When the Old Spice ‘Smell Like a Man’ advertising campaign launched eight years ago, it called out an often unspoken truth about sales and marketing. The consumer and the user are not necessarily one and the same. This insight inevitably alters how you tell the story of the products you sell and the change you’re trying to create.

We don’t only buy things that are useful. We often buy things because of the story they enable us to tell ourselves about the kind of pet owner, parent or partner we are.

Successful brand stories speak to the heart and the head of the decision-maker, who may not be the person (or animal) whose needs the product was designed to satisfy.

Image by David