the ninety nine

We spend ninety nine percent of our time, thinking about us. What we look like, how we are behaving, how we feel and how others are perceiving us. As marketers ninety nine percent of our time is spent thinking about how the brand self identifies, what it looks like, how it is positioned, how its is advertised. One percent of our time is therefore left with the proposition of “what’s going on in the mind of the consumer”.

ninety nine things, I think I think

1. Objectivity is a rare and precious commodity, it’s value never goes down.
2. Objectivity equals truth
3. Objectivity equals clarity

4. Bias equals blindness
5. Bias is a silent killer
6. Agency integration is the perfect host for Bias

7. Your agency can not do everything
8. Your agency should not do everything
9. Your agency occasionally isn’t doing anything
10. Managing everything your agency said they would be doing has become a full time job
11. Your agency is telling you the last campaign was loved by your customers
12. Your agency uses the phrase “very successful” a lot
13. Your last agency said the same thing
14. So will your next

15. The customer demands that you get it right
16. Customers change their mind
17. Nobody owns the customer
18. You are a customer
19. Your customer isn’t 25 to 34 years old
20. Your customer isn’t upwardly mobile
21. Your customer isn’t a brief
22. Your customer isn’t as complex as you think they are
23. Reward your customer, when they are happy
24. Understand why your customer is mad
25. Run a contest where every single customer wins
26. Your customer wants you to succeed
27. Your customer is your Mom, act accordingly


28. Customer satisfaction surveys are a giant waste of time and money, as long as it’s you whose asking the questions.
29. Your automated voice recognition call center is universally hated

30. We buy when we self identify
31. We all love to shop for something
32. Some people even love to shop for nothing
33. Buying is an essentially emotional act
34. Turning off your service is an entirely emotional act
35. There’s a trend here

36. Your brand measurement analysis is probably wrong
37. Some company is charging you through the teeth to tell you what you want to hear.
38. Brand experience is the ultimate truth
39. Positive brand experience happens through hard work
40. Negative brand experience happens through hard work
41. Hard work isn’t the answer

42. Do you use your brand
43. Do you buy your brand?
44. Call your hotline, ask a question, did you get the right answer
45. Did you answer yes to all of the above?

46. Value is a floating barometer
47. Value is subjective
48. Value is fleeting
49. Value is not provided, it is perceived
50. Value is not a proposition

51. Let a small idea get big
52. Big Ideas make good copy and bad reality
53. It’s your customers who validate your ideas

54. If your brand doesn’t stand for something, it stands for nothing
55. Make your brand stand for something
56. Volvo doesn’t sell excitement, if they did, they would be finished and they know that.
57. Ferrari has never been in a price war
58. GM has never been out of one
59. No one ever started a price war because they were gaining market share

60. If your talking to kids, they are smarter than you think
61. If your talking to parents they have less time than you think


62. I don’t want to be bundled
63. If I am unbundling myself don’t penalize me
64. If you are penalizing your customers, you will eventually lose your customers
65. Customer rewards can also be spontaneous
66. Be spontaneous


67. The competition is not your enemy
68. The enemy is arrogance, complexity and complacency
69. Look for ideas in completely foreign places
70. Embrace simplicity

71. Usability is the foundation of your website
72. Usefulness is its goal
73. Enjoyable is the objective

74. There are more magazines today, than at any point in history
75. We don’t read web sites in the bathtub
76. Let different media complement each other

77. Don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself
78. Don’t afraid to say we were wrong
79. Don’t be afraid, period
80. The enemy of fear is education

81. Relationships aren’t built on commitment, they are built on trust
82. The essence of a relationship is love
83. Your customers wont love you, unless you love them
84. Your customer is promiscuous, not through desire, but need.

85. Right now someone is taking your customer for granted
86. Right now you are thinking about yourself
87. Right now we are thinking about you

88. Thinking is the opposite of nothing
89. Bad thinking is worse than nothing
90. Great thinking is sustainable
91. Bad thinking is always exposed

92. You can’t think of everything
93. You can’t fix everything that’s broken
94. If something is broken, try and figure out why before you fix it


95. If you’re going to dress up like a cowboy, make sure you’ve got more cattle than hats.
96. Don’t be something your not

97. You spend 99 percent of the time, thinking about you, That leaves what, for the customer………………..
98. Be Bold
99. Be someone's hero