ThinkAbout: Inspirational Verve for Your Product Line!

One of the most important ways I strengthen my clients’ brands and product lines is by collaborating with their leaders to craft these clarifying fit charts. These are simple, defining visual road maps or infographics that help identify the brand's differentiators with a few key words or phrases. This works for product lines as well. Once these fit charts are done, they provide the guardrails for all sorts of brand and product creativity. Let's look at where this lead for one omnichannel retailer:

Brands these days want their customers to know that there are real aficionados behind their product doors, dreaming, creating and delivering unique and carefully curated goods they hope will be spot on for their customers. Brands tout this as "By and For," as in created "by teachers for teachers," "by chefs for chefs" or "designed by fashionistas for fashionistas." These merchants and brand builders are full-time users of the products they bring to market. A brand's By and For strategy cannot be faked.

What holiday best represents your brand? How might the successes from that season be a springboard for others? What whimsical ways can you surprise and delight your customers through seasonal product promotions? What's waiting to be "just born" in your product offering?

"There's more to life than furniture" declares a bold headline in a recent Ikea catalog. Perhaps a somewhat surprising statement from the world's leading home furnishings company. But if you know Ikea, then you know that it positions itself as "life improvers."

With the beginning of a new year comes all sorts of prompts from brands, infomercials and various social media toward new behaviors — e.g., weight loss, exercise, decluttering, eating healthy, simplifying your financial record keeping, etc. It's also a good time to ask yourself just how exactly your company helps its customers achieve their goals. Is your brand inspirational and motivational enough to turn your customers into doers? Let's look how one brand masters the art of motivation:

As the year comes to a close, take a moment and take stock of how often your products or services delighted your customers these past 12 months. Delight is a verb worth striving for. Here's how one brand lives it out year-round: