The Remarkable Project

How does psychology relate to business? What insights can we use from behavioural science to improve customer experience and even boost sales?

Roger Dooley, international keynote speaker, writer, author, and founder of Dooley Directs consultancy, shares his expert knowledge about the intriguing relationship between science and business. He highlights research-backed tactics that any marketers or business owner can use to grow their business and connect with consumers.

Roger became fascinated with the convergence in neuroscience and marketing, then began writing about the buzzworthy concept of using behavioural science in your marketing strategy.

Since 2006, his work in persuasion, friction, and influence has created a powerful ripple of impact in the digital marketing community.

Listen in to learn how Robert and other marketing professionals in companies of all sizes are optimizing their marketing strategies and reducing friction by researching and implementing behavioural science principles. 

Key Takeaways 

• Savvy brands with large marketing budgets are focusing on leveraging behavioural science principles, like scarcity, social proof, and authority to increase marketing efficacy and sales.
• In the last 10-20 years, many more brands have adopted behavioural science tactics to create better HR outcomes within the company, improve conversion on their website, improve sales and distribution channels, and much more.
• Whether you’re a large company or a small business, it’s very important to test these behavioural science concepts.
• Roger’s one message to marketing professionals and business owners is that consumers and customers are non-consciously influenced to a degree that many businesses don’t understand. 
• There are great benefits to eliminating friction, or any unnecessary effort to perform a task, in your business. Doing this will result in a more highly-rated customer experience, but it needs to be a business decision which you get buy-in on.
• To identify friction in your small business, ask customers to rate/review your processes and the effort spent in those processes. 
• Empathy, care, and connectedness are essential parts of building trust with customers. Demonstrating empathy at scale, even in chat bots, has become a crucial tactic for online businesses.
• Focus on building a team that is invested in improving customer experience and creating an effortless experience for customers. In addition to that, work to reduce friction for your employees, so it’s easier for them to provide great service to your customers.

Resources Mentioned:

Brainfluence by Roger Dooley: www.rogerdooley.com/books/brainfluence 

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: https://amzn.to/3Ce85rW

Influence by Robert Cialdini: https://amzn.to/3GidBMF

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely: https://amzn.to/2XKL5Sn

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug: https://amzn.to/2XInIsr

Small DATA by Martin Lindstrom: https://amzn.to/2XIslTl

Most Recent Forbes Article - Here

Get connected with Roger:

Visit his website: www.rogerdooley.com 

Connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dooley 

Follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rogerdooley 

How do you make an idea come to life? How do you create something that compels people to talk about it and keep coming back for more?

 Joe Brumm, film director and writer of the popular children’s TV show, Bluey, speaks on what it takes to make great kids’ movies and shows while creating remarkable experiences for both children and their parents. Joe shares his candid thoughts on the experience of creating and filming Bluey, the difference between an audience and a community, and how Bluey has inspired cultural change. He also sheds light on the benefits of integrating playfulness in the development of business ideas and offers tips for being playful in your creative process.

As a parent and a creative, Joe Brumm finds great joy in providing comedic entertainment and escapism to kids and families, especially those that are going through the lowest of lows in life. 

Kids’ shows always surprise us with bits of wisdom and humour and Bluey is no exception to that! If there’s one thing Bluey can remind you of it’s that life is crazy, but the craziness won’t last forever.

Listen in to learn why people are compelled to talk about Bluey and how Joe keeps refining his creative endeavours.

Key Takeaways 

·      To make kids’ entertainment relatable and engaging, Joe finds great value in being realistic about how kids play, talk, and use their imagination in real life, while also incorporating different aspects of parenting.

·      95% of Joe’s writing is art imitating life, inspired from real experiences from his own life, many of which happen to be super relatable to other families.

·      If you’re going to create anything, you have to understand the negative and positive feedback and not become too attached to either. Audience feedback is important, but don’t let every negative opinion discourage you.

·      Play with your ideas! Explore different directions they can go in without judgement and forced structure. Eventually, you’ll develop a thread or a story around your idea.

·      Joe relies on meditation and trust to keep fuelling his creative drive. 

·      Connecting with the people on your team is very important for a project’s success. When the people, place, and project come together, it really shows in the final product.

Remarkable Quotes:

[18:08] Just having an escape from reality is just needed sometimes… It’s only seven minutes, but that’s been a real privilege and I’m quite proud that it’s like, you know what, sometimes our audience might just need seven minutes to mind the kids so they can get something done or just to put on hold the daily barrage of everything that can go wrong when you have kids. 

[30:26] I definitely think what we learn as kids, to play and to imagine and to create and to build these blocks without this rigid sense of purpose and always a goal attached to it, we’re still using in the workplace… There’s definitely a playful element to… coming up with ideas and refining a piece of artwork or whatever.

[45:12] You’ve got to trust your own taste.

Resources Mentioned:

The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore: https://amzn.to/3FAvzcU

Listen to the episode with Jesse Cole: www.jaytinkler.com.au/the_remarkable_project/jesse_cole 

Have you really looked into the impact that your business has on the lives of others? Does your purpose align with your values? 

James Bartle, Founder of Outland Denim, speaks on the importance of having a purpose in business and how he’s translated his purpose into an empowering tool for staff, stakeholders, and customers. He also gives you practical advice for evaluating the impact of your business on the world and sheds light on what he would’ve done differently as a business owner.

 James and his wife, Erica, founded Outland Denim after witnessing first-hand the devastating global issue of sex trafficking and slave trade. With the fashion industry grappling with a reputation for being one of the worst contributors to slave trade and climate change, Outland Denim refuses to be one of the bad guys. 

Thus, they’re sitting at the forefront of sustainability and global citizenship, giving work to victims of human trafficking, making denim with less energy and water than competitors, and staying dedicated constant innovation.

Listen in to learn how this denim-loving Aussie is sparing the Earth of harm, elevating women, and creating lasting generational impact through disruptive fashion… and how you can too!

Key Takeaways 

·      Having a clear, long-term vision helps you stay focused and driven on your business goals and growth. Though, with a strong long-term vision, comes the need for a strong strategy.

·      To change the world through business, James measures the social, environmental, and economic impact of the business. 

·      Customers can tell when a company is greenwashing, or manipulating consumers into thinking they are sustainable and eco-conscious. Be transparent, be committed to sustainability, and prove to your customers that you care.

·      Your story is the single most important part of your business because it is real and authentic. If it isn’t, your community will see through it. 

·      Your purpose is your super power. Always keep it at the centre of your business.

·      Strive to get buy-in from your employees, rely on their strengths, and be honest and transparent with them.

·      Create authentic, easy-to-share content that aligns with your values. Once you do that, your most aligned customers will become attracted to you.

Remarkable Quotes:

[8:31] If we were able to harness the benefits that the Western world enjoy, to be able to challenge the injustices that many parts of our world face every single day, then what would the outcome be?

[16:30] It is proven time and time and time again that because we have this very powerful narrative associated with our product, where our product directly becomes the agent for change… our products have the ability to activate a cycle of freedom. How many products in the market could actually say something like that?

[36:30] I don’t believe until you’re really authentic and true and honest about who you are as a brand that you’ll actually attract your audience anyway. So, I really do believe it’s about attracting your audience rather than trying to be everything to everyone.

Get connected with James & Learn more about Outland Denim:

Visit their website: www.outlanddenim.com.au 

Follow them on Instagram: www.instagram.com/outlanddenim

Resources Mentioned:

Listen to the episode with Jesse Cole: www.jaytinkler.com.au/the_remarkable_project/jesse_cole 

Can free popsicles, fun and customer service create a number 1 Hotel in Los Angeles?  

Darren Ross, Owner and CEO at Service Freak Hospitality and COO of Magic Castle Hotel, shares the process of making marketing easy by providing guests with a creative approach to service. 

On appearance, The Magic Castle Hotel in Los Angeles is nothing special. It is an old apartment complex built in 1937 that was converted into a hotel in the 1980s. Despite this though, from 2001 Darren and his team has transformed this hotel into one of the most sought-after hotels in Los Angeles - famous for being a fun, family focused hotel and offering incredibly creative customer experience. 

In return, not only do guests to spread the word by leaving amazing reviews for their hotel but their amazing customer experience has been featured in many publications and best-selling marketing books. 

Darren’s most notable experience is the pool “Popsicle Hotline” - allowing families to experience free white gloved delivery of their favourite ice-block poolside.

Listen to hear how this guru has built one of the most referenced and remarkable hotels in the world. 

Take away points 

• Take the problem from the customers. Give them the gift of time back to their family.
• Create moments.
• Amazing customer service is hard. It is not automated. You have to do it manually.
• Hire employees with personality, that is what is important.
• Don’t be afraid to be playful. Your customers want to feel something, they want to be moved. Show respect to your customers.
• Stand by your brand, on who you are.  

Quotes:

13:23 What we lack in modern facilities, state of the art gyms, we more than make up for in how we make our customers feel by the time they leave.

13:43 I can’t compete with the Five Star Hotels in Los Angeles, but I will compete all day all with the same Five Star Hotel in the same way we make our customers feel by the time they leave.

42:15 Listen carefully, respond creatively is how you reach people and sets you apart from your competitors.

45:01 Decide to be a customer service company first. 

45:48  Be Bold and have fun conversations to brainstorm.

What would change in your business if you charged for admission?

 This week, Jay interviews B. Joseph Pine II, the co-author of the Experience Economy and director at Strategic Horizons.  In this episode, Joseph argues why products and services are not enough in building a business that can organically grow through word of mouth.  

 We discuss how companies can truly thrive if they focus on the transformation that their customers are seeking. He then shows us that when we do find the “sweet spot” of transformational experience, we gain a loyalty and virality that can not only be banked on but be charged for.

Joseph Pine has been described as the Godfather of the Customer Experience field. He is the co-author of The Experience Economy, an internationally acclaimed author, TED speaker, and management advisor.

 Joseph has been committed to highlighting to businesses that their product or service is not enough to grow and that truly successful businesses focus on the customised, remarkable experiences to not only withstand the speed at which competition and innovation effects business but grow in spite of it. 

Takeaway points:

• Business should not consider money as an end. It is the measure of how well you fulfil your end.
• Aspiration of the company should align with the aspiration of the customer.
• Authenticity or the New Customer Sensibility is important as how you treat your customers.
• Listen to your customers = marketing transformation.
•  Four levels of Hybrid Experiences 
  • Offer virtual experiences to your customers
  • Twitchification  - customers can access to information better than live experiences
  • Sell access to events
  • Take highlights of the online events on your social media to entice the customers
•  You don’t need an advertising budget if you are remarkable, people will talk about it. They will tell people about it and want to become part of it because the fundamentals is Marketing.
  
  

Quotes:

19:35 It’s not about what difference you want to make in the world, but who you want to be.

33.09 Put value in your customer’s experience

54:25  Make the business remarkable to have customers talk about it. 

Get connected with Joseph Pine at
 www.strategichorizons.com
Twitter  @joepine
LinkedIn /joepine

Recommended Books:

• The Experience Economy by Joseph Pines II

https://www.amazon.com.au/Experience-Economy-Competing-Customer-Attention/dp/1633697975/

“People lie.” 

That is Paul Zak’s response to the traditional survey style ways in which we measure the success of immersive experiences. But what if there was a way to tap into the subconscious and measure what we are ACTUALLY feeling?

Paul Zak, a world-renowned scientist, was one of the first people to integrate neuroscience with economics to create a new discipline of “neuroeconomics”. He is best known for his work around trust and immersive experiences and an author of the best-selling books Trust Factor and The Moral Molecule. 

 In this episode, Paul talks about the future of building predictable immersive experiences for our customers. We discuss the correlation between how customers “feel” in an experience and what is going neurologically for them during that experience. 

 Paul then goes on to introduce us to the new frontier of experience tracking. He walks us through his pioneering technology that can take the guesswork out of measuring the engagement during experiences. He also gives us some actionable insights that he has gained from his clients who have implemented this technology. 

This episode is a must for anyone curious about how to maximise their marketing efforts by tapping into neuroscience of customer experience.

Take away points:

• Consumers want amazing experiences.
• It is the connection, it’s the caring that drives marketing. 
• Importance of clever use of technology in creating best customer experience and emotional connection.
• Importance of gaining the trust of your customers.
• Psychological - need sufficient bandwidth to trust a person
• Hire for self-management, not for culture fit. 
• People cannot immerse themselves in a training for more than 20 minutes, no matter how good it is.
• Immersion of data affects the flow of the brain. 
• Use intuition and technology to create amazing experiences for people around us.

Notable Quotes:

“Create a brand love, a connection and genuine experiences to your customers.”

“Emotions play an integral role in marketing”

“The real pleasure in writing comes from revision, polishing that makes it beautiful”

“Build a company with employees that share the same passion with your customers.” 

“Peter Drucker : An organisation's first responsibility is the employees because they create the values. “

Get connected with Paul Zak

• GetImmersion.com

Books

• The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore
• On Writing by Stephen King 

Saul Colt is the Founder and Creative Director at The Idea Integration Company. In his career he has been named as one of the iMEDIA 25: Internet Marketing Leaders & Innovators as well as been called one of Canada’s best community builders/experiential marketers. NYT Best selling author and Internet Pioneer Chris Brogan once referred to Saul as “exactly who you want representing your company” and that message has been echoed by media properties ranging from Inc to Forbes Magazine.

Takeaway points:

The things that businesses do wrong in community building and influence:

•  First, businesses confuse the audience for influence. They assume that an influence with a big number of following is a great choice to increase revenue. Where in fact, it’s less about the audience and more about influencers. An influence who has 300 followers, but are the exact target you are looking for, and buy your products and services are just as valuable as half a million non-targeted followers. 
•  The other thing - they get the definition of Influencer all wrong. There is no such thing as Influencer - with context. You cannot be influential globally across demographics. 
•  Third: Business thinks that Influencer marketing is a magic bullet that will solve all the problems. Influence is only a part of a puzzle, part of marketing, part of PR promotion. When you work with influencers, you buy their following, but you don’t own their following. 
•  Find people who are already your customers. Find people who already love your product. Use your channels to amplify them to get more followers. Make your own customers or your influencers for them to stick around in years because they love your product and services. 
•  Make sure to do your Influencer Marketing properly. As Influencers are taken as disposable, after having them to promote once or twice, they are gone. 
•  The philosophy behind a Marketing Stunt is like a polite slap on your customer’s face to wake them up. Have 3 to 4 great marketing stunts a year. These are designed to accelerate attention and think of what is next to be done. 
•  Saul used an Apple as an example. He mentioned that the Iphone company knows when their company is getting boring. They know when to announce the next Iphone unit. It’s all about owning the anticipation. 
•  Influencer Marketing is a paid referral. Once you get the customer’s attention, that is when you want to wow them, earn their trust, make them feel home and blow them away with your brand personality. 
•  Listening is really important because that’s where you get your insights. Listening is absolutely key. Listen, respond and create experience. 
• It’s all about human connection Be authentic, it has to be real. Authenticity builds community.
•  Having someone with a magnetic personality in your team, replaces the budget. If you have money with someone magnetic, that is great. Products can be magnetic too. 
•  How Covid affects building a community? Some communities got super tighter, more time in their hands. Some communities shrunk, turned off. 
• Brands should start investing in a Word of Mouth experience now because people have been stuck at home and hungry for new experiences.

Get connected with Saul Colt at www.theideaintegration.com

Jesse Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and famously known as the owner of The Savannah Bananas baseball team. He is a well sought-after business adviser and author of "Find Your Yellow Tux - How to Be Successful by Standing Out.”

He started out by marketing his baseball team the traditional ways to sell tickets. Within a year, he was broke and his business was in trouble. Through this experience, he started to approach his business marketing in an out of the box way. He came up with something different and unique to make his business successful, and that is - Fans First, Entertain Always. Be Different. Be Remarkable. His great business practice is to have fun and do what you can to stand out in the world.
 
“Stop standing still. Start standing out.”

“Be patient on what you want for yourself. But be impatient how much you give to others - you do that, everything else takes care of itself.”
 
Jesse had shared his experiences and tips on how he was able to build his baseball business back up again, and be loved by the fans.

Takeaway points:
 
- Create unforgettable and special experiences for your fans.
- Challenge the things that have been done.
- Do and Learn.
- Do it differently.
- Be organic and make this happen fast.
- Trust: How you make people feel, build their trust.
- Invest in your customer’s experience and turn them into loyal fans. Let your fans do the marketing for you.
- Talk about Gratitude: Be thankful.
- He mentioned about the book Fanocracy by David Meerman Scott. The author talks about the science around how close you are to the performer creates a lasting impression and achieves fandom.
- Jesse shares how he was inspired by Walt Disney’s vision to always improve and "plus" experiences for your customers.
- Jessie’s biggest AHA Moment  was during their One City world tour in Alabama. They sold 7K tickets in 24 hours. Fans didn’t leave after the game had finished, instead they stayed to take player’s autographs, players hanging out with the fans, and the fans sang Stand By Me. From then on, at the end of every game, we sing Stand By Me with the fans.
- Use powerful concise words with your products.

Jesse was also kind enough to share the 5 E’s to have loyal fans:

• Eliminate Friction
• Entertain Always
• Experiment Constantly
• Engaged Deeply
• Empower Action

Books mentioned in the show (will add links):

• Find Your Yellow Tux by Jesse Cole
• Fanocracy - Turning Fans Into Customers and Customers Into Fans -  by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott.