Back in January 2023, I drove from my Northern Ireland hotel at sunrise, took my ‘Brand and Marketing Director’ seat at the client’s board table, got coffee (strong, white, one) – and observed.

The Sales Team were in full flow. Anecdotes ricocheted. Client relationships. Competitor moves. Figures and percentages discussed, challenged and justified. Eventually, I interrupted.

‘Hang on.” I said. “All I’m hearing is ‘Product versus Product.'”

“Yes.” They chorused, “‘Course. It’s what we sell. And what they sell. Product!” The Sales Team said this with the collective ‘of course’ facial expressions that I myself use too, when at my absolute passive aggressive best.

“Then it’s the wrong fight.” I said. “Fight ‘Brand versus Brand.’ That way, we’ll win more. Loads more.”

And the reason I know I’m right isn’t just because I’m a pretty decent Brand and Marketing Director. It’s because I’d watched two Beatles documentaries, at my hotel, the night before.

How The Beatles Cracked America.

The Beatles cracked America for three reasons:

1. The music.
2. America had never seen anything like them before. They looked completely different.
3. They had personality. They challenged authority. They had opinions. They were cheeky.

The Beatles fought on three fronts. And my client was fighting on just the first one. Wondering why close rates were low, and the price battle was real.

If you’re going to fight in business – fight the smart battle. Not the dumb one.

And if Yesterday, today and tomorrow, it is Product versus Product that you’re fighting, don’t just Let it Be. Come Together and at the end of the Long And Winding Road called ‘brand building’, you’ll all be saying in unison – Here Comes The Sun.

Heh! See what I did there with The Beatles songs. The song titles. Good wasn’t it?

It was wasn’t it?

Song titles.

Songs.

Beatles.

Hello?

Anybody there?

Hello?

I don’t know who you are or what your business does. I don’t know your most profitable offering or your core customer profile. But I do know your next big opportunity.

Your customers are desperate for different. They won’t say it out loud… but they are.

All you have to do – is do it. Be it. Have better and braver ideas. Be more creative. Push further. If you’re asking, ‘No! We can’t do that can we?’ The answer is yes. You can. And you should.

Customers are so bloody bored with business, because business is bloody boring. When was the last time – in your life – that you went for a meal, or into a shop, or you used a tradesperson that was so distinctive and memorable (for a good reason that they had clearly engineered) that they remain lodged in your mind – today.

Being different in business is super rare. Which is surprising. Because customers really are desperate for different. And that’s why ‘different’ is your next big opportunity.

I think I like this question firstly – because of how it dances.

And second – because it somehow digs much deeper than, ‘So what will you do this year, then?’

This question makes me pause. Grab coffee. And have a proper think.

I wonder. What’s Twenty Twenty Four For – for you?

This will help if you want to create a slogan. Or it may pee-you-off if you think you have a slogan. Because most slogans, aren’t slogans.

Two things.

1. A slogan is memorable, clear, re-communicable shorthand for your unique, owned brand position. So if you aren’t a brand, you can’t have an optimised slogan. It’s impossible.
2. Slogan creation follows one of just four rules. This is what makes a slogan memorable. The rules are:

a) Double Entendre. ‘Diamonds are Forever’ (De Beers).

b) Reversal. ‘Feel Up When Your Getting Down’ (Can’t actually remember the brand – but I remember the slogan! That’s a nod to including the brand name in the slogan if possible).

c) Rhyme or Alliteration. ‘You Can Do It When You B&Q It’ (B&Q).

d) Repetition. ‘When it Absolutely Positively Has To Be There Overnight’ (FedEx).

And that’s it.

Like any ‘recipe’ though; skill, experience, creativity and instinct play a big part. If Gordon Ramsay told me how to make a Shepherds Pie it still might taste rubbish. Or at least, not as good as a Shepards Pie that Gordon himself made. So go careful.

Happy 2024.

That weekend last autumn. The one when I huffed and puffed and plonked a dusty old Chesterfield by the slow moving river in our garden, was important. It reminded me, again, about the utter pointlessness of too much planning and waiting. A year waiting – is a year gone for good.

The settee had sat in the garage for three years because it won’t fit through the front door. I was waiting for the right time to take a window out. Or something.

And the ground by the river lay unvisited for three years of my life as I planned how to upgrade the terrain.

Then, one day, I thought – fuck it. Get a weatherproof cover and let the settee live by the river. Today.

In under an hour we had such a lovely – and weird – place to just, be.

I’m sat there now. Writing and smiling and thinking, again, about the utter pointlessness of too much planning and waiting. A year waiting – is a year gone for good.