I recently went through the trauma of a hard drive failure on my faithful LG notebook.  After several weeks delay and a couple of hundred bucks it finally arrived home safely this week.

First, thanks to Josh at Staples who saved my data!  It’s now safely ensconced on my external drive, awaiting the day when I need to find something from the past.  The challenge ahead is to start restoring the things I need to my relatively pristine computer.

One important discovery, in the first few days I’ve had my laptop back, is that I have a lot of “stuff” that I really don’t need on a daily basis.  Office applications are important, as are my financial tools.  Beyond that it’s really nice to have a clean desktop which allows me to focus on the things at hand, not things from the past.

This also applies to business.  We collect reams of data; spending many dollars, hours and terabytes sourcing, analysing and storing “stuff” about our customers and markets.  Perhaps we need to step back once in awhile and revisit our needs.  Start with the simple “stuff”, like “What are our customers saying about us?”  Spend less time collecting and more time engaging.

In many ways the experience has been liberating and has taught me a lesson I intend to apply in other areas of my life:

• Buy only what you really need.
• Before you save something, ask yourself why.  Will I ever use this again?
• If you decide to buy or save something, will it replace something else?  If so, get rid of the thing you are replacing.
• Go through your “stuff” periodically and purge those things which you have not used, have been replaced or aren’t useful any longer.

Our footprint has become increasingly large over time.  Now is the moment to stop the sprawl!

Happy purging,

Steve and Megann

We’ve spent lots of time talking with clients about making sure they communicate through all five senses to their customers. Some folks are auditory learners – they need to hear the information. Some are visual learners – they need to see it. And some need to use scent, or music, taste or touch to decode a message so that it’s meaningful for them. But when you’re market sensing, are you using all five senses? You may be reviewing data, interviewing them, or reading their blogs about your brand. But observation (whether by ethnography, or during a more structured interaction, like a focus group) can reveal a whole subtext of feedback that doesn’t involve words. Just asking questions isn’t enough. So when you’re trying to find out what they think, do, and feel, pay attention to whether they encoding their messages to you, with colours, textures, or sounds. Give them a chance to use all five senses to describe their thoughts on you, your brand, or your new idea. You might find a surprising and wonderful new way to give them what they want – and to strengthen their bond with you.

Dreaming of customers…in colour,

Megann and Steve