Are you concerned about what the future holds for you, your brand and your business?

What if the answer was a simple one?

The graveyards of brands that I have loved is a large one. Consider great brands like Encyclopaedia Britannica.

I was one of those kids who grew up with a door to door salesman visiting our house to sell the latest volume - to update the set we already had.

I loved seeing those books on the shelf.

I treasured the experience of turning the page.

I loved the paper.

I loved the brand.

But I had a frustration.

Finding the information I needed took too long.

And then seeing it was out of date made that effort a cause for frustration.

The brand was strong, but the experience was not a good one.

I kept going back to EB as it was the only option.

An alternative came in the form of the internet.

Real-time information that promised an end to my frustration.

Fast forward to 2020, and we have Wikipedia.

The younger generation has no idea of the brand EB brand.

It's time to value your brand.

And that brand is the manifestation of the value you create for your market.

Fail to connect with your market and evolve the way you provide value, and you are waiting for that meteor to hit.

The solution is a simple one.

Consider your customers and what they need from you.

Better yet, consider their future needs and how you can be ready to meet them.

The intersection between your value and the market need is your greatest untapped opportunity. The key is to move with your market as their needs and behaviours continue to evolve.

Your market is an asset.

It has the possibility of providing ongoing growth.

Undervalue it or fail to evolve and there is a place in the dinosaur graveyard waiting for you.

Simple steps.

• Get serious about social as it enables you to get in the room with your customers to see how you are failing to deliver an important value exchange.
• Seek feedback from that customer either through those channels or in person. To get that feedback requires you value that relationships so consider ways of showing you appreciate it.
• Create agility around your product innovation cycles so that you can turn that feedback into evolved or new products.

Signs you are a dinosaur.

• you don't know who your customer is,
• you have limited or no digital presence (channels that enable a 2-way conversion)
• You never have sought feedback
• you have failed to action that feedback
• your customers ignore you

Would love to hear your stories about how you show you value your customers?

Pop them in the comments below.