January 13, 2026 • 30 mins
Erin Andrea Craske, an award-winning strategist, boasts a 20-year career, culminating as Global Head of Consumer Brands. With expertise in strategic development, profitability, leadership, and communication, she's an ICF-certified executive transformation coach. Leveraging 16 years of leadership, she empowers conscious business rebels to succeed and create positive impacts. Erin website: https://linktr.ee/eacraske Show notes: https://successgrid.net/sg249/ If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to https://ratethispodcast.com/successgrid
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Halo on.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Welcome Success gread Nation to this episode of the Success
Great Podcast with the Rossos and talib In this episode,
I have with me Erin Andya Krasky to talk about
how to avoid business detrimental mistakes in the first three
to five years. Brands and business strategy are amast for
business if they want to achieve profitability. Erin is an
(00:23):
award winning strategist. She is an ICF certified Executive Transformation coach.
Leveraging sixteen years of leadership. She empowers conscious business tribels
to succeed and create positive impacts. Erin, Welcome to this
episode of the Success Gred podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Thank you for having me hereh And to be honest,
I didn't even expect that I sound so good.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you, Welcome, Welcome. So the first thing is I'm
glad you are here with me in this episode. I
know these things are very important to businesses having longevity
and profitability. This is what we are in business for profitability.
But first thing is, because this is the Success Great podcast,
(01:06):
what the success means to you and what do you
think or believe Whether people have things or say or
do things that are you don't believe they are about success.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
What a wonderful question, you know, something that you don't
have an answer with the bad to be honest for me,
because I was trying. I was trying to define it
to myself and for me, I guess success means making happen.
It means seeing positive results of my efforts. That is, yeah,
(01:45):
seeing positive results of the efforts you know that I
bring to achieve whatever I want to achieve. So that
was success means to me. With regards to other people,
you know, To be honest, I don't know because everybody
is different and I have no idea. Sorry, what's happening
in their heads? That's it. I believe that there may
(02:10):
be misconception of what success may mean, but it's not
from individual person point of view, but more from a
societal point of view. There is a perception, or there
is a kind of unquestionable, undoubtful knowledge that success is
(02:32):
synonymous to wealth and status our career, you know, And
I believe that that what shapes our perception. This is
something that society tells us what success is, and we're
accepted as given. We don't really question it, whether it's
(02:52):
suitable to every person, whether it's suitable to me. Personally,
you know, So it is something that we define, I
guess the monumental value or stages value. But again, everybody
is different and it's not the same as success because
all words, even from a linguistic points of view, they're
going to have different meanings.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
So now business strategy and planning strategy, this is the
core thing was eventually in any business there to profit.
So the first thing is is there a difference between
a brand strategy and a business strategy or are they
the same?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Oh? Yeah, well yes and no. So the difference is
going to be in the question that you ask. It's
like everything in marketing or in business. Ideally you would
be asking questions in a different stages to shape your direction,
to shape the way you're going to kind of consider
the resources, to consider the activities. It's all going to
(03:52):
be defined by the question that you ask, and the
questions will be different. So in brand strategy, it's more
brand positioning that creates your differentiation. In business strategy, it's
more about the reason behind the business, you know, again,
the differentiation, the resources you put you know, all together,
(04:14):
it's similar in a way that you still look at differentiation,
you look at the territory, You look at the competitors,
you know, you try to position yourself, you try to
have your resources. But then again, the questions you are
gonna gonna differ. The approach is the same. And marketing
strategy just for the sake of saying it's going to
be also all about asking questions slightly different questions. But again,
(04:38):
you start from the existing situation of where you are
right now, you look at where you want to be,
and you consider the path. You know, this path towards
your destination, and that is going to be a strategy
that's important.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So now, what are the pillars of uh, let's say,
a good strategy. We don't want to start specifically like
we're talking here about the first years for years maybe
with the business, right, we don't want to make as
much money mistakes. There will be mistakes, but we don't
want to make as much many mistakes as as like many.
(05:13):
So what are the pillars of a successful strategy for businesses?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
You know what? Actually, strategy is the pillar that businesses
very often miss. That was my perception because I was
talking to quite quite a few businesses of different sizes,
you know, trying to understand how they operate how to
understand what their issues are. And when I was writing
(05:41):
the guide, are also conducted to research, you know, basically
desk research looking at the major mistake that businesses make,
generically speaking, and predominantly most of mistakes. If you try
to categorize them into different kind of put them in
different boxes, they're going to be around brand and marketing
strategy more than anything else. Because what people don't realize,
(06:06):
So businesses don't realize that your profitability is the profitability
of every brand that you sell. This is what drives
you your bottom line. You know, it's your brand success.
It's not what you sell. There's very always a misconception
(06:27):
that you know, I'm selling. No, you're not selling. People
are buying. You can sell, I don't know un till
cows come home. But if nobody buys from you, you're
not going to get this money. So your business strength
is the strength of your brand's bottom line, and that's
kind of I guess people don't really kind of really
(06:48):
realize that it's equal. And this is why often marketing
kind of becomes after thought. You know, when you have money,
because it's a mass effects spend show. You know, we're
gonna think about it later, so they don't consider it
as the money making source. They're often considered as a
(07:10):
waste of resource, and that's kind of a mistake. Another
thing that I noticed that there is a misunderstanding in
terms of what actually strategies are. Often when you go
through different digital resources, people are gonna call tactics an
activity strategy. So they're not the same thing, and business
(07:32):
is because they're conditioned, you know, to what they're hear.
Often they use tactics as the way to grow business.
So it's all about i'll try it here, and i'll
do it here, and I will do these tactics and
I will do something else here, you know, and if
it doesn't work, let's wish the direction and let's try
something else, because somebody else told me that this is
(07:55):
gonna work. So this is what I call firefighting and business.
Because people and teams start running like headless chicking, you know,
changing directions. We're gonna try this, No, we're gonna pull back,
We're gonna want chap, but no, it doesn't work. And
that actually it's a massive drain of resources, including human resources,
(08:16):
including motivational resources. I'm not even talking about money right.
So this approach to tactics instead of having a solid strategy,
that is the major mistake and another thing that is
important to mention, apart from many, you know, other things
such as misunderstanding what the brand is, misunderstanding what target
(08:36):
audience is, misunderstanding the funnel, because funnel is this another
it's a funny one. You know, there's one massive stage
that is usually missed and another one. It becomes like
a focal point of all our communication because it's gonna
work and it's not going to work, and what you
try to do to make it work doesn't work. So
(09:00):
you know that it's another thing that obviously brings quite
a lot of mistakes because funnel is absolutely is a
backbone of your business. You can't run it without having
understanding understanding the psychology of consumers or customers moving through
every stage because of psychology behind it. And another thing
(09:22):
that comes from all that is an extensive focus on
return on investment. And that is another funny one because
return of investment it's not equal profitability. They are totally
different things. And so extensive focus on getting money here
and now will tell you your profitability, your path to
(09:46):
profitability in the future, because profitability is always long term.
So when we talk about mistakes, you know, as we
started the podcast, basically it seems to me that businesses
fail and there is this kind of this one to
three you know period, and then it's ten years period.
(10:06):
But the first five years this is the period that
is called strategic planning period. Right, So if you don't
plan your activities, if you don't know what you sell,
why you sell it, what resources will you need when
you need to pivot, when you need to change the
direction where you need to adjust. I mean, if you
don't have it's thought through from the very beginning and
(10:29):
you go through the trial and error for the first
five years, well you're going to get screwed. And this
is you know, this is why strategy is important, because
it allows you to locate resources and foresee your next steps.
Because strategy is your opportunity to plan your business future
(10:50):
in the conditions of uncertainty. And it is uncertainty. You
have to cover your back in case something goes wrong.
And this is what businesses don't and that's why I
believe that strategy is the pill of the business. Tactics
come on top.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, definitely, Like I know, generally, when we talk about tactics,
it's like you mentioned, it's kind of a short term things,
short term accent, like what we should do tomorrow after
the day after. But basically when we are talking strategy,
it's the basically the kind of medium to long term
kind of goals for the business. So it's not like,
(11:29):
like you mentioned, we're shifting from this things to do
like it's not working in twodays, so we're going to
do that. The next one is like it's not going
we are going to do that thing. So different things.
So the tactics are basically maybe some kind of fears
like jumping on from one tip to another or one
thing to another. It's not goods just sustainable and like
(11:52):
you mentioned, people buy, but they don't like being sold to.
So eventually, like generate in any business, right, there is
competition in any type of business, so you need to
have some kind of a differentiation for your business and
at the same time have your business in front of
these people in a way that they are telling you
(12:15):
I want this. You don't want to sell them. They
want to buy without feeling, without feeling being sold to.
So that's very important in this integration of all of things.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yes, you basically you need to make them want open
their wallets to pay for your product. And that's actually
always as a result of a pull strategy, right, making
somebody want it. It is a sophisticated sale, yeah, there's
no doubt about it, but it is a psychology driven sale, right.
(12:51):
What businesses results to mostly it's a push communication. Right,
this is my product. I believe it's fantastic. I believe
it's fantastic. Obviously you will believe it's fantastic, you know,
because it's my product. And the funny thing that you
know once you start questioning, is like, okay, so why
your product is so good? You know what it's like.
(13:12):
The first answer is because I believe so, which is fantastic,
And the second answer is like you kind of you're
questioning my genius, but like you know, like, well, yeah,
in a way, I do because I want to understand
why somebody want to pay for it and not because
you developed it. Honestly, they really don't care. And this
(13:35):
push communication of me too products because they're all very similar.
If you look, if you'll take whatever category, small business category,
you will see that all products are pretty much similar. Pricing,
strategy gonna be similar. You're gonna have your different tier pricing.
Often you know, uh communication, it's very much product cloud communication.
(13:57):
But again within one category you go that have pretty
much the same product characteristic as everybody else. Right, so
there's no point for me to choose you over somebody else.
Or what is even worse because if I choose you
for the first time and you would assume you got
a customer, I have absolutely no reason to stay with
(14:21):
you later. And if you offer me a loyalty discount
or whatever it is, you know, it's called bribes. You know,
you bribe me to stay with you if I don't
want to because there's something else, there's something else better.
So which means that even bribing people with loyal schemes
doesn't guarantee that they're gonna stay. So you have you
(14:42):
offer nothing for me to choose you and like a
solid reason, and then there's no reason for me to stay.
So how will it work?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
So what are the best differentiation options for businesses to
have more profitability? Like I've seen a lot of people
talk about for example, like if you have a certain
price as a certain product, a certain price or a service,
like it's not best to discount, like for example, you're
mentioning here, you don't want to discount like for example,
(15:12):
give them some kind of a payment plan. So is
that a good differentiation for example do you think for that, Oh.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Well, discount discount really depends on the price positioning or
the value positioning of your product. Are kind of two
schools of thoughts, price and value. They are similar in approach.
But there are certain brands that you can discount. There
are certain brands that you can't discount, you know, because
they're going to devalue products. So really it really depends.
(15:42):
It doesn't apply in every case. Is with regards to differentiation,
options are there well in my kind of opinion, where
the around seven different options, so four are rational, such
as the first one in the category so you know,
(16:05):
having competitive advantage because you've just launched. You have another
one that is based on value, product qualitsy and customer intimacy,
and three others they are brand driven, so they're not rational.
They're emotional and intangible, and in no fair is the
(16:27):
best differentiation you can get. It's going to be emotional
brand differentiation. It's not about products, so it is very
intangible and just to preempt a question brands, as in
general it isn't an intangible thing. Intangible thing kind of
(16:49):
makes no sense.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Emotional low. How do we differentiate their business in an
emotional way for the customer?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
There is brands. You can also differentiate based meaning, and
you can differentiate based on image. Let's probably start with
image because it's easier and it's example that you will
easier and get better. Understand. You buy a luxury watch,
you can imagine that you have a massive amount, massive number,
(17:19):
you know, many different options brands of luxury watches, so
you will choose I don't know, rolics instead of partect Philip,
Why would you go for one option another because they
will do exactly the same. They will show you time,
right so, and the quality are going to be good.
So it's exactly what you need from a watch. But
(17:41):
you don't buy a luxury watch because it shows time.
You buy it because you want somebody to see something
about you.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You have a certain image of yourself in mind and
you want other people to notice who you are based
on this image. Right. So in the which is one
way of differentiating. Usually again it works in luxury because
you can go slightly different direction. That is meaning what
(18:12):
this brand means. It's a bit deeper, it's a bit
more powerful, you know, but you connect with people based
on their values. Brand positioning. It's the biggest because it
combines meaning, it combines image both and how can you
(18:33):
connect on emotional level? It's off there is you know
about Maslow pyramid, Yeah, permit of leats. So it's a
similar approach where that you use in research. It's called
brand lettering. So you take your product, your attributes and
(18:54):
features of your product, and you start asking your customers questions.
It's like you're going deep. It's like you buy this
why because this and that? Why this and that? Why
this and that? And every time you're moving through every step,
you will see like people when they start, I want
(19:15):
to buy this watch because it shows time why it
is important to you, Because this and that you know
why it is important to you. And ultimately you come
to the point when somebody says, because I want to
be seen as this person or because I do care
about this, So you come to emotions and emotions deeper
(19:41):
you go, it becomes a stronger differentiator. So what example
I can give you, So food, if we talk about food,
you can position your food as kind of in the
area of hedonism. It's an enjoyment, right, so it's gonna
(20:04):
target certain people that have more like hedonistic luxury, you know,
nature in them. Or you can position food as nourishment
so basically feeding which means nourishing somebody, which means taking
care of somebody. Or you can position food as health
and well being if it has certain characteristics. Or you
(20:28):
can position food or in this case, for example, drinks
as Coca Cola does it. It has totally different archetypes.
So it's all about friendliness and company and enjoying time together.
You see, I'm talking about the same product, but that
he already created immediately for different brands, and you can
(20:48):
kind of, you know, within each emotion you can kind
of find units to create further differentiation. But this is
the most sustainable way because it's very difficult to copy.
The product is very easy to and then the word
thing about using product as you differentiator apart from its
easier copied. Also you can have somebody who can up
(21:09):
with a better idea, so your product is going to
get obsolete. It's like example Skype. You know Skype that
used to be massive and then got to overcome, you know,
overtaken by zoom. And that's it because somebody offers something better.
So and this kind of how it happens in the
(21:30):
world of products. They're always something going to be better, cheaper, larger,
you know, they just people learn from mistakes from what
is available and create something that is more interesting to customers.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
But you mentioned the world why, like, it's important to
get deeper and deeper, like as much and as possible,
maybe five six seven levers deep of why, asking people
the questions only why, and they will tell you the
reasoning why they want something. Yeah, it's something that is
very deep and have the connection with the client. And
(22:04):
this is how you can differentiate yourself from other businesses
on a shallow differentiator, which is maybe pricing.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, pricing is a reflection of your brand possessioning because
food that is kind of targeting headonists like you know,
high quality, say much lone star. You know, food by
definition is going to be more premium and it's going
to be more expensive. Something that is more like you know,
it's like community feel let's sit down together. It's usually
(22:33):
going to be more like meat price or very for money.
So it really depends on possessioning. Not every positioning can
bear a premium price. It really depends you know, the
different archetypes that different opportunities.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So do you think that all of this that has
like all of this asking the why for customers has
something like replacing the products like a new example Skype
replaced by Zoom for example. So innovation is a big
part of the business strategy, right because we want to
develop a certain point. A company can grow so much
(23:06):
in a certain product or a certain service. So how
innovation and the people within the business, the employees or
maybe the other suppliers or people involved in the business
can contribute to that specifically that if we are talking
about a business owner that they think that they know everything,
but probably they don't know everything, so they need basically
(23:29):
help from where they can get it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, right, so about innovation, I guess there's a miscons
Well again, innovation. If you choose innovation as a differentiator,
it's going to be one of the strategies that I
referred to earlier. You know when I talk that rational differentiation,
that's product based on product. And if you choose this
(23:53):
direction that you need to make sure that your company
and your sources are fully aligned behind chosen direction. Because
innovation requires massive investment. It's investment into the you know,
not only developing proth so developing product types or whatever
(24:14):
it works, but also generating this idea, analyzing it, researching it.
So innovation is sustainable as a differentiator as long as
you can align your company resources on innovating consistently. Because
once you stop against somebody gonna take over. It's inevitable
(24:37):
because somebody going to be learning from your mistake and
be prepared, you know, to what you can't afford at
the moment. So that's kind of a really trick. You know,
think about innovation that I don't believe people realize. And
another thing that there are different types of innovations because
often I don't know if you're coming from software business,
(25:00):
something obviously that I wouldn't know about. But in a
product cloud business, what often happens that companies introduce minor innovations.
You know, we're gonna twist something here, We're gonna change,
we're gonna enhance the smell, we're gonna create a bigger packaging.
You know, really basic and sustainable things that don't really
(25:23):
matter to customers. But innovation can be meaningful. It can
be in the areas you know, how the companies run,
how the customer services run, how you know how you
talk to your customers. So things that you don't perceive
as innovations because you are totally focused on products, but
(25:44):
something that is less significant can actually be worth much
more to your customers.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
When we are talking about maybe some businesses need some
kind of help for hiring some kind of a strategists
to help them do that. In your own experience, what
is the maybe it's say, the best or worst advice
that you held.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
In your career, advice that I had in my career.
It's a very good question. If I was asking for advice,
it was very early in my career when I still
didn't know what I was doing. So and when I
figured out, I stopped asking for advices. So what I
was doing, I was studying, I was learning. You know,
(26:26):
this is a fantastic philoso resources. You know again, HBr
Howard Business Review is probably the best one, you know,
the easiest one, and this is where you source your
knowledge from. You know, because I wanted I wanted to
learn from the best, and for me, this particular resource
(26:47):
is a benchmark. You know, in my book, at the
at the end of the book, you're going to have
like a library of books. You know, reading is that
I recommend because the book that I wrote is like
a textbook, gives you a full overview of marketing and
business and strategy all that you need to know. But
it's more like also like a springboard. You know, if
(27:09):
you realize there are certain areas of interest, there is
a reading least recommended, and it's another way of enhancing
your knowledge. So it's not about asking advices. It's about
not being afraid to admit to yourself that you may
not know enough. Because one of the risks of business
(27:33):
owners is that starting a business and giving yourself a
wonderful title. I'm a founder or CEO, right, it's like
means that I'm running a business. Actually, no, it doesn't
just mean that you have a title. It's like with
brands or products. You know, you have a product, you
(27:55):
give it a name. It's like I have a brand. No, actually,
you have a product with a brand. You don't have
a brand because brand is much more than that. The
same as being a business owner giving yourself a fancy title,
it's not enough. You have to have knowledge behind it
and accepting it. There's nothing wrong about it, you know,
it's just realizing that you can enhance it. You already
(28:20):
above so many people because you have courage to start
your business. That is scary, that is risky. You know
you have it, you have what it takes. But well,
you know, business knowledge, I guess may be helpful. So
that's that's kind of a device. It's it's basic bites.
(28:42):
It's gone to the trick.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, definitely, well erin where can people get in touch
with you, learn more about you and what you do?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Ah, well, I guess website sounds like of the shop window.
You know, that's what was created for go and go
through in the jess. It's quite worthy. So images again
going into the trick, so you don't waste your time
on reading it. Alternatively, Yeah, there is a book. The
strategy guide is called from Purpose to Profit. It's available
(29:15):
on Amazon. Can't control Amazon pricing, they do whatever they please. Honestly,
it's disastrous and there's nothing I can do about it.
And then it's really gonna kind of I hope it's
going to be helpful. It's also written very easy language,
so nothing scary nothing academic, you know, lots of examples,
(29:37):
a lot of consumer psychology because it's all about psychology again.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
So yeah, awesome, and thank you very much for joining
me for this episode of the podcast. Real provide us
with great insights into strategy and business and it is
very important to eventually do know your limits as a
business owner and maybe help or hire the people to
(30:01):
the business that's important for business growth and profitability in
the future after the five years or so, because we
do want to stay in business after that.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, yeah, Don't be afraid of hiring people that are
better than you that in this particular area. Don't try
to hire for exact industry match, because either way, in
this case, you're going to get a one trick pony
that knows only this particular product category and nothing else,
and it's you know, you can't grow the business being
(30:35):
ers and traditional and doing exactly like everybody else. Don't
be afraid of hiring people from different categories who know
what they do, and don't be afraid of hiring somebody
that you believe maybe even better than you, because this
is how we grow
Halo on.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Welcome Success gread Nation to this episode of the Success
Great Podcast with the Rossos and talib In this episode,
I have with me Erin Andya Krasky to talk about
how to avoid business detrimental mistakes in the first three
to five years. Brands and business strategy are amast for
business if they want to achieve profitability. Erin is an
(00:23):
award winning strategist. She is an ICF certified Executive Transformation coach.
Leveraging sixteen years of leadership. She empowers conscious business tribels
to succeed and create positive impacts. Erin, Welcome to this
episode of the Success Gred podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Thank you for having me hereh And to be honest,
I didn't even expect that I sound so good.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you, Welcome, Welcome. So the first thing is I'm
glad you are here with me in this episode. I
know these things are very important to businesses having longevity
and profitability. This is what we are in business for profitability.
But first thing is, because this is the Success Great podcast,
(01:06):
what the success means to you and what do you
think or believe Whether people have things or say or
do things that are you don't believe they are about success.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
What a wonderful question, you know, something that you don't
have an answer with the bad to be honest for me,
because I was trying. I was trying to define it
to myself and for me, I guess success means making happen.
It means seeing positive results of my efforts. That is, yeah,
(01:45):
seeing positive results of the efforts you know that I
bring to achieve whatever I want to achieve. So that
was success means to me. With regards to other people,
you know, To be honest, I don't know because everybody
is different and I have no idea. Sorry, what's happening
in their heads? That's it. I believe that there may
(02:10):
be misconception of what success may mean, but it's not
from individual person point of view, but more from a
societal point of view. There is a perception, or there
is a kind of unquestionable, undoubtful knowledge that success is
(02:32):
synonymous to wealth and status our career, you know, And
I believe that that what shapes our perception. This is
something that society tells us what success is, and we're
accepted as given. We don't really question it, whether it's
(02:52):
suitable to every person, whether it's suitable to me. Personally,
you know, So it is something that we define, I
guess the monumental value or stages value. But again, everybody
is different and it's not the same as success because
all words, even from a linguistic points of view, they're
going to have different meanings.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
So now business strategy and planning strategy, this is the
core thing was eventually in any business there to profit.
So the first thing is is there a difference between
a brand strategy and a business strategy or are they
the same?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Oh? Yeah, well yes and no. So the difference is
going to be in the question that you ask. It's
like everything in marketing or in business. Ideally you would
be asking questions in a different stages to shape your direction,
to shape the way you're going to kind of consider
the resources, to consider the activities. It's all going to
(03:52):
be defined by the question that you ask, and the
questions will be different. So in brand strategy, it's more
brand positioning that creates your differentiation. In business strategy, it's
more about the reason behind the business, you know, again,
the differentiation, the resources you put you know, all together,
(04:14):
it's similar in a way that you still look at differentiation,
you look at the territory, You look at the competitors,
you know, you try to position yourself, you try to
have your resources. But then again, the questions you are
gonna gonna differ. The approach is the same. And marketing
strategy just for the sake of saying it's going to
be also all about asking questions slightly different questions. But again,
(04:38):
you start from the existing situation of where you are
right now, you look at where you want to be,
and you consider the path. You know, this path towards
your destination, and that is going to be a strategy
that's important.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So now, what are the pillars of uh, let's say,
a good strategy. We don't want to start specifically like
we're talking here about the first years for years maybe
with the business, right, we don't want to make as
much money mistakes. There will be mistakes, but we don't
want to make as much many mistakes as as like many.
(05:13):
So what are the pillars of a successful strategy for businesses?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
You know what? Actually, strategy is the pillar that businesses
very often miss. That was my perception because I was
talking to quite quite a few businesses of different sizes,
you know, trying to understand how they operate how to
understand what their issues are. And when I was writing
(05:41):
the guide, are also conducted to research, you know, basically
desk research looking at the major mistake that businesses make,
generically speaking, and predominantly most of mistakes. If you try
to categorize them into different kind of put them in
different boxes, they're going to be around brand and marketing
strategy more than anything else. Because what people don't realize,
(06:06):
So businesses don't realize that your profitability is the profitability
of every brand that you sell. This is what drives
you your bottom line. You know, it's your brand success.
It's not what you sell. There's very always a misconception
(06:27):
that you know, I'm selling. No, you're not selling. People
are buying. You can sell, I don't know un till
cows come home. But if nobody buys from you, you're
not going to get this money. So your business strength
is the strength of your brand's bottom line, and that's
kind of I guess people don't really kind of really
(06:48):
realize that it's equal. And this is why often marketing
kind of becomes after thought. You know, when you have money,
because it's a mass effects spend show. You know, we're
gonna think about it later, so they don't consider it
as the money making source. They're often considered as a
(07:10):
waste of resource, and that's kind of a mistake. Another
thing that I noticed that there is a misunderstanding in
terms of what actually strategies are. Often when you go
through different digital resources, people are gonna call tactics an
activity strategy. So they're not the same thing, and business
(07:32):
is because they're conditioned, you know, to what they're hear.
Often they use tactics as the way to grow business.
So it's all about i'll try it here, and i'll
do it here, and I will do these tactics and
I will do something else here, you know, and if
it doesn't work, let's wish the direction and let's try
something else, because somebody else told me that this is
(07:55):
gonna work. So this is what I call firefighting and business.
Because people and teams start running like headless chicking, you know,
changing directions. We're gonna try this, No, we're gonna pull back,
We're gonna want chap, but no, it doesn't work. And
that actually it's a massive drain of resources, including human resources,
(08:16):
including motivational resources. I'm not even talking about money right.
So this approach to tactics instead of having a solid strategy,
that is the major mistake and another thing that is
important to mention, apart from many, you know, other things
such as misunderstanding what the brand is, misunderstanding what target
(08:36):
audience is, misunderstanding the funnel, because funnel is this another
it's a funny one. You know, there's one massive stage
that is usually missed and another one. It becomes like
a focal point of all our communication because it's gonna
work and it's not going to work, and what you
try to do to make it work doesn't work. So
(09:00):
you know that it's another thing that obviously brings quite
a lot of mistakes because funnel is absolutely is a
backbone of your business. You can't run it without having
understanding understanding the psychology of consumers or customers moving through
every stage because of psychology behind it. And another thing
(09:22):
that comes from all that is an extensive focus on
return on investment. And that is another funny one because
return of investment it's not equal profitability. They are totally
different things. And so extensive focus on getting money here
and now will tell you your profitability, your path to
(09:46):
profitability in the future, because profitability is always long term.
So when we talk about mistakes, you know, as we
started the podcast, basically it seems to me that businesses
fail and there is this kind of this one to
three you know period, and then it's ten years period.
(10:06):
But the first five years this is the period that
is called strategic planning period. Right, So if you don't
plan your activities, if you don't know what you sell,
why you sell it, what resources will you need when
you need to pivot, when you need to change the
direction where you need to adjust. I mean, if you
don't have it's thought through from the very beginning and
(10:29):
you go through the trial and error for the first
five years, well you're going to get screwed. And this
is you know, this is why strategy is important, because
it allows you to locate resources and foresee your next steps.
Because strategy is your opportunity to plan your business future
(10:50):
in the conditions of uncertainty. And it is uncertainty. You
have to cover your back in case something goes wrong.
And this is what businesses don't and that's why I
believe that strategy is the pill of the business. Tactics
come on top.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, definitely, Like I know, generally, when we talk about tactics,
it's like you mentioned, it's kind of a short term things,
short term accent, like what we should do tomorrow after
the day after. But basically when we are talking strategy,
it's the basically the kind of medium to long term
kind of goals for the business. So it's not like,
(11:29):
like you mentioned, we're shifting from this things to do
like it's not working in twodays, so we're going to
do that. The next one is like it's not going
we are going to do that thing. So different things.
So the tactics are basically maybe some kind of fears
like jumping on from one tip to another or one
thing to another. It's not goods just sustainable and like
(11:52):
you mentioned, people buy, but they don't like being sold to.
So eventually, like generate in any business, right, there is
competition in any type of business, so you need to
have some kind of a differentiation for your business and
at the same time have your business in front of
these people in a way that they are telling you
(12:15):
I want this. You don't want to sell them. They
want to buy without feeling, without feeling being sold to.
So that's very important in this integration of all of things.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yes, you basically you need to make them want open
their wallets to pay for your product. And that's actually
always as a result of a pull strategy, right, making
somebody want it. It is a sophisticated sale, yeah, there's
no doubt about it, but it is a psychology driven sale, right.
(12:51):
What businesses results to mostly it's a push communication. Right,
this is my product. I believe it's fantastic. I believe
it's fantastic. Obviously you will believe it's fantastic, you know,
because it's my product. And the funny thing that you
know once you start questioning, is like, okay, so why
your product is so good? You know what it's like.
(13:12):
The first answer is because I believe so, which is fantastic,
And the second answer is like you kind of you're
questioning my genius, but like you know, like, well, yeah,
in a way, I do because I want to understand
why somebody want to pay for it and not because
you developed it. Honestly, they really don't care. And this
(13:35):
push communication of me too products because they're all very similar.
If you look, if you'll take whatever category, small business category,
you will see that all products are pretty much similar. Pricing,
strategy gonna be similar. You're gonna have your different tier pricing.
Often you know, uh communication, it's very much product cloud communication.
(13:57):
But again within one category you go that have pretty
much the same product characteristic as everybody else. Right, so
there's no point for me to choose you over somebody else.
Or what is even worse because if I choose you
for the first time and you would assume you got
a customer, I have absolutely no reason to stay with
(14:21):
you later. And if you offer me a loyalty discount
or whatever it is, you know, it's called bribes. You know,
you bribe me to stay with you if I don't
want to because there's something else, there's something else better.
So which means that even bribing people with loyal schemes
doesn't guarantee that they're gonna stay. So you have you
(14:42):
offer nothing for me to choose you and like a
solid reason, and then there's no reason for me to stay.
So how will it work?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
So what are the best differentiation options for businesses to
have more profitability? Like I've seen a lot of people
talk about for example, like if you have a certain
price as a certain product, a certain price or a service,
like it's not best to discount, like for example, you're
mentioning here, you don't want to discount like for example,
(15:12):
give them some kind of a payment plan. So is
that a good differentiation for example do you think for that, Oh.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Well, discount discount really depends on the price positioning or
the value positioning of your product. Are kind of two
schools of thoughts, price and value. They are similar in approach.
But there are certain brands that you can discount. There
are certain brands that you can't discount, you know, because
they're going to devalue products. So really it really depends.
(15:42):
It doesn't apply in every case. Is with regards to differentiation,
options are there well in my kind of opinion, where
the around seven different options, so four are rational, such
as the first one in the category so you know,
(16:05):
having competitive advantage because you've just launched. You have another
one that is based on value, product qualitsy and customer intimacy,
and three others they are brand driven, so they're not rational.
They're emotional and intangible, and in no fair is the
(16:27):
best differentiation you can get. It's going to be emotional
brand differentiation. It's not about products, so it is very
intangible and just to preempt a question brands, as in
general it isn't an intangible thing. Intangible thing kind of
(16:49):
makes no sense.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Emotional low. How do we differentiate their business in an
emotional way for the customer?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
There is brands. You can also differentiate based meaning, and
you can differentiate based on image. Let's probably start with
image because it's easier and it's example that you will
easier and get better. Understand. You buy a luxury watch,
you can imagine that you have a massive amount, massive number,
(17:19):
you know, many different options brands of luxury watches, so
you will choose I don't know, rolics instead of partect Philip,
Why would you go for one option another because they
will do exactly the same. They will show you time,
right so, and the quality are going to be good.
So it's exactly what you need from a watch. But
(17:41):
you don't buy a luxury watch because it shows time.
You buy it because you want somebody to see something
about you.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You have a certain image of yourself in mind and
you want other people to notice who you are based
on this image. Right. So in the which is one
way of differentiating. Usually again it works in luxury because
you can go slightly different direction. That is meaning what
(18:12):
this brand means. It's a bit deeper, it's a bit
more powerful, you know, but you connect with people based
on their values. Brand positioning. It's the biggest because it
combines meaning, it combines image both and how can you
(18:33):
connect on emotional level? It's off there is you know
about Maslow pyramid, Yeah, permit of leats. So it's a
similar approach where that you use in research. It's called
brand lettering. So you take your product, your attributes and
(18:54):
features of your product, and you start asking your customers questions.
It's like you're going deep. It's like you buy this
why because this and that? Why this and that? Why
this and that? And every time you're moving through every step,
you will see like people when they start, I want
(19:15):
to buy this watch because it shows time why it
is important to you, Because this and that you know
why it is important to you. And ultimately you come
to the point when somebody says, because I want to
be seen as this person or because I do care
about this, So you come to emotions and emotions deeper
(19:41):
you go, it becomes a stronger differentiator. So what example
I can give you, So food, if we talk about food,
you can position your food as kind of in the
area of hedonism. It's an enjoyment, right, so it's gonna
(20:04):
target certain people that have more like hedonistic luxury, you know,
nature in them. Or you can position food as nourishment
so basically feeding which means nourishing somebody, which means taking
care of somebody. Or you can position food as health
and well being if it has certain characteristics. Or you
(20:28):
can position food or in this case, for example, drinks
as Coca Cola does it. It has totally different archetypes.
So it's all about friendliness and company and enjoying time together.
You see, I'm talking about the same product, but that
he already created immediately for different brands, and you can
(20:48):
kind of, you know, within each emotion you can kind
of find units to create further differentiation. But this is
the most sustainable way because it's very difficult to copy.
The product is very easy to and then the word
thing about using product as you differentiator apart from its
easier copied. Also you can have somebody who can up
(21:09):
with a better idea, so your product is going to
get obsolete. It's like example Skype. You know Skype that
used to be massive and then got to overcome, you know,
overtaken by zoom. And that's it because somebody offers something better.
So and this kind of how it happens in the
(21:30):
world of products. They're always something going to be better, cheaper, larger,
you know, they just people learn from mistakes from what
is available and create something that is more interesting to customers.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
But you mentioned the world why, like, it's important to
get deeper and deeper, like as much and as possible,
maybe five six seven levers deep of why, asking people
the questions only why, and they will tell you the
reasoning why they want something. Yeah, it's something that is
very deep and have the connection with the client. And
(22:04):
this is how you can differentiate yourself from other businesses
on a shallow differentiator, which is maybe pricing.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, pricing is a reflection of your brand possessioning because
food that is kind of targeting headonists like you know,
high quality, say much lone star. You know, food by
definition is going to be more premium and it's going
to be more expensive. Something that is more like you know,
it's like community feel let's sit down together. It's usually
(22:33):
going to be more like meat price or very for money.
So it really depends on possessioning. Not every positioning can
bear a premium price. It really depends you know, the
different archetypes that different opportunities.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So do you think that all of this that has
like all of this asking the why for customers has
something like replacing the products like a new example Skype
replaced by Zoom for example. So innovation is a big
part of the business strategy, right because we want to
develop a certain point. A company can grow so much
(23:06):
in a certain product or a certain service. So how
innovation and the people within the business, the employees or
maybe the other suppliers or people involved in the business
can contribute to that specifically that if we are talking
about a business owner that they think that they know everything,
but probably they don't know everything, so they need basically
(23:29):
help from where they can get it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, right, so about innovation, I guess there's a miscons
Well again, innovation. If you choose innovation as a differentiator,
it's going to be one of the strategies that I
referred to earlier. You know when I talk that rational differentiation,
that's product based on product. And if you choose this
(23:53):
direction that you need to make sure that your company
and your sources are fully aligned behind chosen direction. Because
innovation requires massive investment. It's investment into the you know,
not only developing proth so developing product types or whatever
(24:14):
it works, but also generating this idea, analyzing it, researching it.
So innovation is sustainable as a differentiator as long as
you can align your company resources on innovating consistently. Because
once you stop against somebody gonna take over. It's inevitable
(24:37):
because somebody going to be learning from your mistake and
be prepared, you know, to what you can't afford at
the moment. So that's kind of a really trick. You know,
think about innovation that I don't believe people realize. And
another thing that there are different types of innovations because
often I don't know if you're coming from software business,
(25:00):
something obviously that I wouldn't know about. But in a
product cloud business, what often happens that companies introduce minor innovations.
You know, we're gonna twist something here, We're gonna change,
we're gonna enhance the smell, we're gonna create a bigger packaging.
You know, really basic and sustainable things that don't really
(25:23):
matter to customers. But innovation can be meaningful. It can
be in the areas you know, how the companies run,
how the customer services run, how you know how you
talk to your customers. So things that you don't perceive
as innovations because you are totally focused on products, but
(25:44):
something that is less significant can actually be worth much
more to your customers.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
When we are talking about maybe some businesses need some
kind of help for hiring some kind of a strategists
to help them do that. In your own experience, what
is the maybe it's say, the best or worst advice
that you held.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
In your career, advice that I had in my career.
It's a very good question. If I was asking for advice,
it was very early in my career when I still
didn't know what I was doing. So and when I
figured out, I stopped asking for advices. So what I
was doing, I was studying, I was learning. You know,
(26:26):
this is a fantastic philoso resources. You know again, HBr
Howard Business Review is probably the best one, you know,
the easiest one, and this is where you source your
knowledge from. You know, because I wanted I wanted to
learn from the best, and for me, this particular resource
(26:47):
is a benchmark. You know, in my book, at the
at the end of the book, you're going to have
like a library of books. You know, reading is that
I recommend because the book that I wrote is like
a textbook, gives you a full overview of marketing and
business and strategy all that you need to know. But
it's more like also like a springboard. You know, if
(27:09):
you realize there are certain areas of interest, there is
a reading least recommended, and it's another way of enhancing
your knowledge. So it's not about asking advices. It's about
not being afraid to admit to yourself that you may
not know enough. Because one of the risks of business
(27:33):
owners is that starting a business and giving yourself a
wonderful title. I'm a founder or CEO, right, it's like
means that I'm running a business. Actually, no, it doesn't
just mean that you have a title. It's like with
brands or products. You know, you have a product, you
(27:55):
give it a name. It's like I have a brand. No, actually,
you have a product with a brand. You don't have
a brand because brand is much more than that. The
same as being a business owner giving yourself a fancy title,
it's not enough. You have to have knowledge behind it
and accepting it. There's nothing wrong about it, you know,
it's just realizing that you can enhance it. You already
(28:20):
above so many people because you have courage to start
your business. That is scary, that is risky. You know
you have it, you have what it takes. But well,
you know, business knowledge, I guess may be helpful. So
that's that's kind of a device. It's it's basic bites.
(28:42):
It's gone to the trick.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, definitely, well erin where can people get in touch
with you, learn more about you and what you do?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Ah, well, I guess website sounds like of the shop window.
You know, that's what was created for go and go
through in the jess. It's quite worthy. So images again
going into the trick, so you don't waste your time
on reading it. Alternatively, Yeah, there is a book. The
strategy guide is called from Purpose to Profit. It's available
(29:15):
on Amazon. Can't control Amazon pricing, they do whatever they please. Honestly,
it's disastrous and there's nothing I can do about it.
And then it's really gonna kind of I hope it's
going to be helpful. It's also written very easy language,
so nothing scary nothing academic, you know, lots of examples,
(29:37):
a lot of consumer psychology because it's all about psychology again.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
So yeah, awesome, and thank you very much for joining
me for this episode of the podcast. Real provide us
with great insights into strategy and business and it is
very important to eventually do know your limits as a
business owner and maybe help or hire the people to
(30:01):
the business that's important for business growth and profitability in
the future after the five years or so, because we
do want to stay in business after that.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, yeah, Don't be afraid of hiring people that are
better than you that in this particular area. Don't try
to hire for exact industry match, because either way, in
this case, you're going to get a one trick pony
that knows only this particular product category and nothing else,
and it's you know, you can't grow the business being
(30:35):
ers and traditional and doing exactly like everybody else. Don't
be afraid of hiring people from different categories who know
what they do, and don't be afraid of hiring somebody
that you believe maybe even better than you, because this
is how we grow
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