Joshua Smith Quotes

People learn by comparison.

They learn by comparing new things to the things they already know. That’s why redefining a category is much easier than creating a new one.

When you position your product in an existing category you’re essentially saying “it’s like something you already know but better”.

When you try to create a new product category you’re essentially saying “it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before”.

That’s a provocative statement, but hard to learn by.

Joshua Porter “How to redefine a product category” (via peterspear)
Joshua Smith Quotes

Persuasion has a bad reputation because it’s associated with selling things to people, sometimes selling them things they don’t even want.

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith Quotes

When it comes time to pitch, you’ll be amazed by how powerful your persuasion skills have become simply because you understand a little more about the field and what drives it.

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith Quotes

Storytelling is the most powerful form of communication ever invented.

Through stories we learn, entertain, communicate, and socialize with each other.

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith Quotes

From your smart TV to your iPhone to your iPad, we’re seeing more but reading less.

All courtesy of digital technology.

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith Quotes

Facebook’s pages platform reaches only six percent of a brand’s followers; and it’s headed down to one to two percent.

If businesses want to make sure that people see their content, the best strategy is, and always has been, paid advertising.

The Golden Age of Bullshit by Bob Hoffman citing Time Magazine and a Facebook spokesperson for Time Magazine
Joshua Smith Quotes

Improving customer service is about dealing with expectations and dealing with absolutely crucial points in the process more than just actually trying to improve everything evenly.

Rory Sutherland – The next revolution will be psychological not technological
Joshua Smith Quotes

The research interview process does more than merely ignore critical components of why people behave as they do, it changes how and what they think.

Consumer.ology by Philip Graves
Joshua Smith Quotes

When we have strong positive emotions about a brand we seek supporting evidence and ignore contradictory facts.

7 unconscious errors we make when buying brands by Douglas Van Praet
Joshua Smith Quotes

Participation isn’t enough.

Having a more clear-sighted view on people’s real world buying behaviours and thus which consumers actually matter to the generation of revenue and profit begins to gives us a framework for thinking about participation.

The Participation Paradox by Martin Weigel
Joshua Smith Quotes

Our rational mind is always looking for evidence to support our dominant beliefs…

the stronger the emotion, the stronger the belief, and the greater the tendency to seek out supporting evidence.

This confirmatory bias is why we often overlook the flaws of the ones we love, even if that loved one is a brand.

We focus our attention on the positive qualities of the brand while ignoring the deficiencies.

7 unconscious errors we make when buying brands by Douglas Van Praet
Joshua Smith Quotes

Recognizing that brands aren’t simply built upon exclusive loyalty but are highly dependent on vast numbers of light, polygamous buyers – and that growth comes from acquiring more of them, not increasingly the loyalty of current buyers – puts the role of the ‘fan’ into proper perspective.

The Participation Paradox by Martin Weigel
Joshua Smith Quotes

When people buy T-shirts just for the logo on it, it shows how much people care for that brand – and is another source of revenue for the company.

Brand Jam by Marc Gobé
Joshua Smith interview

Don’t confuse innovation with novelty.

You may have successfully designed the latest shiny object for people to get excited about…at least until a new shiny object came out.

And that’s the reason product features are more a novelty than an innovation. They are added in an attempt to differentiate, but not reinvent.

It’s not a bad thing, but it can’t be counted on to add any long-term value.

Novelty can drive sales, but the impact does not last.

Start With Why by Simon Sinek
Joshua Smith interview

The people LEAST likely to engage deeply are the MOST important for growth.

There is a way out of this paradox. But it requires us to embrace two principles:

1) Battle for interest, not attention

2)Fans are actors, not the audience

The Participation Paradox by Martin Weigel
Joshua Smith interview

Moments of discovery are often accompanied by surprised laughter;

when I heard laughter he could took it as a cue that there might be something going on that was worth looking at.

Consumer.ology by Philip Graves citing former dean of Yale Medical School, Lewis Thomas
Joshua Smith Quotes

Rather than simply stating the facts most advertisers typically embed their message into creative contextual devices that evoke feelings and bypass rational resistance.

This is why advertisers use stories, poems, slogans, songs, jokes, pictures, symbols, characters, roles, and metaphors.

They are particularly ripe marketing tools, because they lead the imagination and evoke the feelings that strike at our heart not our head.

7 unconscious errors we make when buying brands by Douglas Van Praet