Essays to stand the f*ck out
Positioning, differentiation, and the uncomfortable truths most B2B companies avoid.
Pratfall Effect: How to Use It in Marketing (6 Examples)
The pratfall effect: People who show their imperfections tend to be more trusted. Your competitors probably aren't using it. There's so much bragging, so much bullshit, so much lying.
Distinctive Brand Assets: Definition & 5 Steps to Create Them
I didn't realize it then, but I first learned about distinctive brand assets when I was a teenager in France. There was a TV show called Les Guignols de l'info which broadcasted every evening before dinner. It was 8 glorious minutes of celebrity puppets acting out the news.
How I've Made $60,300 With One Single Email (A No-Bull Story)
I've made $60,300 selling 25 seats of my program Stand The F*ck Out with one single email. Here's how it happened.
Is Blue Ocean Strategy Risky? Examples & Key Disadvantages
The blue ocean strategy has one big, gigantic, disadvantage that you might need to hear. There are no blue oceans, only ONE, GIGANTIC, RED ocean.
Buyer Personas Need to Die a Violent Death
Buyer personas don't work. Or do they? Traditional buyer personas need to die because they're full of demographics information that has nothing to do with the reasons why people buy your stuff.
Buying Triggers: 6 Steps to Create Explosive Demand
Buying triggers are perhaps best explained with video games. Much like TNT which needs a trigger to explode, people don't buy unless something causes them to buy.
13 Positioning Principles From Hungry Hungry Hippos
Positioning is like playing a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. If the marbles are your potential buyers, and if your product/service is the hippo, you'd better position your hippo to gobble up enough marbles so it doesn't starve.
Category Creation: 4 Reasons to NEVER Do It
You've read books on category creation. You've listened to all of the podcast episodes mentioning it. Who doesn't want to live in a world where their product is the only product in a specific category? It seems like the best way to stand out. But I beg you, don't try to create a new category.
Challenge Category Conventions in 7 Steps (+ Examples)
In a way, challenging category conventions is something I've been doing since I was a kid. Channel your intellectual terrorist mindset with this question: 'What's the one thing you hate the most about this category?'
Daft Punk: 5 Marketing Lessons to Make Your Business Famous
I had this idea of doing a marketing analysis of Daft Punk ever since I've been doubling down on radical differentiation. I love the way they've been zagging when other electronic music artists were zigging.
How to Influence Buying Decisions Without Being Shady
Facts don't influence customer buying decisions. So, what does? You can't change people's minds with data. Instead, encourage them to change their own minds.
Narrative Design: Craft a Story Using Conspiracy Principles
When I'm designing a product narrative, I think back to when I was in high school. I had a friend who believed in all sorts of conspiracy theories. Weirdly, believing in them made me feel better. I was making sense of the world.
Product Positioning in 6 No-BS Steps [From 7 Real Experts]
One of the hardest-to-miss symptoms of poor positioning is this: Buyers do not understand what you're selling. And, because they aren't sure if they want any, you probably aren't selling all that much.