Make your Brand Story the greatest story ever told. Why? … and more importantly ‘How?’.
Before jumping into the how, let’s explore a bit into what a brand story is.
You may have heard different terms being used which more or less seem to indicate the same one thing. The customer journey, client roadmap, StoryBrand, brand mapping, …
Funny enough, the way I look at it, is that these have all one thing in common, and it’s not storytelling. Although that’s what a good brand needs to do in order to articulate, fascinate and captivate, that’s not how it starts however.
Good storytelling starts out by listening. Listening really well, as in deep listening. Deep listening is about gaining insights into what your customer wants, but really deep down. For example, you may hire a lawyer to advice you on a legal issue. What you’re looking for is to have peace of mind that the event you’re organizing is not going to expose you to any legal liabilities. What the lawyer is selling you is his extensive knowledge of the law as it pertains to your issue, charged at an hourly rate of XYZ. But that’s not what you’re buying.
Or take the example of a young manager at the financial firm who is in the market for a new BMW, … the latest model that is. Do you think he is interested in all the technical features on the dashboard (perhaps), or the horse power under the hood (mmm maybe)? It could be so, although I have a feeling that he is buying a brand new BMW to project an image of success and gain the respect from his colleagues at work and his clients, so that they will take him seriously as a manager at the firm, well on his way up to climbing the ladder all the way to the top floor.
Get my point here? The story of the lawyer is not the same as his client’s who is looking for peace of mind to cover all her bases as she moves forward in growing her event planning business. The young manager’s story is not the same as the car salesperson who is working hard in showing all the features that this latest model has available at the mere touch of a button.
Make sure that the story your brand is telling is not your story, but is the story of your customer. They are the hero in their own story, not you, not your brand.
“Effective marketing is about entering the conversation that is already taking place in the customer’s mind.”
~Robert Collier
In other words, if all you do is talk about yourself, or your brand, and how you’re so much better than the competition etc. etc., you’re failing to listen, and you’re not really gaining any insights as to why and how your product or service might help your customer win the day.
