Two Ways To Market

Two Ways To Market

Which marketing is more effective?

“Let me tell you about our best ever chocolate cake. All of the ingredients are sourced locally.
The butter is hand churned from the milk of Brown Swiss cows and the eggs were freshly laid this morning. We use fair trade organic cacao and the finest quality Belgian dark chocolate.
Our signature cake takes longer to make because of the triple sifting process we use, that creates a moist, melt-in-the-mouth sponge. It is finished with a rich chocolate ganache and hand shaved white chocolate and is guaranteed to change the way you think about chocolate cake forever.
You’ll love it!”
OR

“Tell me more about your birthday party guests…”
We can talk about our excellence and hope that people will listen, or we can simply be excellent and give them a story to tell. Our best marketing is in the listening and doing, not the telling.

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What Does This Advertising Do?

What Does This Advertising Do?

It’s easy to erect a billboard that broadcasts to everyone—far harder to build a bridge to meaningful engagement with the people who matter.
If it’s not helping you to get closer to your customers then it’s not worth doing.

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Betting On Maybe

Betting On Maybe

There are many reasons why Melbourne has been crowned World’s Most Liveable City four years running—great coffee is just one. It’s impossible to walk a hundred metres in any direction without stumbling on a place to grab a ‘good enough’ macchiato, so there’s a lot of competition in the coffee business and no shortage of new operators entering the fray.
In the suburb where I live cafes line both sides of the street—some so close they literally touch each other. So I was surprised to see two new white tables and a set of blue stools appear unannounced on the pavement, beyond where the shopping strip ends last Monday morning. Unused cups, stacked high on the pristine coffee machine were visible from gleaming windows, as were the two business owners who peered out hopefully at every passer by willing them to come in and give the cafe a try. Maybe they will and maybe they won’t. It’s only a maybe because these passers by don’t have a coffee problem. There is no reason to switch from the Albert Park Deli that’s been going for forty years, or the place on the corner with more room inside and out, complete with shade, heaters and blankets for frigid winter days.
The new cafe owners have fallen into the ‘build first, sell later’ trap and now they are forced to come up with a marketing plan to attract people— a story that makes more people want what they sell. This strategy might work well if you’re creating a minimum viable product like an app that requires a small bet to test and then refine, but the Lean Startup methodology is harder to apply to a business like a cafe where there’s a significant investment up front. A two year lease isn’t easy to pivot.
Contrast this shiny, new, empty cafe story to the one of the vegetarian, organic wholefood, (only raw treats sold here) cafe that opened a couple of months before. They don’t just sell fair trade coffee, they sell a story to people with a particular worldview.
So what should the blue stool owners do now beyond stand there looking terrified and hopeful in spotless aprons? They must start thinking less about ‘what’ they sell, and more ‘who for’. Then they need to give that specific person (not everyone) a reason to want to come inside and a story to believe in and share. Because freshly roasted coffee beans do not make or break a cafe in a world where good is a given.
A cafe is not just a place to sit, where drinks are served. It’s more than tables and chairs, croissants and raspberry chocolate chip muffins. A cafe is a feeling we want to experience. Whatever we spend our money on, from a song to a donation tells us something about who we are and what matters to us, and even a $4 coffee needs a story about ritual or community, sustainability or quality, convenience or indulgence, that we can buy into.

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Reasons To Choose

Reasons To Choose

Reasons are at the heart of all marketing.
Our marketing aims to give people reasons to choose—an explanation or a nudge about why they should buy. The biggest mistake we make is failing to match our reasons with the potential customer’s motivations.
Your most important job as a marketer isn’t to tell people why they should buy—it’s to find out where they want to go and to take them there.

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Amplify The Good

Amplify The Good

As soon as she handed the keycard for the upgraded room to the formerly disgruntled (now beaming) guest, the receptionist smiled and handed her a second card. Her eyes held those of the woman who had been complaining loudly only five minutes before.
“Would you please consider giving us a review on Trip Advisor, the website details are on this card?
Thanks so much, it means a lot to us.”
We spend a lot of resources fighting fires, dealing with unrealistic or unfulfilled expectations and yet we do virtually nothing to help cement the great experiences we deliver to customers all the time.
When we begin enabling and amplifying the good we create an environment that facilitates customer delight. When proactively nurture post positive interactions our posture shifts—instead of looking for ways to fight fires we seek out opportunities to fill our buckets with water.
It’s far easier to fight fires if the water buckets are half full before you start.

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Traditional Marketing Vs. New Marketing

Traditional Marketing Vs. New Marketing

We recoil from the traditional marketing tactics that we are exposed to every day. We install ad blockers and put up barriers that help us to keep interruptions at bay. We recognise poorly thought out marketing strategies in a heartbeat, and yet when it comes to marketing our own products and services we often fall into the trap of using those terrible tactics (or some version of them) ourselves.
We have two choices:
TRADITIONAL MARKETING = MAKE SOMETHING + MAKE PEOPLE LOVE IT
Or…
NEW MARKETING = LOVE PEOPLE + MAKE SOMETHING THEY LOVE
It seems easier in the moment to adopt a ‘traditional marketing’ mindset—to create, run on ahead and talk about ourselves instead of first understanding the customer’s worldview. Listening is hard. Knowing what to pay attention to is harder. It takes both commitment and practice, but when you choose ‘new marketing’ you’ll find you’ve created something worth paying attention to.

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The Purpose Of A Billboard

The Purpose Of A Billboard

The purpose of a billboard is to interrupt as many people as possible, to create awareness not necessarily impact, to broadcast instead of engage.
I’ve passed a lot of forgettable billboards, pleading from the side of highways on my travels this week—maybe you have too. The only ones that left any kind of impact were part of Apple’s stunning user created ‘Shot on iPhone 6′ campaign. The marketing works despite the medium, because the billboard doesn’t tell us what the product can do, the images show us who we might become in its presence. We are moved by them because they tell the user’s, and not the company’s story. No description of features and benefits required.
Powerful marketing is both smart and generous, we know it when we experience it, because it changes how we feel and gives us a story to tell. Weak marketing is obvious and selfish, we know that when we see or hear it, because it screams ‘LOOK AT ME!’ and leaves us cold.
We might not be Apple, but we each have more power to connect with and impact people than a billboard can, how we use it is a choice.
When our marketing changes how people feel and holds a mirror up to the customer—telling their story, not ours, we’re on the right track.

Image by kind permission of gifted photographer Julian Bialowas. His photo is featured here in the iPhone 6 campaign.

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The Most Important Lens We Have

The Most Important Lens We Have

As business owners and team leaders we view our businesses through various lenses. We have a financial lens, a success lens, a marketing lens, a service lens and on and on depending on how complex our organisation is.
We measure our performance in a hundred different ways, often neglecting the most significant metric of all—customer worthiness. This is the most important lens we can apply, the most accurate measurement of meaningful work.
When everything you do is framed by the question;
‘Is this product or service worthy of my customer and why?’ it changes everything. 

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The Premium Story

The Premium Story

It was just a short internal flight, you barely enough time to get comfortable in your seat—46 minutes to be exact. That didn’t stop the guy who had mistakenly been ‘downgraded’ from business class to economy from blowing a gasket. He complained loudly, his finger stabbing in the direction of the gate agent’s face, while his own became redder by the second. The gate agent calmly repeated the bad news and apologised courteously as he’d been trained to do. There really was nothing else to be done. Facing the choice of flying economy or not at all, the business traveller had to accept his fate.
As he boarded, walking down the centre aisle, (a touch embarrassed) past a plane load of people he’d made a huge scene in front of to no avail, he turned to his colleague and remarked that he hadn’t been “back here in years”. In that moment ‘business traveller’ summed up the truth about the ‘premium story’. It turns out that premium isn’t simply the tangibles—wider seats, the position near the front of the aircraft, drinks in a proper glass, a newspaper or extra legroom. Premium is a story we tell ourselves about who we are and how much we matter.
People don’t buy what you make, they buy how it makes them feel. Your products and services are constantly framed by your customer’s narrative. It pays to understand what that narrative is.

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What’s Your Customer’s Worldview?

What’s Your Customer’s Worldview?

It was 10 am and the queue at the cafe serving coffee that’s less than 48 hours out of the roaster was ridiculously long. The line moved impossibly slowly, and yet not a single person left it to go to one of the many cafes that could serve them a forgettable drink in moments. Leaving the line would feel like abandoning their belief about what makes coffee great (and worth waiting for).
Our beliefs influence our thoughts and our feelings, which in turn influence our actions.
As business leaders and marketers we obsess about influencing how people act, often before we fully understand what their motivations are in the first place.
What keeps your customer awake at night?
What does he value?
What does he fear?
What motivates him to act?
What is he unwilling to compromise on?
What else don’t you know about your customer that you should know?
If you don’t understand the customer’s worldview how can you hope to align with or shape it?

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The Ideal Customer

The Ideal Customer

The ideal customer

Doesn’t worry about what the product costs.
Tells her friends about your service.
Gives you her undivided attention.
Would never consider switching.
Always listens when you talk.
Doesn’t question the facts.
Has an abundance of time.
Believes your story.
Shares your values.
Never complains.
Is rational.
Responds.
You’re never marketing to the ideal customer—some carefully crafted avatar with the perfect attitude. Mostly you’re marketing to imperfect human nature.
You give yourself the best chance of succeeding when you take that into account before you start.

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Is Brand Storytelling Dead?

Is Brand Storytelling Dead?

When Shaun sent through a link to an article declaring ‘storytelling dead’ and asked me to comment, I wasn’t at all surprised to read what followed. The piece suggested that because attention spans are shrinking your customers don’t have time to pay attention to your story.
Here’s a snippet of the rationale that followed:

”…it’s time to stop pinning our marketing and communications strategies around storytelling. Stories take time, and time is our greatest luxury. If most consumers can’t afford the luxury of diving deep into your brand story, is a long-winded narrative about heritage and craftsmanship the right strategy? Of course not. While it ostensibly makes sense to bulk up credibility with character counts, it doesn’t make your audience’s life easier—and at the end of the day, isn’t that we all want?
One final nail in the coffin for storytelling: It can be downright dangerous for your brand. We live in the era of transparency and access, so it’s easier than ever for consumers to sniff out inauthentic back stories and eyebrow-raising claims.”
The author makes a case for a simpler form of marketing, that leaves room from the customer to figure things out for themselves.…“No text, no tagline, no storytelling required.”
The article makes two assumptions:
1. Brand stories are long-winded narratives—words that are written, read or spoken.
2. Brand stories are fabrications, false claims or half truths designed to embellish the banal or dupe customers.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you already understand that a brand story is more than cleverly crafted copy. A story isn’t something you choose to tell or not to tell. It’s what people believe when they encounter you or your brand, the impressions they form and the assumptions they make at every interaction with you, both in personal and business settings. Customers are making sense of your story even when they aren’t consciously paying attention.
Your brand story, just like Apple’s or Nike’s is communicated, experienced and felt even before you write a single word of copy. Your design choices, products, pricing, packaging, location, user experience, testimonials, the staff you hire and on and on, are all part of that story. Everything you do, every action you take is telling the story. How you articulate your story in words and images is just a tiny part of it.
As long as we humans are in possession of any one of our five senses stories will survive.
We don’t simply tell our brand stories—we live them.
If it’s a story worth telling then you’ve got tim

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No Big Pitch Required

No Big Pitch Required

It was nudging 6pm and Kelly was the last customer at the salon on a cold and dark winter evening. As she pulled out her credit card at the point of sale she noticed a discreet, but pretty display of ‘non toxic’ lipsticks and commented on the gorgeous colours. The therapist showed her the colour she herself was wearing and recounted that the lipsticks were safe enough to eat. Kelly immediately chose one and handed it over with her card without asking the price. “I love this and it’s good for me too.” she said. Her total went from $30 to $66 in an instant and she left the salon happy.
It’s tempting to interpret exactly how our products fit into our customer’s story—to try draw them in with a pitch or special offer that appeals to most people. Spelling it out with fluorescent ‘introductory offer’ stickers feels safer than saying nothing at all. But often the best thing to do is to allow the customer to make her own interpretation about how your product aligns with her worldview. Kelly didn’t need to hear a story about value that evening, what she needed was to believe a story about self-care. The discreet display allowed space for that. No big pitch required.
The best sales people in the world know when to stay quiet and allow the customer to fall in love with the product, without giving her a list of reasons why they think she should.

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The Reasons People Buy From You

The Reasons People Buy From You

“People tell us who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.“
—Donald Draper,
‘The Summer Man,’ Mad Men, season 4
Our customer’s motivations have two things in common—they are surprisingly few and they are also universal. What’s driving your customer to buy your product or service?
Does she want to…?
Solve a problem.
Fulfil a need.
Satisfy a desire.
Change how she feels.
Change how someone else feels.
Reinforce her beliefs.
Have a story to tell.
Understanding the story the customer tells herself helps you to tell a true story she can believe in.

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Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia beautiful place Review and HD Photos

The world's largest salt flat sits at a lofty 3653m (11,985ft) and blankets an amazing 12,000 sq km (4633 sq mi). It was part of a prehistoric salt lake, Lago Minchín, which once covered most of southwest Bolivia. When it dried up, it left a couple of seasonal puddles and several salt pans, including the Salar de Uyuni. The savage beauty of this vast salt desert makes it one of South America's most awe-inspiring spectacles.

 

From strange islands in a sea of blindingly bright salt to delicately colored mineral lakes in the Andean mountains, this is an unforgettable Bolivian landscape.

 

However, travellers should take great care in choosing which tour operator to go with when visiting the salt flats. Fatal accidents due to unsafe vehicles and drivers are not unheard of. Make sure your vehicles have seatbelts, emergency radio transmitters and first aid equipment, and don't shy from asking about guides' levels of training and experience. Of course, there are also many reputable tour operators in the area who will ensure your experience of this natural wonder is both memorable and safe.

 SOME BEAUTIFUL PICTURE

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Salar de Uyuni

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ANGKOR WAT, CAMBODIA Beautiful Place and HD Photos

Although the trees that surround Angkor have been tamed, it is still possible to imagine how this ancient city was “lost” to the outside world for centuries until the French explorer Henri Mahout discovered it smothered in the jungle in 1860.

Angkor was the capital of the Khmer civilization, which spanned some 500 years, until it was sacked by Thai invaders in 1431. It reached its zenith in the 12th century, first with the building of the temple that came to be known as Angkor Wat and later with the construction of Angkor Thom, a royal city-within-a-city.

The temple was built by King Suryavarman II as a representation of Mount Meru, the mythical holy centre of Hinduism. Sorrounded by a large moat bridged by a stone causeway, it is a west-facing rectangular stone structure comprising three levels. The uppermost level, formerly open only to priests and the king, is topped with four corner towers and a central sanctuary 65 metres from the ground. Originally devoted to the Hindu god Shiva, the temple later became a Wat, or Buddhist monastery, and is now accepted as a spiritual monument by the predominantly Buddhist Cambodians. Images of the Buddha can be found among its vaulted galleries.Even after more than 800 years of plundering and erosion the carvings of Angkor Wat remain exquisite and the wealth of detail is bewildering. Galleries of bas-reliefs - the longest in the world - depict scenes from the Hindu religious epic, the Mahabharata, battle scenes from Khmer history and warnings about the tortures of hell.

The temple is best seen in the golden light of early morning when the rays of the sun pick out the apsaras (celestial nymphs) carved into its walls, seeming to breathe life into them. Amid the quiet beauty, it is hard to imagine that this place was one of the final refuges of the notorious Khmer Rouge communist movement - until you notice scars from the impact of bullets on the stone of the building.
Direct flights from Bangkok in Thailand have made the temples of Angkor more accessible, and they are now visited by more tourists than ever. Most tend to gather at the north poollo phulograph the reflections of the rising sun, but those seeking peace and tranquillity should head straight to the principal sanctuary ut Angkor Wat. This is reached by one of four flights of steep and worn stairs, signifying just how difficult and arduous is the path to heaven. It was once the exclusive preserve of Hindu priests, but now you too can have it to yourself - providing you get there early enough.The top level of Angkor Wat seems to have been designed for the sunrise. Golden fingers slide through the unique, stone-pillared windows and illuminate details that quickly recede in the brilliant light of the day, and some of the most beautiful apsaras - which can be found in the central sanctuary - are uncovered by the rising sun, only to be hidden in shadow again just 20 minutes later.

 

It can sometimes be half an hour before the first few explorers from the sunrise party reach here. Most don't bother; they go back to their hotels for breakfast, and return here later in the day, when the sun is intense and energy-sapping, and the atmosphere far from spiritual.Other parts of the Angkor complex not to be missed are the Bayon and Ta Prohm. Built later than Angkor Wat, the Bayon is a small temple covered with giant, impassive stone faces reminiscent of Lord Buddha, and perhaps marking the transition from Hinduism to Buddhism in the Khmer civilization. Ta Prohm is a largely ruined temple complex, with roots of banyan and kapok trees growing out of the stonework - and sometimes so much a part of it that neither would survive any attempt at separation.INFO
Siem Reap. the nearest town to Angkor (10 km awayl. can be reached by plane from Bangkok, Thailand (Bangkok Airways has several flights a day in both directions} or from the Cambodian capital. Phnom Penh. Alternatively, you can get there by boat across Tonle Sap. This lake trip takes most of the day but is an interesting journey. A wide range of accommodation is available in Siem Reap, from inexpensive guest houses to the exclusive hotels.
Tickets for the ruins can be bought for one, three or seven days. Three days is a good amount of time.

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PYRAMID OF KUKULCÁN, Chichen Itza - MEXICO

Sitting at the centre of the ancient Mayan site of Chichen Itza on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, the pyramid of Kukulcan has a pleasing symmetry and an imposing bulk, but perhaps its true majesty lies in the secrets of its construction - over 1000 years ago. The pyramid is a giant calendar. It consists of nine levels faced with a total of 52 panels - the number of y

ears in the Mayan- Toltec cycle. The staircases on each face of the pyramid have 364 steps. Add the square platform at the top, and you have 365 - the number of days in the solar year. Most impressively, at the spring and autumn equinoxes the shadow cast by the sun on the northern staircase appears to cause a massively long 'snake' to crawl down the building and link with the stone serpent's head at the foot of the staircase

The pyramid of Kukulcan has other secrets too. Hidden deep within it is another, much older pyramid. A small door takes you to a narrow passage that appears to run up what would have been the outside of the original structure. Cramped and oppressive, it leads to the original sanctuary, where a large chac-mool – the characteristic reclining Mayan figure - and a jaguar-shaped throne are for ever entombed, the jade inlay of the big cat's coat shining dimly through the gloom.

You will have to get up early to appreciate Kukulcan properly because by 10.30 a.m. it is swarming with visitors. If you are among the first through the gate at 8.30 in the morning, you should manage an hour of near-solitude.

From the top of the pyramid the whole site seems to be completely surrounded by a sea of trees stretching as far as the eye can see, and obliterating almost all signs of human life. Only the tops of some of the lesser ruins and the open grassed ceremonial area are visible. A number of other ruins make up the ceremonial area of Chichén Itzá, including the Temple of the Warriors, a large structure surrounded by intricately carved stone pillars and topped with a reclining chac-mool.

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Varanasi, India

 

Reputed to be the oldest living city in the world, having been continually inhabited for more than 4000 years, Varanasi (formerly Benares) is also one of the holiest places of Hinduism. It is so revered that the devout believe that just by dying there they can be freed from the endless cycle of rebirth. The old Hindu name for Varanasi is Kashi - City of Light - and the quality of light here is truly spectacular. It is one of the few places in the world where this has inspired artists with its clarity and texture. It IS best appreciated at sunrise as the faithful come down to the sacred : River Ganges to bathe.

The narrow, tangled streets of the old town, Godaulia, all seem to lead to the Ganges. Flanking the river and leading down to the water are flights of stone steps called ghats. Many of these are hundreds of years old, some built by the maharajas whose palaces still tower over them. The ghats teem with life: stalls sell everything from vegetables to religious icons, pandas (pilgrim priests) preach to the faithful, barbers shave the heads of pilgrims and mourners, sadhus (holy men) meditate and prrform feats of yoga, boatmen ply for trade, dhobi-wallahs (washermen) beat laundry against the steps and small boys play enthusiastic games of cricket. Streams of pilgrims from all over lndia make their way through this activity to bathe in the river, believing that by doing so they can welsh away their sins. The best way to observe the bathing ritual is to take a rowing boat down the Ganges. This will involve haggling with a boatman the day before you want to go, so ask at your hotel to get an idea of the correct price. Make sure you specify whether the price is per person or for the whole boat. (You might want to get this in writing to avoid the almost inevitable arguments later.)

Next morning, as you make your way to the river in the cold pre-dawn light, stumbling through the alleys of the old town and pushing past sacred cows that wander around freely, it will seem like a strange way to get to Paradise. However, as s oon as you are floating down the Ganges and the sun rises over the far bank, driving away the cold and bathing the ghats in soft golden light, you will forget the discomfort. Hindus try to visit Varanasi at least once in their lifetime, and have to bathe at five different ghats to complete the pilgrimage. Hinduism is a joyful religion, and although bathing has great spiritual significance, the pilgrims laugh, splash, dive and push each other into the water.

It takes a few hours to travel the length of the river, fighting the current and stopping to watch the pilgrims and sadhus along the way. Get your boatman to drop you off at Manikarnika Ghat and walk back along the river to Dasasvamedha Ghat where most boat trips start. Manikarnika is the cremation ghat. (Being cremated at Varanasi is yet another way to guarantee salvation, so many Hindu families go to great lengths to ensure their deceased loved ones undergo this ritual.) Bodies are brought from far away - sometimes on the roofs of buses - to be burnt here. Once at Varanasi, they are carried down to the ghat to chants of 'Ram Nam Satya Had' ('The name of god is truth!'), Firewood is haggled over, prayers are said, then the body is burnt and the ashes swept into the Ganges.

INFO

Varanasi is easily reached by air ,from New Delhi or Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). There are also comfortable express trains, although you should try to take at least one old-style Indian train just for the experience. Accommodation boils down to a choice between quality and location. Hotels near the ghats are generally cheap but shoddy. Those of better quality and therefore more expensive tend to be in the new town. As with most things in India, the contrast between the two is often extreme.

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Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City and HD Photos

Saint Peter´s Basilica is simbol of the force and the platform which, when the time again became ripe, would explode as the glorious centre of a rejuvenated Rome. By the third century, the Roman Empire had grown too big for its own good. Emperor Diocletian, aiming to make his cumbersome and restless dominions more manageable, divided the Empire into Eastern and Westem parts. The East was governed from Constantinople and the West from Ravenna, and then Milan. No longer the political focus of the Mediterranean and the conquered European world, the splendid city of Rome went into decline. However, before the Western Empire fell apart, two developments ensured that through its dark years, Rome's light would diminish but not extinguish. One was the establishment of the papacy. The second was the Basilica erected by Emperor Constantine, that great saviour of the Christians, over St Peter's grave.

In front of Saint Peter's Basillica you´ll find the statues of Saint Peter...

and Saint Paul, with Jesus on the topPeter, considered first amongst Christ's twelve apostles, was crucified and buried in Rome in 61 CE. He was the founder of Christianity in Rome. The Pope is recognized as his successor, as well as the Vicar of Christ and the worldwide spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church. As Rome struggled through its difficult years, the papacy floundered but held itself together. By the eighth century, the legacy of the Western Roman Empire had been appropriated by a federation of central European states going by the nomenclature of the Holy Roman Empire. 

Unified by Latin Christianity, the Empire beheld the Pope as its spiritual head. Nevertheless, despite being protected by the Holy Roman Emperors, the papacy remained insecure. By the fifteenth century, however, it had recharged and consolidated its resources. The Church was now plump with wealth, and its custodians, the popes, were itching to reassert their religion's and their own domimince. The Renaissance had begun in Italy. Rome's time had come again.

More than 1100 years into its first incarnation by now, St Peter's Basilica was not in the best of shape. Pope Nicholas V decided to something about it. From the time he began the demolition of the old building in 1452 to the consecration of the new building in 1626, eighteen popes blessed and witnessed the project. More importantly, virtually the who's who of the Renaissance's Creative line-up, as well as many Mannerist and Baroque virtuosos, contributed to it. The result was awesome.

The first impression of the Basilica - since 1929, a part of the independent Vatican state, within Rome - is of the enormity of its scale. The arrow straight road from the teeming city breaks into a massive piazza enclosed with semi - circular Doric colonnades designed by the Baroque architect Giovanni Bernini.

From the centre of the enormous space rises an Egyptian obelisk, first brought to Rome by Emperor Caligula in the first century, and raised here in the sixteenth century in complete silence, as a symbol of Christianity's victory over pagan faiths. The cross at its pinnacle is said to contain the relics of Christ's True Cross. The fifty-metre-high palatial façade of the Basilica is propped up by Corinthian columns. Again in Baroque style, Carlo Maderno's design is perfect for the Pope to stand at the balcony and bless the thronging crowds below. Past the main entrance into the Basilica is the Porta Santa, or the Holy Door, which is traditionally kept walled up and opened personally by the Pope for the course of a designated Holy Year. A window in the apse lights up an image of the Holy Spirit as a dove. 

Dominating the nave is Bernini's ornamental baldacchino of gilded bronze. It covers the main altar at which only the Pope can celebrate Mass. Underneath it is St Peter's subterranean crypt, from which two-and-a-half hectares of magnificence radiates.Some way off from the Basilica, on Janiculum hillside, is the site of St. Peter's crucifixion. In the early sixteenth century, Donato Bramante designed the Tempietto San Pietro here. Displaying all the elements of classical antiquity, the Tempietto is considered Rome's first true Renaissance building. Its drum, dome and Dark columns served as the prototypal essence of the Basilica's central plan, for which Bramantc was commissioned by Pope Julius II. He was succeeded by another Renaissance giant, Raphael, much of whose handiwork was later altered. However, the creative instinct behind the Basilica's masterpiece, its dome, was Michelangelo's.At the age of seventy - one, Michelangelo was persuaded to take over as chief architect of St Peter's. His conditions: he would work "for the love of the Saint", without payment, without interference and without accounting responsibilities. He probably got the deal he wanted, though his hemispherical design was changed to an ovoid shape due to structural concerns.

Almost 140 metres high, the dome gets its skeletal strength from sixteen externally visible radial ribs. One can climb up to the base of the lantern for a sweeping view of the symmetrical piazza.

The inner shell looms over the baldacchino. Embellished with scores of frescoes, its curvature soars up to a bright climax. Medallions of saints are ranged around the base. Around it, in letters two metres high, are words from the Gospel of Matthew. They recall of the true reason for the sumptuous art and grandeur all around: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church... I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven..." The Keys are below, carved on the base of the altar canopy, as part of Pope Urban VIII's coat of arms.

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