Yesterday I finished reading speak human by Eric Karjaluoto, founding partner of smashLAB, Vancouver, BC, Canada. The sub-title of the book, Outmarket the Big Guys by Getting Personal captures the essence of Karjaluoto's work. As the owner of a boutique brand strategy consultancy, I resonated with speak human on many levels. For example in his opening paragraph of the preface Karjaluoto says, "A lot of companies are stuck. They find marketing bewildering and unpredictable and just don't know how to connect with customers. So they look to big companies and start imitating. Most times this goes over like a lead balloon. Fact is, the big guys have more firepower. Pretending you're one of them only makes you look like an also-ran. Worse yet, it forces you give up a power those guys would kill for."
How true. There are times when we as small business owners get a bit annoyed with our larger competitiors, especially when they beat us out for a project that we know we would do a better job at. We get frustrated when they get the project just because they are bigger. When that happens one's brain starts asking questions like, should we be like them? When this happens we need to make sure that we stay true to who we are and get as far away from the compeition as we can. No one should look or think like a smaller verion of the competition. In his book, speak human, Karjaluoto effectively reminds us over and over of the importance of this kind of thinking. He reminds us it is good to be small.
For me the book was about 50 pages longer than I am used to reading so I was not able to finish in as timely a fashion as I am used to. That is not a reflection on the book, more about my impatience. If you are a small business brand I would give speak human a go. After all, most Canadians have a good sense of brand. As an American I don't always experience that from some of my brethern in the States.
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