Play yo' part

Last week I talked about ING and a newsletter I got from them, specifically about how it contained only a small amount of information I was actually interested in and a big chunk of stuff I didn't want to know about. Like an eager kid banging at my door to tell me about their day, once I've gotten a "No" to my question of "Did anything bad happen?" I have what I need to know.

When brands step outside the zone they have asked permission to occupy (those that are smart enough to get permission anyway), they're jumping the shark, they're stepping into territory where they don't have credibility, and all the onlookers can do is sigh and roll their eyes.

In the same way the web has allowed the proliferation of niches, it means brands are afforded smaller and smaller spaces to occupy in our lives. What they need to work on is owning that niche, becoming a credible and trusted source. Once they have that down, they can expand - carefully. The move for ING from savings account bank to home loan bank isn't a huge step for anyone to make; when they start talking about dolphins, this is where I lose interest.

Know your role, and play your part. Meet expectations consistently and you'll be afforded the platform to grow, one piece at a time.

Tomorrow I'm going to look at how expectations support a brand and tie into the customer's willingness to pay.

--

Image courtesy of discola with thanks to compfight.

Hope and Value

A couple weeks back I had the pleasure of speaking at an off-site day for Hippo Jobs where I am currently earning a crust heading up their product development and online strategy. I'd been banging on so much about value recently that I thought I'd subject my co-workers to it.

Along the way I had an insight though; what we were referring to as "value" internally was actually a price point, and value was something intangible; it meant something different to every person you could meet. Value was in fact set by the end consumer and not by the producer! I don't know about you but that completely flips my thinking on it. So along the way I diverged from my original thoughts and tried to explore that idea a little bit more - thank you to Tara who clued me into the "willingness to pay" idea.

I don't think I quite nailed it (nor do I think my presentation makes a whole lot of sense without me talking), but I'm not done thinking about this. I could be overstating it, but I think drilling down deeper on this notion of value is worthwhile, and it's going to consume my thinking regardless. You're already along for the ride, so you may as well get involved. What's something that's been genuinely valuable to you irrespective of the price point?

[slideshare id=377623&doc=offsite-prez-1209392828328284-8&w=425]

*Complete aside* - first time using Slideshare. I like it for the most part, and though Arun (who works there) took me through a few of the decisions around functionality, I still think it should load faster! =] Cheers mate.