This is a book on marketing and how we need to replace the numbers and quant with heart. In whatever we do with the consumer. This is about rethinking your business and reinventing your brand and marketing. Written by Bernadette Jiwa, it is worth a reflection on brands.

1. difference
Bernadette Jiwa

2. Difference thinking is more than
the ability to connect the dots – it
is about recognizing the truth,
seeing the opportunity and then
acting on it.

3. Classic route is Idea-Develop-
launch-market

4. The new route is Truth-people-
Idea-launch

5. Starbucks didn’t invent coffee and
apple didn’t invent the
smartphone. These companies
created new experiences for the
category.

6. Fifty years ago the focus of
business was dominance. Today, it
is to matter, to make a difference
but to do something that creates a
difference.

7. The truth is you cannot change
how people think or do without
changing their feelings.

8. You need to create ideas and
experiences that give people
reasons to care and to belong, not
just to choose.

9. People who make a difference show..
1. They practice empathy
2. They have a clear sense of change they want
to achieve
3. They are patient about strategy but
impatient about tactics.
4. They ask the right questions, they listen more
than they talk.
5. They watch what people do and don’t just
believe what they are told.

10. People who make a difference show..
6.They are innovative at the edges
7.They tell a story to their constituents
8.They work hard to change how people feel,
they make an effort to reach out to as many
people as possible.
9.They build trust in the organization and the
stakeholders.

11. In Europe, there was a need to
have a second vegetable. The
Spanish grew potatoes to feed
livestock.

12. The potato had been cultivated in
south America for centuries but
had not been adopted in Europe.

13. In France, it took a royal seal of
approval to grow potatoes and the
sight of King Louis xvi and Marie
Antoinette wearing potato flowers
as decorations tipped the balance
to grow potatoes.

14. Frederick the Great in Russia,
grew potatoes and got his guards
to guard the farm. Citizens
thought that this must be valuable
and stole some potatoes, and
that’s how potatoes came to be
grown in Russia.

15. Economists have estimated that
the introduction of the potato was
responsible for a quarter of the
growth in old world population
between 1700 and 1900.

16. Figuring out what people want
and finding ways to delight one
person at a time so that the
person is thrilled to talk to others
about it is the new order.

17. Marketing has always been an art,
we’ve tried to turn t into a pure
science with focus groups and big
data.

18. We spend $500 billion globally on
advertising in 2013. We spend
more money to interrupt people,
more often, with more messages.

19. What makes a brand unique now
is the difference it creates. How it
affects peoples lives and becomes
a part of their story. Creating a
difference is harder to replicate
for competition.

20. People tell us who they are, but
we ignore it , we want them to be
who we want them to be.

21. Great brands disrupt people, they
change the way people feel about
something, in a way they change
how they behave.

22. Marketing is not a department,
it’s the story of how we create
difference for our customers.

23. Peter Drucker famously remarked
“ The most important thing in
communication is hearing what
isn’t said”

24. Focus groups can give you an
opinion, but they cannot tell you
how to make meaning from it. You
don’t find the truth by simply
asking for answers. You uncover it
by listening and observing.

25. Chobani went to billion dollar
business by innovating at the
edges, by making an authentic
Greek yogurt without thickeners.

26. The great brands of the future will
be built by those who have
worked hard to gain the insight
that enables them to whisper ‘we
see you’ to their customers.

27. The truth is people don’t fall in
love with ideas, they fall in love
with how those ideas make them
feel.

28. People don’t buy features, they
buy promises.

29. A metric of any kind feels have,
but it has deniability built into it.

30. Impact,connection,loyalty and
love cannot be measured easily,
which is why business has never
focused on these metrics.

31. A growing class of high value
consumers is powering the
economy and reshaping society.

32. Consumer behavior is nor
predicated on demographics
anymore. You have to dig deeper.

33. Empathy and business people
don’t go hand in hand. Business
people rarely navigate their own
web site to see how they do.

34. The difference model is built
around six pillars : Principles,
purpose, people, personal,
perception and product.

35. Principles are fundamental truths.

36. Principles can be classified into
three groups – the truth about
you, the truth about the industry
and the truth about people.

37. What your customers believe abut
you far outweighs what you can
tell them. Beliefs drive behavior.

38. Fill a void in people’s lives, that’s
what great marketing does.

39. What separates a good from great
is the heart in it.

40. Good products work, great
products become part of our
story.