Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs

By Craig Stull, Phil Myers, David M. Scott

How does a simple service, product or idea become a breakthrough success, and why don’t all clever marketing campaigns deliver these types of successes?

The authors of Tuned In suggest that some organisations are “tuned out” with regards to their potential markets, effectively ignoring signals from their customers, choosing instead to focus on technology and marketing, with an obsession for innovation. This approach they say, all too commonly leads to great time and money being wasted. 

The “tuned in” approach, by contrast, sees organisations producing successful products and services by identifying with their customers and their markets in a unique way. The answer to market success, say the authors, is to focus on a ‘resonator’. Resonators are products or services that deeply address the thoughts and concerns of potential customers. Products which, through their relevance and usefulness, form a powerful connection with their customers, such as iPod, Starbucks and FedEx.

Central to the philosophy of Tuned In is the idea that a product or service resonating strongly with buyers won’t need selling at all. If people innately understand the purpose of a product, and it solves a problem for them, providing intrinsic value to their lives, then they will simply demand it.  

Stull, Myers and Scott identify a process to re-focus marketing efforts in a bid to achieve the necessary connection with customers. They explain how, by adopting the ‘tuned in’ approach, any company can create breakthrough experiences. The book provides an in-depth look at the ways a variety of successful and not so successful industries approach the task of understanding and catering to their market. The fascinating case studies, ranging from Japanese country hotels to plastic bottles with a cult status, detail the springboards for breakthrough and the pitfalls many succumb to in struggling for market supremacy.

The authors have developed six simple steps businesses can follow for creating powerful resonators, and thus a model for breakthrough success:

1. Finding unresolved problems
2. Understanding buyer personas
3. Quantifying impact
4. Creating breakthrough experiences
5. Articulating powerful ideas
6. Establishing sustainable connections

For marketing leaders needing to connect with new or difficult markets, strategists wanting to re-focus company efforts more productively, or for entirely new product managers looking to establish themselves and their products, Tuned In shows the way forwards. This book simply and constructively lays out how to create the sort of value that customers expect, demand and are willing to pay for.