Let me attempt to explain the business of branding and the branding of business in as short a way as I possibly can.
I have often described good communication of any subject has to be made so simple that a six-year old, a sixteen-year old and a PhD student can understand.
A Business is defined as the process of Acquiring and Keeping Customers.
1. Acquiring Customers is the equation of : LG x C = Customer
which means: Lead Generation multiplied by Conversion equals Customer.
This is the Business funnel equation that all businesses undergo whether they know it or not.
A lead is a prospective* customer, so generating leads is the process of getting attention through the various channels to convert prospects into customers.
So how and what attention do you get for your business? This is the first step of Branding.
*A prospect is someone who wants and can afford your product or service.
2. Keeping Customers, as the sentence implies is about ensuring your converted customers don't leave you unless they no longer need, want or can no longer afford your product or service.
What is the key to keeping customers? It is about building and maintaining relationships.
How far and how deep you want to build that relationship depends on how long or how big you decide to build your business.
The Business Landscape
Most businesses start with a "Build it and they will come" / "Take it or leave it" business model or attitude. Few start with the end in mind.
Yes. It is sheer arrogance. It started in the good old days and still is the business mentality today.
Can't blame them, for it is in our nature to be proud of our intelligence, talent, and craft.
However, this is short term thinking. No matter how good, intelligent, talented, there are always others who are as talented and as intelligent as well. And there will always be people or products that will be better than yours. The "build a better mouse trap" strategy will work until somebody else builds an "even better mouse trap". Then you lose your customers because they are just that; a customer. This is short term success.
Business with Heart
With all things being somewhat equal, meaning good basic hygiene in place; your product lives up to expectations, your pricing is reasonable with clear value propositions, your business is consistent all round. Then you can start building your business on the pillars of strong and good relationships.
Make the customer your friend. Because it is always better to buy from a friend and it is also difficult not to buy from a friend. Keep maintaining that friendship and not give reasons for a friend to leave you. Be honest, be generous, share good things with your friends and you will have die-hard loyal friends and raving fans.
Give great value to your customers so they can't resist being your friends. Friends buy from friends. Friends recommend other friends. Friends are also quick to forgive friends.
There is no secret sauce really. Building a good business is not only about secret formulas, fancy gimmicks or bold claims. It is also not about transactions between a 'business' and a 'customer'.
When human beings go into business by labels and roles, they tend to get too serious and you get to hear things like; 'I'm running a business here you know...?""..Not a charity!"
That is when we forget that businesses are conducted between human beings.
And as we all know; human beings are living, breathing entities with feelings.
How you make them feel determines how well you succeed doing business with them. Make them feel appreciated, comfortable, important and informed, they will have no reason to leave you.
But what if they do?
4 Reasons Why Customers Leave
1. They no longer need, want or can afford your product.
They could exit the market due to trading-up or down, death, obsolescence, affordability or unavailability. Nothing much you can do here except to stay relevant and stay in touch.
2. They are unhappy with your price.
Price is what the customer pays. Value is what the customer gets.
Some businesses resort to price-cutting when the problem is customer service.
A PWC Study details that customers are willing to pay a 7-16% premium for good customer service experience. In fact 65% of customers interviewed find a positive customer experience to be more influential than great advertising.
3. They are Unhappy with your product.
People are seldom unhappy with products but with product claims. Stick with your product truths. Only make promises that you can keep. Nobody is forcing you to make a promise. So don't make a promise unless you can keep it. This is true with all relationships as well.
Angry or dissatisfied customers are likely to share their disappointment with friends on social media.
4. They are unhappy with the way they are treated.
This is where you should pay special attention.
73% of all customers point to customer experience (CX) as an important factor in their purchasing decision.
Another survey done by McKinseyreveals that; over 90% of customers who are dissatisfied with customer experience will- rather than telling you what's wrong and how you can improve it - just not come back. You have not just lost a customer but also valuable data on why they left.
The Bottom Line
So while it's clear that Customer Service, more specifically Customer Experience is key to keeping customers happy and coming back, how do we create positive customer experiences?
So what is Branding? Branding is Experience.
So while Business is the process of acquiring and keeping customers, Branding is the business of finding, and uncovering your unique customer experience. That is the second step in Branding.
Today is my birthday. As a gift to myself I am relaunching my blog and formally launching my foray into writing my Memoirs, much like Marcus Aurelius when he penned his thoughts and feelings of his life and as Emperor of Rome (161-180 BCE) which was published as The Meditations after his death. My blog is now renamed I love you. Live.
I shall continue to document moments in my life that are significantly memorable about the people I meet, places I've been and things I've done. What better way to restart than with my family.
My recently separated wife of thirty plus years is everything I wanted in a woman to bear my children. Strong, disciplined, talented and resourceful, the type that gets things done. Super quick.
Mission accomplished.Three wonderful children in a span of five years.
We were happy productive parents. She even a greater mother, teacher, housekeeper, friend, gourmet chef and protector of her children. Look at them now.
Neither one of us knew how to go on in our relationship having accomplished a beautiful family, our children now live separate from us pursuing their careers. Leaving us an empty nest to face each other once again.
We then realised we hardly knew each other as individuals. I still wonder why she married me.
We tried to be decent to each other. She was patient, faithful and silent, seething an anger within. I was serenely content but seeking intensely, silently searching for life's answers.
I asked for a reset for us to start anew. Neither of us knew how.
So we split. It was my fault. I strayed. I was lost and lonely. I was searching for meaning.
I found a guru. Several gurus in a spiritual sense and I made a pilgrimage. They say that in India, when a man goes on his pilgrimage, it's a journey of no return.
In India back in the days everyone walked so it'll take forever to walk back. It's been over a year now on the journey into my pilgrimage. I aim to make it back.
I now know what it's like to be free, conscious and alive.
I would not trade this feeling & freedom for anything in the world except to find my way back to my family to be together once again.
I met my one and only wife in 1989 when I joined my first international agency. She was the queen of the roost and the boss's blue-eyed girl. She was all about work and I was all about building my career. She was a top performer and as much as I tried I could only manage to emulate half of her capabilities. But I had keen selling abilities and good diction & presentation skills. She was fiercely ambitious, impatient, fast and single.
I was climbing the career ladder equally ambitious with a girlfriend in-tow from my previous agency. My new colleague and I spent many hours and weekends working together at the agency, mostly clearing paperwork. We started an affair and I broke the heart of my girlfriend of five years soon after. She became my new girlfriend and moved in with me.
She proved to be as good a housekeeper as she is an advertising executive. From my traditional baba/nyonya upbringing, I was used to very high standards of housekeeping and F&B. Plus my father came with the package deal. She kept papa happy, in his place and the household in ship shape.
We had Jon out of wedlock. She was happiest. She had always wanted a son of her own. She didn't expect me to hang around after Jon was born, she later tells me.
But when Zane was born two years later, she agreed to legalise our marriage at the registrar.
From then on we were a happy growing family.
We went into full flight with the arrival of our third and last child, a precious daughter.
All of our children are such great blessings of joy and happiness. Growing up with our three children made it so easy to weather the burdens of work, life and even ignore the husband/wife relationship.
We were happy together. As long as we all had each other.
We quickly outgrew our extensively renovated double storey link-house in Bangsar. We moved to a large landed property in Damansara Heights with lots of space for the children to play and grow. We played all the games that I grew up playing. Football, hockey, cricket, badminton, ping pong and basketball. Except for football I'd beat the crap out of the boys at all the sports. They would beat each other up over squabbles about games. Sore losers et al. But we all laughed it off as good fun and part of growing up. We even had our ears pierced together.
Life was good, it rewarded us with most privileges of travel and leisure. Mine more. I was chasing the dream of acquiring wealth and business but I was travelling more for leisure than business. I spent time away from the family. Strangely, the thing that I love doing most I avoided. I was basically compulsive and unconscious. Mum stepped up wonderfully raising the children. I did virtually nothing but to just love and adore them. And communicate with them as adults. Still I was largely absent. Not present.
Until Jon got sick.
My life came crumbling down for a while. I quickly snapped into business mode after his diagnosis and prognosis. I went into command mode. Shut down my emotions and rallied the family together to set the context. We searched everywhere for all sorts of remedies. The more I looked outwards for the answers the more confused and frustrated I got. I have never felt more helpless in my life. Desolate. I was losing my son. My Jon.
There was nothing I or anyone could do. He too took the brutal lashings of his cancer therapies for over a year with dignity and courage.
Jonathan Byron Gan Ye Zhan sprouted wings and left us early in August 2005, exactly two weeks after his sixteenth birthday. The day Singapore got her independence so did Jon.
Gone too soon but that young man had a life well lived.
A scholar, sportsman and gentleman. He represented his primary school at debating competitions, tennis, school band, prefect, ran cross-country. Attended Man United soccer school. At VI he was an active boy scout, patrol leader of 1st KL Troop, a member of a rock band and a ladies man. He lived his life in a real hurry. Maybe he knew something we didn't.
He is survived by his brother and sister and not supposed to be us his parents. I guess what they say is true; " it is most tragic for a parent to bury their child." But not unusual as we come to meet many more such families during our journey with Jon. We found common bonds to urge each other on.
The family felt lost and empty in the void left by Jon.
We were each mourning him in our own way privately. The loss we felt was just beyond words. None of us knew how to express how we felt about losing Jon that we just kept it in. And I suppose each of us are still mourning Jon. Most of all mum.
To a certain extent, Zane and I had spent a good amount of time discussing our feelings about Jon while chilling, drinking and smoking in his beautiful brownstone in Brooklyn.
I felt it was healthy & invigorating to express long pent up feelings and emotions. If not to make peace with a past event albeit significant. And move on consciously to enhance this life.
Zane I'm hoping is loving and living his life exuberantly. I know he is.
Because he was the brightest, happiest little spark growing up. Being number two and totally different from Jon who is more like me, as a child he was my exact opposite. And I adore him. He got along beautifully with Summer but not Jon. Quick to speak and act.
He has great bursts of energy and a pleasant gentle personality. Very likeable. Ruled the school's badminton champion roost for a few years.
He had to brave the big bad world at 17. We literally kicked him out to San Francisco to study Fine Art. After two years of living the good life, getting stoned and hopefully laid in the most expensive city in the US, I made him a proposition after visiting him in his luxury loft in the Tenderloin district- Spend the remainder money set aside for education in SF or be anywhere he desires for work apprenticeship. At the end of his second year, he graduated with an associate degree from University in SF and he moved to New York because that's where Summer is. He landed a job assisting famous analogue photographer Eric Johnson in Manhattan.
Wise move that was because NY has opened his mind to being a jazz historian while he shoots and dates models on the side.
The kind of life I'd be proud to live. Enhancing his life by enhancing how people look. In photos and in person. His keen choice of jazz music is just about the only thing that surpasses his choice of clothes. His dress sense is legendary in the Gan family. He is certainly putting on the Ritz at least in dress style in New York City which makes him confident, suave and savvy.
Music and fashion aside, his first love and talent I believe is still the craft he loves and was trained for. Photography.
He has a certain presence that when in his presence the model is forced to be present. Allowing him to capture their essence. Each of his model shots bring out the person from the being. Perhaps he's an artist waiting to be born or already in action. Already dabbling into large canvasses with acrylic, the first few pieces I chanced upon were dark. But these are his desires. Who am I to judge. I'm just here to appreciate my son.
Just as I have appreciated and still appreciate Jon. If he hasn't been stricken with the disease we wouldn't have been such a dysfunctional family that glides in and out of each others lives without fully loving and being with each other. Jon brought us closer together.
*From my vantage right now, his message for us was to slow down, wake up, and live life.
That's when I know that we don't ever really die. The great consciousness lives on in another form and it's closer to us than we think. It's just one step inside.
Everyone we love, everyone is inside us. They live on inside us. Which is how they appear even when they are here with us. They live inside us in our experience of them. We only ever perceive anyone or anything inside our head through our sense perceptions. Except physically we get to touch, smell, hear, even lick them, if we want but that's just his physical self. What about his intellectual, emotional and spiritual self? That makes three parts of the being. These are all experienced in the being. And that you cannot take away from me. Then isn't it true that Jon still lives in me?
As long as I am alive Jon lives in my consciousness. Beyond the physical.
As does he in Zane and Summer's hearts and consciousness. Only if they knew how to still the mind and go within. Be still and just observe.
These are qualities which I believe our youngest and most precious child possesses.
She has great stillness and observation skills. A sense of presence when she's around people. She's sensitive and great with kids. She just doesn't like adults except mum while growing up. Dunno if she's still the same. But I think she's matured into a confident, intelligent yet bubbly and exuberant young lady. Always ready to help. And bring joy into people's lives.
Just like the day she was born she has brought rays of sunshine into our lives everyday ever since. What a beautifully appropriate name for my daughter- Summer.
No school, primary or secondary, could contain her for long. For her place is not in the classroom but in the open spaces of the dance stages.
A free spirited being of joy who loves dance. She delivered and over delivered in ballet school with 7 Consecutive Awards for Distinction from the Royal Academy of Ballet in as many years. A record unbroken I dare venture. I still miss ferrying her to and back from dance classes, auditions, practice, shows, and the occasional gala.
She still is the apple of everyone's eyes. Everywhere she goes she lights up the place.
She teaches me presence with her poise and grace.
Perseverance from her patience and practice. She inherited the trait of strict discipline and steely determination from her mother and led a full dance-oriented life going for practice, performances, auditions and shoots back home.
So busy she missed the deadline for NY dance school submission for Fall of 2014 but made up for it by winning herself a scholarship to AMDA-NY in the same year. She did it by coming out tops in a dance workshop in Barcelona. She's awesome, she gets what she wants. If only she knew.
She missed the front entrance but got invited back in through the side door on a red carpet.
Since her admission to AMDA I have yet to see her dance.
I also missed both her shows- performance and choreography in Malaysia’s first off-Broadway theatre; Thicker Than Water staged in Joe’s Pub twice.
New York is lovely, I enjoyed it most when I spent one afternoon in autumn with Summer in the East Village & Greenwich just strolling down the narrow streets, having lunch, exploring new street corners, book stores, charming old stores, even a Taiwanese tea house. Just spending precious time together.
I remember that afternoon we walked into a quaint little book store, I enquired if they had any Murakami in stock. The elderly Italian proprietor looked at me with obvious disdain and made a snide remark alluding to my daughter. I deduced that he thought I was a dirty old man dating a pretty young girl and he didn't approve of the liaison. We promptly left with me bemused in the thought that there are still decent men left in New York. And he's Italian.
Well, I am Malaysian of Chinese descent and I am only half decent. Which was why I deserve to be kicked out of my happy home after I strayed from my one and only wife and ended up alone. Clearly I have failed as a husband but I am still a father who is proud of his family. Extremely.
A collection of memoirs, musings and lessons as I go through life. A compilation of notes to self, a dossier documenting experiences in this ephemeral life. Covid-19 Lockdown D26
Meditations are different from my thoughts because I write only of my experiences with the people in my life starting with my family. Thoughts can be fables, fantasy, beliefs and concepts, here I share only my experiences.
Apart from those legally linked to me there are and will be no names mentioned living or otherwise, of the people featured in my stories or posts. *Unless you have achieved avatar status, you will see your name. Watch out!
So, I hereby anoint myself as writer of "fictional narratives of the truth".
With that I am proceeding to re-launch my blog by renaming it- I Love you. Live.
I started writing again at the start of the Covid-19 lock down, (See my first post here> I'm Back.) after a five-year hiatus.
A lot has happened in my life in the past five years. I haven't been writing not because I had nothing to write about but I was busy living life. Experiencing it's highs and lows. Living the way I have preached and now it's time to come out to show me to myself.
This relaunched blog is a gift from me to myself on my birthday. At this point in my life I would like to share with myself, my greatest achievements to date. This blog and tomorrow's post. The fact that I can finally articulate my achievements in words is a pleasure I present myself.
I have long been in love with words and writing. I worship and adore writers who can use least number of words to convey the most number of images.
That is exactly what I have set out to do. To write in a manner that utilises the economy of words to tell my story about true events and people in my life. Minus the embellishments, the adjectives and superlatives. Only descriptions of how I think and feel. I can still remember writing my first piece for my school magazine, a poem about the people in my class, it's about love. I was fourteen.
After having dabbled in writing over the years I have often wondered if I have a set pattern of writing? I don't believe so because unlike pure fiction, every piece I write is unique and it is my perspective of the truth. I write primarily to document and inform, if achieved then hopefully it will enthral myself and my readers. The parties involved may not agree or disagree with my version of the truth. But it is my version and therefore true for me. Remember, this blog is meant for me to archive my memoirs/meditations. Thinking aloud and thinking allowed.
This is also my personal/official blog where I write things down so I can reminisce on my life when I'm old and shrivelled up enjoying my life writing, in one of the best and wildest places in the world.
You are welcome to visit, read and browse as much as you want. I aim to write with precision and brevity while entertaining myself with interesting stories and subjects that captivate me. True stories according to me.
In my quest for brevity and economy, please tell me or leave me a comment if I have been vague or inaccurate in my depictions or facts. I would deeply appreciate that for it would greatly improve my writing if not the truth.
After all, this blog is also my incubator to start documenting and archiving my family's history starting with my grandfather. Who came to Malaya from China when he was only 15. I would like to honour my grandfather, grandmothers, mothers, father and everyone down the line as far as I can go for now.
Also I think there are lots of others who came to Malaya much like how my grandfather did and maybe compile some of their stories or encourage them to share or document their own history so that we maintain that link to the past to remind ourselves who we are and where we came from. Remind ourselves and our next generation how much value our families have brought to the building of this great nation.
I think I would enjoy writing about that, so that I will know and remember the people I've met, the places I've been and the things I've done, and when my friend Alzheimer ever visits, I'll just simply smile and die. I also hope those who care to visit and read my blog would enjoy it as well.
Come back tomorrow and celebrate the re-launch of my Weblog and my best work thus far. It's about time.
Paying attention during Covid-19 is a matter of survival. Covid-19 Lockdown D25
For the first time the world is paying attention like no other time on no other subject than death. Or avoiding death. Mankind is finally confronted en masse with our mortality.
Knowing that we will die, suddenly jolts us, at least the majority of us, to consciousness. To conscious compliance.
That is exactly what the world needs now. Consciousness. And of course love. In this case, self love.
We are not only paying attention to death numbers globally but we are paying attention to every communication on the pandemic and to everything and everyone else around us. We pay attention to the people on the streets, in the grocery stores, in the public areas. We are finally forced to be present. We no longer walk with our faces buried in our devices, we are more aware of our surroundings. The way it was supposed to be when we live among human beings. Although we're looking at others with cautiousness we're looking at each other nonetheless. Something we rarely, if never do. People are connecting in ways never before thought possible. We have even honed our peripheral vision to an art. Hardly anything or anyone nearby escapes our attention.
People in organisations are also paying attention to output not process and discovering that working from home or off-site has multiple benefits. It increases productivity and lowers costs. Travelling time and costs, office space and staff expenses. Plus other hidden costs that impacts bottom line.
For the conscious, we begin to notice the things we take for granted like the sky, how blue it is, the clouds, how white they are, the trees, how majestic they stand, the finer details of nature, the flowers bloom brighter, even the grass look greener in our own backyard. Due to much lower levels of noise, the birds seem to sing a lot louder and sweeter. Families get closer, friends renew friendships and memories, forging new bonds, and fresh meaning. Now's the time to discover new things about old friends, pay attention to family and spouses when we aren't in a hurry. Lesson to learn is; to slow down to the speed of life. Nature is showing us the follies of mankind's mad rush to destruction and that man like nature can heal and blossom just the same. All we have to do is slow down and pay attention to everything and everyone in our presence. And live. With this new consciousness we also learn, see and experience new insights & perspectives from around the world during this pause. 1. That the next world war is not about sophisticated nuclear weapons or atomic bombs, it's about how we fight and contain an invisible little protein called a virus. 2. The superiority of the West is discovered to be deeply steeped in arrogance and ignorance. Not to mention misogynistic and racist. 3. Religions and religious leaders have no answers to the pandemic. Most of their sacred rituals for an abundant after life have been abandoned for basic survival in this life. Activities deemed to be sacrosanct or prohibited are declared acceptable in times like these, like using pure alcohol hand sanitisers and not attending worship service on specific days of the week. 4. Health Professionals are the true heroes of our world. They are definitely worth more than politicians. These are the brave individuals who run towards danger to help, to comfort, to heal. 5. Oil is worthless in society with no consumption. Investments in renewable energy will pay off. 6. We now know how animals in captivity feel, while we ourselves are kept in quarantine. 7. The earth can heal and regenerate without human intervention. Even better without humans. 8. Most of us can easily work from home. It has produced amazing results in the past few weeks. 9. Cooking is an amazing skill to learn, experience and experiment. Men can do it as well. 10. Sting said it; How Fragile we are. So please handle with tender loving care.
This is my list of 10 things based on my observations till now. What's yours? Stay tuned. Literally.
When I'm spending time with myself I put my brain aside just like putting my wok aside after cooking.
A brain just like a wok is of no use if you're not doing any cooking with it. So put it aside unless you want to cook up a mess while spending time with yourself.
Use your mind as you would your wok. As a tool at your behest. Not as your master and not as a tool to control you the slave. When spending time with the self, relax and feel the life within. Get to know this life and love yourself.
My second elder Sister was adopted by papa from an orphanage. Covid19 Lockdown D14 *TheDeathofStalin
My second elder sister with my older brother.
She wasn't supposed to be adopted by papa. She was already booked by the matron at the Sg. Buloh orphanage. But because papa was a welfare officer back home, he had the privilege to adopt any child he wants.The British accorded papa the honour because of the tireless work he does for the old and helpless. The brief to him and the intention of the visit was to choose a male orphan to be his heir. He chose a female instead and hence we have my wonderful and loving second sister. She was a welcome nanny for us kids. She played with us even when she had housework to do and she had the unenviable task of herding the kids to their meals, homework, housework and the inevitable baths. My papa was a sucker for beautiful girls but in this instance he picked a female mainly because she wasn't an infant like all the boys were. Infants are harder to raise. To being home a boy would mean extra work for Abu to tend to a new infant. So a slightly more grown up little girl worked out real fine for us. We love her and she cares for us just the same. She was a great companion to Abu at our large homestead and around the house. And a fun nanny to us kids. Also she's easy to bully. We seldom have to because she's so sweet, she even digs our ears wax periodically. She has natural motherly instincts. And soon enough she was betrothed to one of the nicest man on earth. A meter reader from LLN Kuala Pilah. A man whose manners are as gentle as his looks. There couldn't have been a better man for my second sister. Every year days before Chinese New Year he would bring new year goodies to our house which would always include a live bird. These he would carry by hand riding the local bus and walking as far as it takes to deliver his annual tribute. As if not enough with the delicious supplies and meats he brings he would take off his shirt and promptly proceed to do gardening and any manual work required around the house. What a man. My second sister's husband.
They have three children. Girl. Boy. Girl. My brother in law died fairly young of a heart attack leaving behind a modest wooden house with ample land by and beyond a river with a bamboo grove for his surviving family. Every Chinese New Year, our families would pay my sister a visit and spend our first day with her and her family. Her filial son, a competent cook cum school teacher would always surprise us with modern dishes using his creativity and culinary skills. He apparently acquired his cooking skills from his father who was masterful in his time. After a long lunch, we would linger around the kitchen table and share stories with my sister, sampling her cakes & cookies over copious cups of Chinese tea. We simply enjoy these rare moments sitting together and adoring my sister seeing her well, wishing her health and longevity. And all feeling happy seeing her happy. I was especially touched just last CNY, when I visited her sans family except for Aunty. She was visibly concerned for me in my separation from my family and about how I was doing. She even gave me a huge angpow to 'help'. I was devastated by her kind gesture. It just told me two good things: she's doing fine financially and that she really cares for me. Then I realised she is the only closest living relative I have left. Without saying anything about her worries for me, I have never felt so much love and understanding from a family member. She was quietly grieving with me. She feels my loss. I don't feel alone anymore. My sister now almost eighty has continued to live there in continued health with two of her three children. Did I say during my last visit she looked happier, more radiant with smooth complexion and her recent cataract operation allows her to see better?
She's more beautiful than ever. She's my sister. My second elder sister. The best second elder sister anyone could ever have. And I'll be hanging out at her place a lot more.
If ever you're in Kuala Pilah do drop by her house for a cup of tea and find out her name. She's likely to gift you something to grow from her farmland.
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