Mindy | Sherie Griffiths

March 26, 2010

What’s Your ‘UAP’?

Filed under: Business, Marketing — Tags: 21st Century, 24 Carat, Acronym, Amp, Attraction Point, Brand Awareness, Descendant, Favour, Gibbins, Greater Awareness, Lawyers, Logic, Mindy, Perspective, Phrase, Relationships, Typo, Uap, Unique Selling Point, Usp, Usps — sheriegriffiths.com @ 9:54 am

No, that isn’t a typo in the title. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, getting ahead in marketing was all about finding your ‘USP’ – your ‘unique selling point’ or ‘proposition’. Now, it’s about three things – benefits, benefits and benefits!

I can see the logic behind that – we have to approach what we do from the customer’s perspective rather than our own (as I was saying about M & S not so long ago); but there’s a problem: Picture yourself in a room with a bunch of lawyers, coaches – or sound people, if you like. You know you need one of them, but how do you choose? Chances are, they’ll all set out broadly the same benefits. So you need to find something that distinguishes one from the rest – their ‘USP’.

Last week, I was talking about Mindy Gibbins-Klein’s book, “24 Carat BOLD”. USPs are something Mindy and I disagree on. She hates the phrase and I don’t. Ok, so that might have something to do with a bit of piggyback brand awareness – the fact that USP means something else to me, beyond the out of favour marketing acronym. Seriously, though, I do think it, or a descendant of it, has a place in marketing and brand awareness in the 21st century. These days, we’ve moved away from the hard sell culture, towards a greater awareness of the importance of building good, strong relationships in business and relationships, whatever form they take, start with attraction. So, perhaps what we should be developing is a UAP – unique attraction point. What do you think?

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March 19, 2010

“REAL” Complements

Filed under: Business, Marketing, Podcasts — Tags: 24 Carat, Acronym, Business Book, Common Ground, Common Sense, Complements, Different Ways, Dimensional Person, Gibbins, Human Voice, Longevity, Mindy, Neatness, Personal Meetings, Podcasting, Strengths And Weaknesses, Thought Leader, Thought Leaders, Uncommon Sense, Writing A Book — sheriegriffiths.com @ 10:22 am

When I finished writing – for the moment anyway – I found I had time to read. I used some of it to read “24 Carat BOLD – The Standard For Real Thought Leaders” by Mindy Gibbins-Klein.

She uses the acronym “REAL” to explain the four main attributes which she says turn a person into a “Real Thought Leader” – not just an expert in their field, but “the expert” in their field – the “go-to person”.

R – reach

E – engagement

A – authority and

L – longevity,

but if the neatness of that makes you think “Here comes another trite business book by an ‘expert’ in the blindingly obvious!”, think again. It’s solid stuff – but not stolid. Yes, there’s a lot of business common sense in there – but there’s also a lot of uncommon sense.

Mindy and I have met a few times on the networking circuit, but I didn’t realise how much common ground we have until I read the book. She recommends getting “REAL” by writing a book, because that’s her specialism and there’s still no substitute for giving someone something tangible to remember you by. I recommend getting “REAL” through podcasting, because that’s my specialism and there’s no substitute for the human voice. Every aspect of that acronym applies to using sound as it does to print. I’m not anti-print by any means, as you know – I’m about to go into it myself! As an obsessive communicator, I’m not anti any medium. A couple of weeks ago, when I was having a go at the BBC Strategy Review, I said I was a “multi-dimensional person” whose needs couldn’t all be met by one product. All the different ways of touching people – personal meetings, phone, email, the printed word, audio, video, online interaction –have their respective strengths and weaknesses. So they all have a place and work best when they work together – like people really.

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