The Fortune Cookie Principle Quotes

“Steve Jobs didn’t give us a 32MB music player. He gave us 1,000 songs in our pocket.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“There is no marketing more powerful than what one person says to another to recommend your brand.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Brand storytelling is about standing for something and striving for excellence in everything your business does. It’s about framing your scarcity and dictating your value. It’s about thinking beyond the functionality of products and services and creating a sense of loyalty and meaningful bonds with your customers.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Real marketing is built into what you do and why you do it. It’s part of your story, something that you do organically when your business is aligned with your mission and values. Kept promises, free returns, obsession with the details, returned emails, clean tables, and attentive staff—all of this is your real marketing. Real marketing creates a deeper impact, leaves a lasting impression, and is as powerful as a smile.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“QUESTIONS FOR YOU What business are you in? Are you selling coffee or lifestyle? Renting rooms online or giving people the opportunity to connect and experience a city in new ways? Or…? What do your customers want from you? Would they like a product or support? Gym membership or improved health and wellness? How do your customers want to feel? Connected, informed, reassured, special, excited, happy, fulfilled, and on and on. Have you asked”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Real marketing is built into what you do and why you do it. It’s part of your story, something that you do organically when your business is aligned with your mission and values. Kept promises, free returns, obsession with the details, returned emails, clean tables, and attentive staff—all of this is your real marketing. Real marketing creates a deeper impact, leaves a lasting impression, and is as powerful as a smile. Having”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Attention is harder to get and keep now. We live in the opt-in age, a time when people can scroll on by,”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“It’s possible to sell a lot of breakfast cereal through brand recognition. But if your brand isn’t loved, then it’s replaceable.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“The British public first fell in love with Jamie Oliver’s authentic, down-to-earth personality in the late ‘90s when he was featured in a documentary on the River Café. Jamie became a household name because of his energetic and infectious way of inspiring people to believe that anyone can cook and eat well. In his TV shows and cookery books and on his website, he made the concept of cooking good food practical and accessible to anyone. When Jamie Oliver opened a new restaurant in Perth, it naturally caused a bit of a buzz. High-profile personalities and big brands create an air of expectation. Brands like Jamie Oliver are talked about not just because of their fame and instant recognition, but because they have meaning attached to them. And people associate Jamie with simplicity, inclusiveness, energy, and creativity. If you’re one of the first people to have the experience of eating at the new Jamie’s Italian, then you’ve instantly got a story that you can share with your friends. The stories we tell to others (and to ourselves) are the reason that people were prepared to queue halfway down the street when Jamie’s Italian opened the doors to its Perth restaurant in March of 2013. As with pre-iPhone launch lines at the Apple store, the reaction of customers frames the scarcity of the experience. When you know there’s a three-month wait for a dinner booking (there is, although 50% of the restaurant is reserved for walk-ins), it feels like a win to be one of the few to have a booking. The reaction of other people makes the story better in the eyes of prospective diners. The hype and the scarcity just heighten the anticipation of the experience. People don’t go just for the food; they go for the story they can tell. Jamie told the UK press that 30,000 napkins are stolen from branches of his restaurant every month. Customers were also stealing expensive toilet flush handles until Jamie had them welded on. The loss of the linen and toilet fittings might impact Jamie’s profits, but it also helps to create the myth of the brand. QUESTIONS FOR YOU How would you like customers to react to your brand?”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Business was booming for Tiffany & Co. in the late 1990s, thanks to the introduction of a new affordable silver jewellery line. The $110 silver charm bracelet inscribed with the Tiffany name was coveted by teenage girls, causing sales of the new silver product line to skyrocket 67% between 1997 and 2002. By 2003, company earnings had doubled and the silver jewellery line accounted for a third of Tiffany’s U.S. sales. And yet the queues of excited girls didn’t fill the store managers with joy. Sure, sales were up and stores were busy, but the people close to the brand, who understood its heritage, began to worry that this lower price point would forever change how the brand was perceived by its high-end customers. “We didn’t want the brand to be defined by any single product.” —Michael Kowalski, CEO, Tiffany & Co. Despite some unease from investors, Tiffany raised prices on their most popular silver products by 30% over the next three years and managed to halt the growth of their highly profitable silver line. And so the company sacrificed short-term gain and profits for the long-term good of the brand by telling the story they wanted customers to believe—that Tiffany’s represents something special. A client recently told me about her friend’s excited engagement announcement on Facebook. All she did was post a photo of the Tiffany blue box—not a picture of the ring in sight. The box alone was enough to say everything she wanted to say. QUESTIONS FOR YOU How are you least like the competition?”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“I’d be hard-pressed to find a better start to a brand story than the one that chronicles the birth of “the people’s car,” the Tata Nano. The story goes that Ratan Tata, chairman of the well-respected Tata Group, was travelling along in the pouring rain behind a family who was precariously perched on a scooter weaving in and out of traffic on the slick wet roads of Bangalore. Tata thought that surely this was a problem he and his company could solve. He wanted to bring safe, affordable transport to the poor—to design, build, and sell a family car that could replace the scooter for a price that was less than $2,500. It was a business idea born from a high ideal and coming from a man with a track record in the industry, someone with the capability to innovate, design, and produce a high-quality product. People were captivated by the idea of what would be the world’s cheapest car. The media and the world watched to see how delivering on this seemingly impossible promise might pan out. Ratan Tata did deliver on his promise when he unveiled the Nano at the New Delhi Auto Expo in 2009, six years after having the idea. The hype around the new “people’s car” and the media attention it received meant that any mistakes were very public (several production challenges and safety problems were reported along the way). And while the general public seemed to be behind the idea of a new and fun Indian-led innovation, the number of Facebook likes (almost 4 million to date) didn’t convert to actual sales. It seemed that while Tata Motors was telling a story about affordability and innovating with frugal engineering (perhaps “lean engineering” might have worked better for them), the story prospective customers were hearing was one about a car that was cheap. The positioning of the car was at odds with the buying public’s perception of it. In a country where a car is an aspirational purchase, the Nano became symbolic of the car to buy if you couldn’t afford anything else. Since its launch in 2009, just over 200,000 Nanos have sold. The factory has the capacity to produce 21,000 cars a month. It turns out that the modest numbers of people buying the Nano are not the scooter drivers but middle-class Indians who are looking for a second car, or a car for their parents or children. The car that was billed as a “game changer” hasn’t lived up to the hype in the hearts of the people who were expected to line up and buy it in the tens of thousands. Despite winning design and innovation awards, the Nano’s reputation amongst consumers—and the story they have come to believe—has been the thing that’s held it back.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“No amount of marketing will change an experience.” —Brian Solis Customer experience is everything that happens when people encounter your brand. And whether it’s online or offline, you get to design it. Most people don’t put money on the table and hope that they hate the results of their choice. They actually want to fall in love with you and your brand. It’s your job to give them a reason to. The feeling your customer leaves with, as she walks out the door or clicks away from your website, is your best opportunity to differentiate your brand. Commodities are just stuff with a fixed value—until they’re not. The brands you love and talk about are not the ones that competed on price or features. They are the ones that changed how it felt to buy a cup of coffee, slip on a pair of shoes, or open a laptop in a café.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“What’s the first thing you do now before you visit a new restaurant for the first time or book a hotel room online? You probably ask a friend for a recommendation or you check out the reviews online. Now more than ever, the story your customers tell about you is a big part of your story. Word of mouth is accelerated and amplified. Trust is built digitally beyond the village. Reputations are built and lost in a moment. Opinions are no longer only shared one to one; they are broadcasted one to many, through digital channels. Those opinions live on as clues to your story. The cleanliness of your hotel bathrooms is no longer a secret. Guests’ unedited photos are displayed alongside a hotel brochure’s digital glossies. TripAdvisor ratings are proudly displayed by hotels and often say more about the standards guests can expect than do other, more established star ratings systems, such as the Forbes Travel Guide‘s ratings. Once-invisible brands and family-run hotels have had their businesses turned around by the stories their customers tell about them. “With 50 million reviews and counting, [TripAdvisor] is shaking the travel industry to its core.” —Nathan Labenz It turns out that people are more likely to trust the stories other people tell about you than to trust the well-lit Photoshopped images in your brochure. Reputation is how your idea and brand story are spread. A survey conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey found that six in ten cruise customers said “they were less likely to book a cruise that received only one star.” There is no marketing more powerful than what one person says to another to recommend your brand. “Don’t waste money on expensive razors.” “Nice hotel; shame about the customer service.” In a world where online reputation can increase a hotel’s occupancy and revenue, trust has become a marketing metric. “[R]eputation has a real-world value.” —Rachel Botsman When we were looking to book a quiet, off-the-beaten-track hotel in Bali, the first place we looked wasn’t with the travel agents or booking.com. I jumped online and found that one of the area’s best-rated hotels on tripadvisor.com wasn’t a five-star resort but a modest family-run, three-star hotel that was punching well above its weight. This little fifteen-room hotel had more than 400 very positive reviews and had won a TripAdvisor Travellers Choice award. The reviews from the previous guests sealed the deal. The little hotel in Ubud was perfect. The reviews didn’t lie, and of course the place was fully booked with a steady stream of guests who knew where to look before taking a chance on a hotel room. Just a few years before, this $50-a-night hotel would have been buried amongst a slew of well-marketed five-star resorts. Today, thanks to a currency of trust, even tiny brands can thrive by doing the right thing and giving their customers a great story to tell.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“They are looking for a shortcut. Information, more time, easy payments, or something else. PayPal, lawn mowing, TripAdvisor. They want to feel more connected to the group, to belong. Instagram, live events, Startup weekend, book clubs. It works. Think Dropbox, WordPress, Amazon, FedEx. It makes their lives easier. Fruit smoothies, online groceries, Thermomix. It gives them a story to tell. A Tiffany & Co. bracelet, dinner at Jamie’s Italian restaurant, Christian Louboutin red-soled shoes. They need a solution to a problem. Online dating, personal training, gluten-free bread. It helps them get from where they are to where they want to be. Gym membership, consulting services, design. They like what you stand for. Whole Foods Markets, Method cleaning products, Patagonia outdoor wear. Their friends are doing it, too. Facebook, dinner at a new restaurant, Jägerbomb cocktails. This is why great brands become a part of the customer’s story, and customers in turn help to shape the brand’s story.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Old Spice, the seventy-five-year-old brand of men’s grooming products, had begun to lose market share in the body wash category as the market became more and more crowded. Under the direction of the digital agency Wieden+Kennedy, the brand’s manufacturer, Procter & Gamble, aimed to change how women (who were buying more than half of the body wash products) felt about their men wearing “lady-scented body wash.” The video campaign called “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” starring Isaiah Mustafa, was launched online in July 2010 during Super Bowl weekend. On the first day, the campaign received almost 6 million views. After the first week, Old Spice had 40 million views. Traffic to their website was up 300% and Facebook fan interaction was up 800%. Within six months, the campaign generated 1.4 billion impressions.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“When Derek Sivers first built his business CDbaby.com, he set up a standard confirmation email to let customers know their order had been shipped. After a few months, Derek felt that this email wasn’t aligned with his mission—to make people smile. So he sat down and wrote a better one. Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed on a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Friday, June 6th. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!! —Derek Sivers, Anything You Want The result wasn’t just delighted customers. That one email brought thousands of new customers to CD Baby. The people who got it couldn’t help sharing it with their friends. Try Googling “private CD Baby jet”; you’ll find over 900,000 search results to date. Derek’s email has been cited by business blogs the world over as an example of how to authentically put your words to work for your business.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“People have a choice nowadays; they don’t have to stick around to read your brochure or watch boring infomercials when better content is just a click away. If nobody is going to read or watch it, what’s the point of creating it? Think of your content and copy as being like a first date. It’s the way your brand starts establishing the kind of relationship that leaves people wanting more. Your content doesn’t need to give all of the facts; it simply needs to foster the next conversation with a customer.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Your company’s story, product descriptions, history, personality—these are the things that go to battle for you every day. Your words are your frontline.” —Jason Fried, co-founder, 37signals Your content and copy are the way you woo your customers. They are your voice and the way you communicate your brand’s personality.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“There is no more potent reminder of the power of customer reaction than lines at the Apple store in the days leading up to a new product launch. And consider the reach of billions of email messages sent every year that are signed off with “Sent from my iPhone.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“customers buy from brands whose values align with theirs.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“What kind of experience do you want to deliver to your customers? Starbucks wanted to bring the Italian coffee-drinking ritual to customers in the USA and around the world. How do you want to stand out by offering a better experience to your customers? What’s the experience they want to have in every interaction with your brand? Can you craft an experience around how your customers want to feel? Do they want to be delighted, nurtured, listened to, pampered, or something else? How are you going to get them there? How does your customer experience differentiate you from your competitors? Instagram’s simplicity and the fact that social sharing was built into the user interface offered users a different level of engagement with the app than that provided by other photo-sharing apps. How does experiencing your brand, from the first point of contact to the last, make your customers feel? How could you make that experience something that your customers can’t wait to share? Dollar Shave Club customers feel savvy and they want to share the discovery of the secret with their friends.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope.” —Charles Revson,”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Your company’s story, product descriptions, history, personality—these are the things that go to battle for you every day. Your words are your frontline.” —Jason Fried, co-founder, 37signals”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy how it makes them feel.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“A brand name is more than a word. It is the beginning of a conversation.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Your job, then, is not just to build a great thing but also to care enough to tell the best story you can tell about it.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Whoever tells the best story wins.” —Annette Simmons”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“Stories are how we attach meaning and significance to anything,”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“PRODUCT + MEANING = BRAND”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One

“In theory, people are easier to reach, but in fact, they are harder to engage.”
― Bernadette Jiwa, The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One