subconsciously think, “I, too, want the world to be Happy,” and start to love and form a relationship with the company and the brand. The great brands have an ideal they appeal to. People buy what you believe, not what you do.
Thought-provoking video here from Seth Godin on an alternative to the traditional ideas and methods of Marketing. His main idea: “Those that can spread ideas… win.”
Nowadays consumers have so many choices that ignoring messages is extremely common. Godin suggests that companies should stop just communicating the facts, features and benefits about their own products or services, and rather, ought to put out messages and ideas that actually interest their consumers. Determine what people really want to hear and know, and put forth ideas that are new and fresh (and not boring). Doing so, according to Godin, will dictate what ideas spread, and in turn, what gets selected, what gets purchased and what gets built. According to Godin, the process is no longer about who buys the most advertising or even who makes the best product- it’s about who is the most interesting. It’s now about marketing in a fashion age and spreading ideas to those who find you interesting and those who care about and see value in your message.
Check it out:
Loved this article from the New York Times on Netflix; maybe it’s because Netflix is one of my favorite companies.
When Netflix came into the picture and offered “No Late Fees,” along with a mail-order and eventually an online-viewing model, they went against every convention in the brick-and-mortar movie rental industry. Blockbuster was earning $600 million a year of revenue in just late fees! Netflix’s business model was a killer, and has essentially killed Blockbuster’s profitability since. After trying to “catch up” and remove late fees themselves, and offering their own mail-order and online services, Blockbuster has failed to catch up. This year they even reinstated late fees.
Netflix’s ability to think ahead of the curve, “change the game,” and think about what would benefit the customer most (in this case, enhanced convenience), even if it cost them money in the short term or required a new way of thinking- ultimately put them in the lead to stay. Very similar to the costly Zappos policy of “Free Returns” that has similarly paid them huge dividends.
Goes to show that sometimes to benefit in the long term, you need to be bold in the short term. What is your version of “No Late Fees?”
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