Branding Expert Allen Adamson Discusses the Key to Successful Businesses through “Seeing the How”…

Ask branding expert Allen Adamson, co-founder of Metaforce, his perspective on the most important shift in contemporary marketing, and he’ll tell you it’s the need to focus on the consumer’s experience, rather than stressing product differentiation.  His new book, Seeing the How: Transforming what people do, not buy, to gain market advantage explores why today’s most successful businesses are those that have significantly transformed our daily routines, or literally, “made life as we live it better.”

He stresses that “successful experience disruption is the de facto new competitive advantage across all categories.”  In today’s social media-fueled word-of-mouth world, Adamson stresses that extraordinary, unforgettable experiences get shared far more frequently than stories about better mousetraps.

 As a result, he urges marketers to approach their mission of winning customers with a pair of fresh eyes, which includes placing a priority on empathy, curiosity, and seeing clearly what others often miss. To help sharpen everyone’s focus, he provides eight lenses in Seeing the How— all based on proven examples from some of today’s smartest marketers.  His new book debuts on May 2nd.

To learn more from Allen Adamson about some of marketing’s most significant topics— from growth strategies to the changing role of the CMO, and how the entrepreneurial mindset and marketing innovation should be better aligned, watch the video interview on Internationalist Marketing TV (IMTV) on YouTube by CLICKING HERE.

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In our conversation, we discuss the following:

• Let’s begin with the premise at the heart of Seeing the How: Transforming what people do, not buy, to gain market advantage   You talk about how today’s most successful businesses are those that have significantly transformed our daily routines…. Or have made life as we live it better.  Why is this such an important shift for brands?
• Getting closer to the customer has always been the goal of good marketing.  Even the famed Peter Drucker believed that decades ago. How is that different now?
• You say in Seeing the How: “Get Ready for Experience Innovation.” Can every brand create an experience that resonates?  Is this what now determines which brands live or die?   
• Additionally, you emphasize that Customer Experience is driving more growth than production differentiation. Talk a little about that…
• You use two interesting descriptors or roles in the book—one is seeing like a concierge in terms of the value of a lifetime customer and the other isapproaching things like a broker in terms of what you call the “push-pull” of the two-sided market.  Would you discuss both? 
• In the book, you mention a conversation with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman who said, “Average is over.” In this hyper-connected world, “good enough” is no longer enough.  What does this mean for marketers? 
• You mention in the introduction that you’re the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship’s branding person in residence. Talk a little about the intersection between entrepreneurial thinking and marketing innovation.
• We can’t escape a conversation today without mentioning growth and current concerns about how economic instability can affect a CMO’s growth agenda.  What’s your advice on growth considerations?
• What would you advise to new CMOs today? 
• Every author learns something unexpected when they write a new book…. What did you discover?

To hear more from Allen Adamson about some of marketing’s most significant topics— from growth strategies to the changing role of the CMO, and how the entrepreneurial mindset and marketing innovation should be better aligned, listen to the podcast as part of our Trendsetters Podcast series on iHeartRadio’s Spreaker.

Author Allen P. Adamson is a noted expert in all disciplines of branding. He has worked with a broad spectrum of consumer and B2B businesses in industries from packaged goods to hospitality, technology to healthcare. His previous books, including BrandSimple and, most recently, Shift Ahead, are used as textbooks in higher education business programs nationwide. 

After holding senior management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B, Adamson joined Landor Associates, a full-spectrum brand consultancy, and eventually rose to chairman. Under his leadership, the company partnered with global brands including Accenture, GE, Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, HBO, Marriott, MetLife, P&G, Sony, and Verizon. 

Today, he serves as co-founder and managing partner of Metaforce, a disruptive marketing and brand consultancy that takes a multidisciplinary, channel-agnostic approach to driving growth.

Additionally, he guided non-profit organizations such as the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. For the past several years, he has been an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he also serves as the brand expert-in-residence at the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship.