Ingrid Cliff is the Chief Word Wizard at Heart Harmony - a copywriting company based in Brisbane. She works with businesses around the world, helping them engage clients through their words, including with their online strategies and general marketing words. Some of Heart Harmony's clients include Australia's biggest companies, including Flight Centre, BP and a number of the top SEO companies in Australia.
When not weaving word magic, Ingrid is mother to two surprisingly well-balanced teenagers and spends many hours trying to find the parallel universe where missing socks disappear.
On 9 March 1959, Barbie was launched on an unsuspecting world. By 2006, Mattel claimed that there were three Barbie’s sold every second around the world. Barbie is one of the most well known brands around the world, and yet many businesses are identical to Barbie. How can that be?
Barbie’s shape essentially doesn’t change, but her clothing does. This is the same for most businesses. If you undress the marketing of the business’s name, colour and pictures, you would not be able to tell businesses apart.
Barbie is plastic and has no heart. Most businesses struggle with letting the heart of their business shine through. They feel safer looking and feeling the same as everyone else, rather than showing their unique human qualities.
Barbie is essentially unbendable. Most businesses find change hard – they are slow to take on new ideas or challenge how they have been doing things.
Is this a problem? By trying to be something you are not, you are ignoring the pieces inside you and your business that have the greatest potential to make you wildly successful.
So how can you kill Barbie in your business?
I am not saying Barbie is bad – she is great for what she is … a doll for kids to play with. But, in business, if you truly want to be successful, then you need to make your business a Barbie free zone.