DRAGONFLY

Dragonflies are among the most ancient and evolved creatures on earth.

With no wings, they live under murky water for most of their lives feeding on whatever comes their way. This is life for a few months or a few years. Then for a season they breakout, get wings and morf into beautiful precision predictors. They dazzle nature with their amazing vision, speed, agility and endurance.

The dragonfly symbolizes change and maturity to cultures around the globe.

The MARKETPLACE

POWERING your BRAND

At the consumer level there are only a few functions at play into real market share and sustainability.

Here are the two most inclusive and powerful. One is perception and the other is promotion. Most consider the two functions one in the same, and while they do overlap, all activity will skew one way or the other, most likely following an 80/20 type rule. Depending on your current position in the marketplace and your ultimate destination, whether remaining local or scaling into other markets, these two functions will play distinctly different roles.

PERCEPTION BRAND - It is a combination of subtle impressions in the minds of consumers. It's what people think about a brand and its value. A powerful force, earned only through the highest degree of standards in brand prominence, consumer interaction and execution in the marketplace. This is the direct consumer experience with a brand on a routine basis. It is the foundation for winning. Without it, all other activity is temporary.

Brand Prominence

Consumer Interaction

Execution in the Marketplace

PROMOTION ACTIVITY - It is designed to get attention and move consumers into immediate action! It is the promotional side of business. Ideally a constantly evolving process that creates newness in the marketplace. Its design is to spike the business and sustain portions of those spikes. A powerful process sustainable only by building on top of a strong brand foundation.

Promote the Business

Move Consumers into Immediate Action

Create Newness in the Marketplace

Organizations that build and lead cultures around these two ideas, and do so consistently, will dominate their field and become highly profitable.

The combination wins the market share game and sustains growth on top of growth!

How we do anything is how we do everything

One of the most successful people I know is also one of the most humble. His background is an auctioneer, realtor and real-estate investor.

Recently I asked him, how did you get so good at what you do? He responded. "Well first, I wanted to be an auctioneer. Secondly, I practiced everyday for 5 years by myself before I started. And third, I kept up with what was going on in the marketplace. One and two prepared me. But its the third point that separated me. I knew my business and I still do."

This humble 90 year old man is way more than just a paragraph. But it does remind me of the quote, "How you do anything is how you do everything". Just a reflection of a life well lived.

FUELING the INNOVATIVE Spirit

I have read a few articles lately about the creative nature of entrepreneurial leaders. The articles suggest that most innovative people do not peak until later in the life stage. Most in their 40's, 50's, 60's and beyond. Encouraging!

I have had the privilege of being exposed directly to many of these people over the years. Entrepreneurs heading corporations in the hundreds of millions and others yielding to, yet influencing great works behind the scenes. I have noticed a couple of traits common among these people. The first, is a clear picture of where they are going. And the second is a dependency on a network of trusted people to get them there. The combination fuels the innovative spirit. The same is true in reverse, the lack of either, diminishes that spirit.

Reminds me of the proverb "Where there is no vision people perish". Also reminds me that most of us could use a little work in at-least one, if not both areas.

BRAND a POWERFUL FORCE

The Coca-Cola system taught me that brand is the most powerful force in business. Build properly, it creates more volume, more profit and more net worth than any other activity in business.

FUNDAMENTALS

It's never good to lose sight of the fundamentals in anything. It's the foundation where all good things are built. It's the only place where exceptional progress can be sustained and expanded into the future.

BRAND TRUST

I just glanced through a list of the top global brands of 2012 by Interbrand.

Of the top 10, half are pre baby boom and half are post. The top five formed after the first boomer are Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung. The five before are Coca-Cola, IBM, GE, Toyota and McDonalds. A couple of these are well over 100 years old and others are getting close. How do they stay relevant to a constantly evolving consumer?

There's a lengthy list of common threads among these brands that keep them at or near the top of their game. I will avoid the long list and cast a general observation, after spending 20 years inside one of these brands. They all have lost battles, been forced to adjust and rebuilt over and over again. But they are always sharply focused on the long-term health of their brand. They win the war in the end.

Lots of good reasons for their success, but at the core, they are "TRUSTED" more than any other brand in their field.

The trust factor. That's their end game!