Drilling for Diamonds

Every industry I work with is relentlessly under attack from commoditizers.

When Bronco Wine Company, now the fourth largest wine producer in the U.S. produced an under $2 bottle of wine, industry insiders treated the offering with contempt.

The quality had to be CRAP, and I don’t mean CReative Accounting Practice.

Critics and fans have named the product “Two-Buck Chuck.” So imagine the surprise, at the 2004 Eastern Wine Competition, Bronco’s 202 Shiraz won the coveted double gold medal from a field of 2,300 entries.

It will be interesting to watch the reaction to the high-end $3.99 Merlots and Chardonnays, nick-named “Four-Buck Fred.”

You may hate the Two-Buck Chucks of this world, but unless you come with a superior value proposition that sets you apart your business is history.

Popularity: 17% [?]

What is a brand?

Since businesses are in the promise keeping business, your brand is the promise you make to your customers.

So imagine the shock when it was revealed that the venerable BBC got caught lying to its Blue Peter audience of children.

The Blue Peter staff ignored the results of an online poll to name a new kitten. They rejected the winning name the kids chose of “Cookie” and called it “Socks” instead.

When customers found out the BBC had lied to its Blue Peter audience, they began to question the very integrity of the BBC.

The BBC has been one of the world’s most credible sources of trustworthy news. Think back to World War II when it transmitted news into Nazi dominated Europe.

How the mighty have stumbled.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Most of us are familiar with the power of goal setting. Setting SMART goals must be one of the most common acronyms used by trainers and coaches.

SMART stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-driven

Graham Jones and Adrian Moorehouse in their book Developing Mental Toughness, have coined a new acronym INSPIRED which I think works even better. Why? Because it adds the emotional element to goal setting which is lacking in the SMART formula.

The INSPIRED Formula is:

Internalized
Nurturing
Specific
Planned
In your control
Reviewed regularly
Energizing
Documented

Popularity: 15% [?]

Assumptions are the mother of all stuff ups.

All companies continue to pay for making the wrong assumptions about customers.

Proctor and Gamble (P&G), one of the world’s largest and most profitable consumer companies, recently launched its highly successful Swiffer Wet Mop in Italy.

P&G researched the Italian market. Italians spend an average of 21 hours a week on household chores. Americans spend just four hours on similar chores. Italians wash their kitchen floors and bathroom four times a week or more, compared to American’s who wash their floor just once a week.

So how come the Swiffer flopped? P&G sold Swiffer as a labor saving convenience which turned out to be a big turnoff for Italians.

Italian women prefer products that are tough cleaners, not timesavers.

Italian women didn’t believe the Swiffer was tough enough for mopping, so they used the Swiffer for polishing, rather than mopping.

P&G learned from their mistake. They launched the Swiffer Duster which did a light job well with timesaving convenience. Sales took off. Italy is now the biggest European market for Swiffer.

This story taken from Robert H. Bloom’s book The Inside Advantage underscores two vitally important lessons about customers.

“First and most obvious, what works in one market or with one customer does not work with others. One size does not fit all…Second and even more important, it’s not enough to define your customer as a market statistic.”

Popularity: 15% [?]