Resources

Start from a position of strength. Build from the value you provide today via email and content assets like whitepapers. Use response data from these channels to understand what topics engage. Build on them via social conversations. Ask questions. Start your social strategy with, “How can I help you?” Only sell after you have relationships. (Just like in offline, in-person sales, if you build the relationship well, and focus on needs identification, you never have to hard sell.) Put community on the “front page.” Remember that there is no front page any more – search landing pages and community sites that are owned elsewhere can be just as important as your home page. Track it. Measure engagement and not just reach. Although this could be defined in a lot of ways, and there is buzz now around tracking visibility and ideas and share of voice; the bottom line is the bottom line. This is business. Measure ROI by how much lift/revenue you received. Be disciplined. Not everyone will be interested in every thought you have or every movement of your company. Keep the subscriber/customer interest in mind. Thank everyone. While you can offer tangible incentives, loyal fans mostly want to be thanked. Celebrate them. Let them know they matter. Say “Happy Birthday” to your fans. Personal brand matters. You are stuck with yourself even if you change companies. One builds the other. This works both ways – as employees who build your corporate brand may depart, while others step up.

Reinvent (products). When using a basic product—the kind your company also sells—what about it makes it cumbersome to use? How would you consider making changes to it to make it easier or more convenient to use? Sometimes the most mundane products can become anything but commodities thanks to insightful redesigns. OXO reinvented the humble potato peeler to be more ergonomic—the rest is history. Question, question, question. Just because every product in a category is made with essentially the same features, and always has been, does that mean we can’t find a better way to build a mousetrap? OXO redesigned the humble measuring cup so that cooks could see the measurement lines from the inside; making the task much easier. Become detail-oriented. Identify common problems from all of the current product designs in the marketplace, and redesign them until they work as they should. Tip: company owners, management and rank and file employees make great product testers. Input and observations from them help move the process along. OXO’s Uplift Tea Kettle’s lid automatically flips up when pouring hot water out; no more steam burns. Create an employee focus group. Let your employees use your products constantly and then encourage a flow of suggestions on how to improve them. OXO’s Pour & Store Watering Can was modified when the company’s city dwellers asked for a rotating spout that would make storage easier in small apartments. What a great idea! Be unique & consistent at the same time. Make sure all of your products express your brand’s unique point of view. Stand for something and then follow through so that consumers will know that every single product out there is truly your company’s. OXO “Good Grips” means product designs everyone can use—regardless what their disabilities might be. That holds true in every category OXO positions products in. License intelligently—selectively. The lure of more earnings is hard to resist. But—it’s more important to protect the brand than to allow any and every potential licensing partner to use your brand name. OXO recently collaborated with UCB, a pharmaceutical firm, to develop a syringe with oversized plunger to make it easier for arthritics to inject much-needed medicine easily. However, OXO resists licensing its brand to many would-be partners. Know your customer. Understand your market. Adapt as needed for various markets. Ask yourself: how are customers using our products? If they are choosing not to use them, how can we make design changes to encourage them to do so? When OXO first launched its products in Asia in 2006, the Japanese market found the oversized products absurd for their small kitchens. OXO responded by shrinking the sizes of its offerings and opened a studio in Tokyo to get to know its customers. Reuse innovation concepts. Design solutions that work for one product may be ideal for additional products. When OXO made home cleaning tools, the company adapted the same comfortably large gripping surfaces to each one so that the desired results could be achieved, using minimum hand pressure. Make products more versatile. When developing a new product, think how it might multi-task. . .how it might handle multiple problems. Universal products rule. OXO improved the basic jar opener, for example, that could open many sizes of lids while still being easy to use. Encourage negative feedback. Ask employees and customers about products they’re currently using that you don’t even offer. What don’t they like about current offerings in the marketplace? And what might your company do to improve them? OXO Tot was launched with 69 new products for babies and young children due to employees’ complaints that high chairs and sippy cups were rapidly outgrown. OXO made insightful modifications: high chairs can be easily converted to “big-kid seats” and handles slide off sippy cups for toddlers.

Five Guideposts to Turn Defeat Into Victory

Study setbacks to pave your way to success. When you lose, learn, and then go on to win next time. Have the courage to be your own constructive critic. Seek out your faults and weaknesses then correct them. This makes you a professional. Stop blaming luck. Research each setback. Find out what went wrong. Remember, blaming luck never got anyone where he wanted to go. Blend persistence with experimentation. Stay with your goal but don't beat your head against a stone wall. Try new approaches. Experiment. Remember, there is a good side in every situation. Find it. See the good side and whip discouragement.