Hi, I’m Gary.

A brief history of my background and about this site.

I’ve worked with large brands such as Hp, Microsoft, Sky, Gillette and many more. The take out from this is that I understand the importance of branding and brand execution.

Branding is often seen as a dark art. It’s not. It is simply about researching customers and aligning the brand, communications and product to the customer. I explain more about branding and how you can do it in my email series ‘power branding’.

Of course, many companies don’t do it right. In fact, one of the main reasons product failure remains so high is that many companies still don’t do enough research. Quite often, they rely too heavily on data rather than observation and testing.

The wrong mix of research results in launching products that too often resemble competitor products or worse simply don’t meet the customer’s needs.

The other element that gets overlooked is brand execution. Brand execution involves detailed planning, operational excellence and synchronised execution.

When working with world-class brands you have to have a laser-like focus on every aspect of the creative idea as well as the execution of the plan. Of course, this becomes critical during marketing campaigns.

Timing in marketing is everything. Imagine two waves in the ocean, if they overlap, they create a bigger wave. Now multiply this by a hundred and you have a powerful wave, a force that can crush the competition.

Likewise, if you think of an orchestra playing a symphony, you hear the power of coordination. All the different elements come together to form a beautiful piece of music.

Marketing execution is similar. In other words, the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts.

In fact, excellence in marketing execution is a powerful competitive advantage.

Of course, no more so than when you launch a new product or event. All the time, effort and money invested hangs in the balance. Get it right and you are rewarded with significant sales. Get it wrong and the product becomes another casualty, another statistic, to add to NPD failure rates.

I enjoy working on product launches. The excitement, collaboration and sheer hard work that goes into a launch. The best part though is when results exceed everyone’s expectations. This type of results, the ones that maze people are down to how to create a high-performing team. Great results come from great teams.

That means everyone on the team working collaboratively, challenging each other safely and taking calculated risks. High-performing teams are a result of hard work on everyone’s part, not just the leader. Leaders are there to set the purpose, define the vision of what is possible and to help set the values and principles that guide the team.

I have worked on the Xbox European product launch, Fitbit, Nike, Hp as well as fashion brands like Diesel and many others. The teams in all these cases were incredible. I have been privileged to have worked with some of the best people in the industry across many different disciplines.

Product launches and events are similar. In simple terms, both have three phases. A ‘pre’ planning stage, a main activity stage and the post-activity stage. All equally important and each part requiring a high level of creativity and planning. I’ve worked on events for Disney, Sky, and many other notable brands.

What I’ve learned is to have an absolute focus on the customer experience. On this site, I’ll show you the strategies, tactics, and tools that can help you transform how your customer experiences.

Of course, startups are different. I’ve worked with people like Kim Brown on taking a startup from infancy to half a billion dollars. Other startups I’ve worked with have successfully achieved seven-figure revenues. Many of those were digital products and services.

There are strategies and tactics that work and those that don’t. Agile and lean practices are the norm these days, so what’s next? what is going to create a competitive advantage?

Increasingly, brands are circling back to the start point, which is, of course, the customer. With digital technologies, there are endless ways to redesign a company around the customer experience. This in itself creates new business models and opportunities to innovate.

As of now, I’m particularly interested in digital business model innovation and how harnessing new technologies can lead to new ways to improve the customer experience. In fact, this is my area of research for my doctorate studies.

How can I help you?

I’m currently interviewing entrepreneurs and business leaders. What I’m looking for is their insights into how they grew their businesses, what strategies and tactics worked for them and just as important what didn’t. In particular, I want to understand how they designed and delivered customer experiences.

If you are interested in finding out about these insider strategies then join my newsletter. Each week I’ll post a summary of my research plus other tips and tricks that I come across. Think of it as your favourite fully loaded treat of the week! A moment to kick back and just appreciate a few delicious things that can help your business thrive.