I got a link to this as part of a review of a whole series of work environments and thought this one was, by far, the best !One person steers while everyone pedals. A great way to get everyone "on the same page" while also taking them down the same street !
Check it out here.
If you have seen one in person, leave a comment and tell us what you thought of the experience !
Brands are fractal entities, and the meaning of the whole is to found in the execution of even the lowliest detail. Especially if your brand is all about rigor, safety, and juggling lots of big, heavy balls without dropping even one in a million.
His link on the term, fractal entities, brings you to his observation of an Apple "iPod store" which is a great example of taking the brand all the way from the smallest thing (physically for Apple... the product) to the biggest thing (physically...the store). It could also be looked at the other way... from the biggest thing (the product) to the smallest detail (the cosmetics of the store). Either way, Apple seems to understand fractal branding!
For those who have not dealt with fractals before, they are, according to wikipedia:
In colloquial usage, a fractal is a shape that is recursively constructed or self-similar, that is, a shape that appears similar at all scales of magnification and is therefore often referred to as "infinitely complex."
Some other marketing examples of "Fractal Branding" are available ...
... in an article by Sean Carton at ClickZ titled, "The Brand Promise".
... a post by Aaron Dignan in his blog, BrandPlay. This also leads back to the post below.
... a post by Kathy Sierra in her Passionate User blog, titled "Remarkable at every scale"
How consistent is your brand? Certainly it should be clearly presented in your advertising and promotions, but how deep does it go in the company?
Does it show up in the product or is marketing and branding an afterthought once the product is created? Does your brand show up in the the delivery of the product? the customer service? the accounting department?
Do you have good examples of fractal branding? Please leave a comment so we can share them with others. Even examples of BAD fractal branding would be helpful since we can also learn from them as well.
Write ON !
Dave Wheeler
National Downshifting Week celebrates the trend for taking life easier by
encouraging people to take small steps towards living a more relaxed lifestyle.
As a rule, startups shouldn't worry so much about competitors, especially big
companies. Competitors are a second-order problem. Startups should worry more
about making something worth copying and less about whether someone will.
Remember, good ideas without PROVEN success are nothing more than BS.
My opinion:
I must agree with Seth and Paul that most ideas are not as special as the inventor thinks. If a problem is obvious, there will be someone trying to solve it. The real key is to turn it into a business. Clearly that is the difficult part and it often involves many more parts than the inventor originally imagined .... distribution channels, financing, manufacturing, packaging and more.
On the other hand, it just makes good common sense to get as much protection for your idea as possible. If an idea is patentable and you show it to someone you could lose your rights to patent it. I highly recommend reading "Before You Quit Your Job" by Robert Kiyosaki (author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad books). In this book he tells about how his failure to put legal "barriers" in place caused him to lose out to cheaper competitors.
As in many areas of business, there is not a simple answer. On the other hand, if you have the opportunity to get help turning your idea into reality from someone like Seth Godin, TAKE IT! It is better to take an idea to market than to protect it and never make any money.
Plus, it is more than likely that your initial idea won't be the one that will work. The second or third or 100th iteration is much more likely to work if you are learning along the way!
One last comment that I think applies comes from Hugh Macleod, who makes art on the back of business cards. When he is asked whether or not he is worried about someone copying him, he replies ... " Let them try. No one will have spent all the time I have doing it and it is unlikely that they will understand it as well as I do." (to paraphrase).
So, GO FOR IT ! Do something... even if it is wrong. If it is wrong, do something else. You will still be far ahead of the people who did nothing, but protected their idea!
Write ON!
Dave Wheeler
If you can’t get yourself out of bed when your alarm goes off, this is likely
due to a lack of self-discipline. If you have enough self-discipline, you’ll get
out of bed no matter what. Motivation can also help, but motivation is short
lived and may only last a few days. Discipline is like a muscle. The more you
build it, the more you can rely on it. Everyone has some discipline (can you
hold your breath?), but not everyone develops it. There are a lot of ways to
build discipline — I’ve written a whole chapter on this topic in my upcoming
book. But basically it comes down to taking on little challenges, conquering
them, and gradually progressing to bigger ones. It’s like progressive weight
training. As your self-discipline gets stronger, a challenge like getting out of
bed at a certain time will eventually become trivially easy. But if your
self-discipline has atrophied, it can seem an almost insurmountable hurdle.
