Soon Yu, Founder of SCY Advantage Corp, International Speaker, and Best-Selling Author, joins the eCom Ops Podcast to discuss how eCommerce businesses can build iconic brands that withstand the test of time.
Key Facts:
- Soon’s LinkedIn
- Soon’s Website
- SCY Advantage Corp LinkedIn
- Soon Yu is the author of Friction and Iconic Advantage
- Soon is also a Forbes contributor who has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, and New York Times
- Soon gained industry recognition from the Webby Award, Favorite Website Award, and Dope Award, and was recognized as a Northern California finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award
- SCY Advantage Corp is the official consulting and speaking company founded by Soon Yu
Key Takeaways:
- [00:54-07:50] When the first .com wave came in 1998, Soon had the idea to develop a retail site for people that suffered from allergies and asthma. To pursue this, he left Clorox and worked at Crate & Barrel to learn about retail
- After a year, Soon started Gazoontite, which had a physical store and an e-commerce website, delivering a multi-touch omnichannel experience to the customers. However, ultimately, he failed.
- After a couple of corporate experiences, Soon launched his official consulting and speaking company, SCY Advantage Corp.
- [07:50-16:03] Wanting to know how other retail companies succeed, Soon started learning about them and realized there are some common practices they follow. Wishing to help other people, Soon documented them and wrote his first book, Iconic Advantage.
- The book explains how great companies use design, innovation, and storytelling to build a timeless brand. Soon also describes how you can apply these principles for a small start-up or a Fortune 500 company.
- There are three main qualities that iconic brands share. These are distinction, relevance, and recognition.
- The iconic brands have some benefits, like more profitability than non-iconic brands, higher customer loyalty, and the possibility to become the leader in your category.
- [16:16-22:19] Some businesses focus too much on constantly changing their products, even when they don’t have to.
- Soon advises brands with well-known products, which people love, to better focus on creating an innovation pipeline around those products.
- In his new book called Friction, Soon describes why businesses should embrace friction to create better customer value. He also details the difference between good and bad friction and how to leverage the good one.
Soon’s no.1 eCom operation’s hack
Building an iconic brand requires you to take the following steps:
- Understand your customer
- Make sure that you offer them the minimum in terms of service level, returns, and selection
- Think about something different and relevant to give your customers
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Key Resources
- Iconic Advantage®: Don’t Chase the New, Innovate the Old
- Friction: Adding Value By Making People Work for It
- Amazon
- Nike
- Apple
