Have you ever been to a sporting event and spent the majority of the time watching the game on the jumbo tron? Why is that? This is mostly due to the fact that technology provides us a better perspective to view the game and enjoy the detail that we generally miss with our own two eyes. Much is the same in business where we spend so much time close to the action, we tend to miss the finer points, the small details, the personal touches, that our clients and customers really appreciate.
I never anointed myself as the sharpest tool in the shed or someone with a special methodology or magic wand, I just see things differently. This doesn’t buy you a lot of fans in the traditional business sense, but guess what? Traditional business models died a while back, maybe you missed the obituary. I can walk into almost any business and find a minimum of five things that could be tweaked, fixed, added or deleted that would either generate additional revenue or save on cost. This is not a special talent, it’s just utilizing my senses of observation, perception, curiosity, understanding of basic consumer habits, and just plain giving a shit. See, sometimes when you’re personally engrossed in the forest, you can’t see the tree. I see both. You’re welcome by the way for the pun.
Lifestyle Brands have become a particular fascination for me. I watch how they market on social media, how they project themselves to the public, and how they tend to get caught up in their own world of hype and competition, all the while missing out on achieving their ultimate potential by not doing the things that actually matter. That frustrates the shit out of me, because I want folks to succeed. Don’t get me wrong, there are a handful of companies out there that really get it. They study it, drink it, eat it and live it. They make the moves that are seamless and transparent without ever missing a step. These are the companies that understand themselves inside and out. They understand their role, and they understand their customer more than the customer understands themselves.
If your current business mantra is; “the customer matters” that is about as prevalent today as saying; “thoughts and prayers”. It’s a nice gesture, but is completely veiled and means virtually nothing. The devil is in the details, people. That separates the men from the boys or the women from the girls. This is not rocket science. You do not have to discover a new element for the periodic chart to make a difference, or to make more money, find new customers, or retain the ones you already have. You just have to pay attention…. very close attention, broaden your perspective, be observant, be curious, have compassion, try the shoe on the other foot, but most of all, give a shit, in fact, give two shits!! No more just going through the motions, Bucky or Becky.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in an era where we have a trillion dollar mass retailer (yes, that is twelve zeros), razors and t-shirts are now a subscription service, A Big Mac can be delivered to your door at 3a, an exercise bike is the new Apple of fitness, everyone and anything can be a brand, and the first pandemic in 100 years has us in a stranglehold and won’t let go. So what does all this mean? Let’s loop back to the beginning where I said traditional business models are dead. Not only are they dead, they’ve been buried and forgotten already. So if you’re a brand that in its infancy, a brand in its adolescence, or a brand that is old and wrinkled, but still standing, ask yourself; Do I know my company? Do we understand our role? Do we understand our customer? Do we give a shit and mean it? Can we create the future? If you can’t answer this, mediocrity will eventually be your death star.
Be well my friends!
p.s. I used the word “shit” four times. If this offends you, fantastic! Then at least I know you read the article.