Boring is Not Your Adjective Unless You Choose It

There's no such thing as a boring business unless you choose to do nothing other than hope that people will buy your stuff.  Jeremy Epstein started me down this train of thought with his latest post, Find the Inherent Drama - Lessons from Leo Burnett on his Never Stop Marketing Blog (and I highly recommend you subscribe, too).   I've also been keeping tabs on a great discussion on {grow} talking about Social Media and the small business.  And I've been thinking for some time about how my chiropractor is squandering his Facebook page.  Then I recall the lawn equipment company that called me a year or so ago for help with their website (I recommended that the contact someone else). 

Is chiropractic boring?  To some, I expect.  If you hurt, you go see him.  If you don't hurt, you don't think about him.  How about lawn equipment?  Oh yeah.  Once you buy a mower you only need these places if it breaks, right?

Yet there is so much opportunity in both of these areas, and, I am certain, in most areas - if you know what you want to do.  For me, it all goes back to mapping out the customer engagement process in a classic as-is, to-be process map.  How do customers engage with you today?  How would you like customers to engage with you tomorrow? What are your brand attributes that will allow you to change that engagement model?

Yes, that is the secret sauce - your brand attributes.  Figure out your brand attributes and everything else falls into place.  Your brand attributes will tell you if you are doomed to be a boring business or an exciting, engaging business that builds brand advocates. 

Let's take a lawn equipment company as an example. 

• Boring attributes:  Cheap, convenient, brand-specific
• Engaging attributes:  Proactive, advisory, friendly, collaborative, easy to engage

If the lawn equipment company already exemplifies the engaging attributes, or is ready to morph the business to adopt those attributes (or similar ones), then the world of marketing is wide open and ready to be leveraged.  Consistently creative and relevant content is well within reach.

Gosh, I just love this stuff! 

What are your brand attributes?