DW's Blog

Served

by DW Green — May 22, 2019

Happy Memorial Day.

One of our clients offered a 10% Off Military Discount to all veterans, active duty military and family members for Memorial Day. The only purchase exclusion, gift cards. Many retailers offer similar promotions for Memorial Day. I think this is a great promotion. I especially like the minimum purchase exclusion. It’s important to honor our servicemen and women and their families. They willingly volunteer to protect our freedom, our way of life and our country. My dad served in WWII and my good friends Ron Short and John Jella served in Vietnam. All brave, selfless men. The word served is huge. It describes what our military does. To serve their country. Thank you.I will add this to my promotion list for next year.

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by DW Green — April 24, 2019

People are emotionally connected to grocers

I’ve been an advocate of emotional branding for more than twenty years. A company’s ability to connect emotionally with their customers is a huge, huge benefit and competitive advantage. But it doesn’t happen on its own. Emotional branding needs to be a cornerstone of a company’s brand. It needs to be stated and implemented in every daily activity performed.I read an interesting article by Amit Sharma, in the April 18, 2019 Harvard Business Review, entitled What the Grocery Stores Holding Their Own Against Amazon Are Doing Right. The following is an excerpt from the article.“Emotional connection is another driver of loyalty; our survey found that 50% of consumers are more likely to buy again from a brand that connects with them emotionally or reflects their values. People are emotionally connected to grocers, as utilitarian as grocery shopping may seem. For example, Trader Joe’s, which ranked highly in the C Space study, inspires loyalty by creating an enjoyable shopping atmosphere. A 2018 Forrester survey of 287 brands rated T...

by DW Green — April 17, 2019

The meeting of our inner and outer lives is called integrity.

“To thine own self be true” writes William Shakespeare in Hamlet. “Let your conscience be your guide” the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio and then asks Jiminy Cricket to serve as Pinocchio’s conscience.Integrity is an important and powerful quality. To be referred to as a person of integrity is the ultimate compliment. I have come to realize that my life experience is about the journey toward wholeness, and to seek wholeness, is to live from a place of integrity. Conscience is the alarm that goes off when integrity is at risk, when wholeness is splintered.“The meeting of our inner and outer lives is called integrity, and the health of our integrity often determines our inner strength and resilience in meeting the outer world. This is the purpose of integrity, to balance the outer forces of existence with the inner forces of spirit,” Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk. One of the most useful definitions of integrity comes from Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man: Integrity is the ability to listen to a place inside oneself that doesn’t change, even though the life that carries it may change.So living from integrity is when our actions, our outer life are in sync with our inner...

by DW Green — April 10, 2019

Trying to control our lives limits us.

Learning what we can control and what we can’t, makes life’s journey a more pleasant and interesting one.“The closest thing to being in control we’ll ever be is in that moment when we realize we’re not.” — Brian KesslerGustavo Razetti writes the following in an article entitled Control Less, Trust More, “Happiness is about being in charge of your life not controlling every aspect of it.Not everything that matters can be controlled, and not everything that can be controlled matters.That’s the paradox with life: we want things our way, yet, most of the times, things take on a life of their own. What if we stop trying to control everything? And start trusting our ability to adapt?Letting go of control doesn’t mean not caring. But keeping our minds and hearts open — to make room for the unexpected.As Shakespeare wrote, “Come what come may. Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. One way or another, what’s going to happen is going to happen.” (I like Shakespeare. He’s one insightful dude! My words)“Being in control might bring you serenity at the expense of driving everyone else crazy.Control is ...

by DW Green — April 3, 2019

The status quo impedes the search for competitive advantage.

I was reading an article on leadership the other day. The following from Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company, makes really good sense to me.“The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action—an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign—even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special.”It’s been my experience that following the status quo promotes imitation rather than innovation. Leadership is about discovering and performing different activities from rivals or performing similar activities in different ways. Differentiation arises from both the choice of activities and how they are performed. Activities, then, are the basic units of competitive advantage. Overall advantage or disadvantage results from all of a company’s activities, not only a few. The status quo often impedes the search for competitive advantage.

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Timeless

by DW Green — March 27, 2019

Strong brands are enduring and successful over time.

Time is just an illusion. Albert Einstein said, “The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Hmm.Well, this blog post is not about time as an illusion, but indirectly, it is about time.In my view a company’s BRAND is its most important asset. Strong brands are enduring and successful over time. Weak brands not so much. Wise leaders protect their brand by investing in their brand image. The brand is what connects their business with their customers, community and employees. Controlling expenses is critical but not at the expense of diluting or harming the brand. Marketing and promotional design must reflect the nature and professionalism of the brand. Poor design can have a negative effect on the relationship between the brand and its stakeholders.2019 marks the 100^th Anniversary of the National Football League. Impressive. Even with their recent hiccups, the NFL is a very successful and enduring brand!