A letter to you, mr/mrs CEO.

I know. You’re busy and are not in the mood for another pitch. But either way, I’m going for it. There is one question I need to ask you: do you listen to your customers? No, but really, do you truly listen? I mean face-to-face, listening to his story, his needs and dreams, his pains and gains. You do? Praise the lord, I’m sure you’ll do great in life. Not sure? That equals no. Listen up.

Listening to your customers is not the same as checking up on the analytics or having a 4 star rating on Tripadvisor. It’s not about the average net promotor score (even though it can be useful). It’s not about A/B testing a brighter button.

Okay, what is it about then, mister know-it-all? Well, it’s about listening to your customer in his natural habitat, it’s about how he lives, thinks, loves. Know this about your customer and you know the most valuable thing. Maybe he hates sellers in fancy costumes (no offense), maybe she is tired of that same old sales pitch.

Why listen to us, you ask? We learned it the hard way. After years of creating brands and receiving briefings, we knew something wasn’t right. Our clients told us what they needed, self-diagnosed. If we had a dollar for each time we heard ‘my website is not cool anymore’, ‘we need a new logo’…

And all we did, was execute. ‘Yes, of course, a new logo! A new website? Sure, here you go!’. But then, it turned out, it didn’t have the desired effect or their customers didn’t get it. Of course not! Why would they? People get 10.000 messages a day sent their way, including this one.

Enough with all the lecturing, this is how you can make yourself stand out. Be honest, sincere, authentic (you know, what every brand claims to be nowadays). But there is more. Be a brand that is brave enough to bring you something that’s not only about themselves. A brand that seems to get you and has your back.

70% of all companies follow industry standards, Gathering best practices and doing the same, because ‘it works, we’ve seen it’. Like relay runners, passing on the same imaginary batton, with the customer standing on the sidelines shouting: Hey mr/mrs CEO, we’ve got your batton right here!

Enough with the small talk, here comes the real kicker! We at Ollie help you to listen to your customers and build a brave, strong brand that stands out from the busy crowd and generates loyal fans.

Want to talk more? Shoot me an email at stef@olliebranding.com