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I just finished reading the The Inside Advantage book by Robert Bloom and I need to say I’m impressed and excited.

Excited because, in two weeks time, I’m meeting Mr Bloom himself and interviewing him for this humble blog.

Impressed because this man is just impressive.

A little background.

Robert Bloom was, for a long time, U.S. C.E.O. of advertising giant Publicis Worldwide, responsible for countless marketing campaigns and the direct boss of countless arses.

This man is an authority on business growth. Currently working as consultant, he’s now in Australia for the National Growth Summit 2009.

And it impressed me greatly that Bob (we’re closer now) probably has a tight agenda and yet he’s still stopping by to talk to a blogger. He GETS it!

Hey, big guys and internet experts are you listening reading this?

Anyway, back to the book,

This book offers a four step process for Business Growth.

Each step is broken down into its own components.

The four steps of the big picture are:

1) Find your CORE customers. Beyond demographics; beyond what you may think of when you think of your customers. It is interesting to look at possibilities for the WHO and consider all of the options, such as defining your core customers based on their value, being the best braggers for your product, being the biggest customers, having the longest relationship with you, being the least likely to complain, being the most likely to repeat their business, being the most likely to not repeat and why. Then you may want to identify these same customers in your competitor’s base. Do a little demographic shifting and look at the next step.

2) Discover and deliver your uncommon offering, just listen to your core customers. They will tell you what you do best and why they buy it from you. You will want to examine this from an external and internal base. Writing down all of the ideas and phases people use to describe your offering and distill it down to a statement of 10 to 15 words.

3) Develop persuasive strategies in written statements for action. Grow your business through refining your communication and thought association for your company and it’s offering. For me, this book read like some of the better branding books I’ve read lately, but in a short abbreviated chapter. This is a lesson in statements in action to immediately associate your offering with your company.

4) Imaginative acts. This relates to creative public relations or publicity stunts that are tied to your uncommon offering and for the benefit of your core customers. There are some very good examples of what other companies have done most of which you will be familiar with.

Good, good. It all seems like the old and good USP revisited but in much more depth.

However it’s not just that.

This book provides a simple plan for growth through solid, proven marketing principles and business simplification. Not bad for though financial times isn’t?

Any questions for Mr Bloom?

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