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Preface and

acknowledgements

I have always held a view that businesses who serve their customers with better products and better service will do better than those that don’t. The purpose of business should be to solve a problem for their customer and address their needs. In my world this purpose is ahead of the profit purpose. The reason is not that profit does not matter; it is essential for the business to prosper. But without a customer purpose, the business will not enjoy sustainable profitable growth. This view is not a moral or principled position, but instead is a practical approach to creating a strong brand in a successful business.

When I started business in 1979, I was somewhat surprised to discover that many people did not hold to these priorities. Helping customers solve a problem with products that address their needs is quite often seen as subordinate to achieving short-term profit results. As a result of seeing this reaction from others, for quite a while, I questioned my view that serving customers was the priority and went along with the prevailing views of people around me that short-term results trumped everything. I always campaigned for my way, which was to focus on doing what would attract more customers, but I did not always win the argument.

Over the years with more experience and with more education, studying and research, I have developed my view of what works best. This book, Attractive Thinking, is my explanation and analysis of this. It is not just theoretical; it is a practical handbook on how to take this approach.

Part I starts with a rapid tour of the prevailing theory and research on how customers behave, how to attract customers and how to build brands. I will discuss the principles of an approach I call Attractive Thinking and contrast it with Extractive Thinking. In Part II, I then move on to show you a practical five-step framework for building a brand that will attract more customers. This involves answering five questions. The questions are simple but answering them takes graft, creativity and persistence. I also look at research and evidence on how to get to a strategy that everyone is convinced will work. Getting support from everyone for the strategy is hard. I have conducted research into this via my own consultancy, and several academics and the big consultancies have researched and reported on how to win support for a brand strategy. In the final two chapters (8 and 9) I will explore methods and tactics on how to get that engagement.

I hope you will find the book is refreshingly absent of jargon, I have tried to explain things in normal language. It is built on my experience transforming and creating brands with the world’s biggest companies such as PepsiCo, Mars, McVitie’s, HEAD and Scotts as well as some smaller businesses and high-end business-to-business (B2B) service businesses such as AON Benfield and UL. It covers consumer products, services, leisure and high-end B2B sales.

I will discuss the basics of why people buy and how customers behave. You can use this to develop your own approach that will work in your business and your industry. Every industry needs specialist knowledge. There are specifics and nuances that are important in your industry. You already know what these are. What I would like to do is to shed some light with you on the fundamentals of how customers think and behave and how to attract more of them to your business and brand. Many of these fundamentals are about customers as people and have not really changed, despite the advent of the internet, artificial intelligence, mobile telecommunications and new marketing techniques.

I will describe an approach and some principles that work across different business sectors. The fundamentals of how people buy are always about the people who are buying and not the industry that is providing. I will be covering both consumer brands and B2B brands. Now selling to businesses may seem like it is different to selling to consumers. I will argue that the differences are tactical. The principles of creating a strong brand are the same across all sectors. It is still people and individuals who buy, not institutions and organisations.

I am aiming to bring lessons from the world of big business, entrepreneurs and small business and make them accessible to anyone trying to create and manage brands. You do not need big budgets or large teams to take this approach. More money helps but it is not the key to success. The approach is rooted in how people behave and what drives their decisions to buy or not buy.

Attractive Thinking will make your brand and your organisation not just stronger but also ‘antifragile’. By answering the five questions in the five steps called PINPOINT, POSITION, PERFECT, PROMOTE and PITCH you can build an organisation and brand that is focused on helping customers solve a problem and address a need. This is dynamic and responsive to customers. Your reputation and ability will be grounded in solving that problem rather than delivering one product or one technology or one service. Your purpose will be to help customers solve that problem. This purpose becomes core to your brand and organisation.

The insights and ideas in this book come from many people and many experiences. They are my take on what matters after working with and listening to many great minds and do-ers in business. I would particularly like to thank the following people for their coaching, encouragement, advice and support on my journey.

For being loyal business partners, fantastic supporters and insightful advisors: Stacey Clark, Henry Schniewind, Shona Radford, Susie Amann, Anna Maxwell, Paul Vines and Simon Tuckey.

For reviewing the first draft and giving me invaluable feedback: Shona Radford, Marcela Flores, Jane Wiley, Mary Grant, James Gambrill, Anne Buckland and Sonya Barker.

For coaching, mentoring and supporting me at work: David Penn, Paul Adams, John Derkach, Ron McEachern, Ross Lovelock, Will Carter, Nick Wright, Martin Hummel, Daniel Priestley, Michael Harris, Andrew Priestley, Phil Martin, Julia Jones, Marion Schofield, John Wyatt, John Postlethwaite, Martyn Wilks, Marylee Sachs, Michael Constantine, Rob Gardner, Jo Rogers, Thao Dang, Guy Tolhurst, Matt Harris, Sue Harris, Suzanne Hazelton, Shireen Smith, Paul Bainsfair, Terry Stannard, Brian Chadbourne, Eric Nicoli, John McDonagh, Simon George, Robert Dodds, Steve Connors, Ian Billington, Helen Stevenson, Tony Mulderry, Arnold Veraart, Alan Pascoe, Sally Hancock, Allyson Binnie, Alain Mahaux, Matthew Taylor, Brian Markovitz, John Jagger, Tony Hillyer, Andy Williams, Patricia Bartlett, Steve Bolton, Steve Acklam, John Scriven, Alan McWalter, Tom Rundle, Wayne Mailloux, Tony McGrath, Andy Neal, Phil Barden, Mark Sugden, Robert Shaw, Nick Wright, David Booth, Rob Taylor, Andrew Easdale and Bridget Cassey.

For being amazing clients and supporters who were fun to work with and taught me at least as much as I helped them: Michelle Frost, Roula Kamhawi, Martin Breddy, Michelle Quickfall, Michael Meinhardt, Dirk Geyer, Keith Stevens, Norman Comfort, Jonathan Garner, John Hassan, Andy Roan, Omar Salim, Ziad Kaddoura, Azhar Malik, Geoff Bryant, Carol Savage, Chris Haskins, Michael Suter, Emma Carter, Brian Moreton, Rachel Collinson, Mark Doorbar, John Postlethwaite, Mark Davis, John Karakadas, Caroline Rudd, Jane Noblet, John Sandom, Mary Say, Michelle Edgington, Stuart Prime, Craig Sherwin, Chris Guy, Leigh Ashton, Jonathan Mills, Suzannah Bartlett, Anthony Newman, Alison Wheaton and Rob Stewart.

And a special thank you to Alison Jones and the Practical Inspiration team for guiding me in the process of writing and producing this book.