In a 1-800 contacts commercial you see a man hold a box of contacts and shout out with bravado,”My brand!”
Getting a customer to get that excited about your brand is like receiving a free ice cream sundae with a cherry on top. It’s sherbet heaven!
While ice cream can be a fun topic to talk about, branding tends to get a bad rep. If you are working in a corporate setting you are going to get lectured on the importance of corporate messaging and customer perceptions, but all that jargon leads to one thing: storytelling.
Branding is telling a story, plainly and simply. If you are an excellent storyteller and you can clearly tell the “Why” of a story, then 9 times out of 10 you will be an excellent ambassador for your brand. Yes, there’s creating a logo, and making sure your type face is the same on multiple mediums. But that is a miniscule task compared to the overarching work that needs to be done with Branding a product.
Think about this, when you are bragging about what happened last weekend to your friends ( and pretty much anyone who’ll listen) you’ll change a few things here and there to fit the audience, but the underlying story remains the same. You had a fun night! So when you talk about your weekend to your different friends, your goal is to show that you had fun. So all your messaging needs to relate to the overarching story of fun.
If you aren’t sure what your story is than you need to sit down with yourself or your team and answer the following questions below:
- Why are you in business?
- Why are you selling your product/service?
- What is your mission?
- How can I enhance the world around me?
- How can I help my clients/customers?
Successful businesses have an answer to these questions and also go about their business practices from a stance of being helpful. ie. How can I enhance the world around me? How can I help my clients/customers become ____?
Answer those questions, and you’ll start to notice that a pattern will appear. Maybe, you might even have one of those amazing lightbulb moments! You see every brand on this planet is selling more than a product/service they are selling values, lifestyles, and dreams.
There is something majestic and magical even about the most supposedly dull products or services. It’s hidden between the lines and it starts with discovering why you fell in love with what you are selling in the first place.
So start getting your audience to have an emotional response to your company, instead of just a rational one.
Also, check out this great TED Talk by Simon Sinek to learn more about marketing the “Why?” of your brand
Simon Sinek TED TALK
