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Articles filed in: Storytelling
You Need A Story Not Just An Introduction
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
If you’ve ever been to any kind of round table meeting where each participant introduces themselves, you’ll know that after the first few introductions most people switch off. In a world of shrinking attention spans you’ve got seconds to grab them. If you feel uncomfortable about bigging yourself up, or standing out from the crowd think of it like this. What you’re actually doing is helping your audience cut through the clutter and they’ll appreciate you for it.
One of the best introductions I know of took place at a story seminar and it goes like this.
I remember my first day on the ward. There I was all decked out in my pristine white coat, complete with my newly minted name badge and Parker pen at the ready.
“Good morning doctor,” the ward sister said as I swept onto the ward stethoscope flying.
“Good morning sister, what can I do for you today?” I replied.
“We’ve got a post operative patient with nausea who needs something, could you write that up for her please?”
“No problem,” I said, as I whipped out my prescription pad and Parker pen. “What do we usually prescribe?”
“Stemetil.”
“Ah yes….. and what dose?”
“12.5 mg.”
“Of course….how often do you think she’ll require it?” I said thoughtfully chewing the end of my pen.
“Three times a day,” replied sister Moriarity, “and the rest of the information you need is written on your name badge.”
You’re no going to forget this guy in a hurry, (me neither, I married him). If he’d said hello I’m so and so and I’m a doctor, I’m a specialist in… and I work…blah blah…., you see you’re falling asleep already. But you won’t forget the story where he showed you that despite all of his training and everything he thought he knew, he was still learning and not too humble to admit it.
Think of your introduction as more than a few stiff lines that you skim through under your breath in a big heap hurry. Spend some time working out what will make someone want to know more, and practice telling them that in 60 seconds.
The introduction is what gives you the opportunity to tell the rest of the story later.
Image by Clydeorama.
Why Instagram Changes The Face Of Marketing
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge advocate of Instagram as a customer engagement and brand storytelling tool since Pintrest was knee high to a grasshopper. I’m amazed that more brands are not taking advantage of what I believe is one of the most rich marketing and brand storytelling opportunities of the decade.
So imagine the thrill I got when I saw Jamie Oliver post this photo and a message that shows why Instagram changes everything.
“Free chilli freak Artisan pizza today show this picture as proof its on me only for instagram posse!!” —Jamie Oliver
How many pizzas do you reckon Jamie gave away that day….. a handful maybe? Who cares?!
There he is being himself, marketing in the moment, without the aid of a billboard or printed coupons. Speaking directly to the people who want to hear from him (over 200,000). Creating a bucket load of good will and telling a brand story that people can believe in.
Goodness knows why Instagram is probably the most overlooked social media platform for business and brands. Your idea can spread there in an instant. You can engage with customers on a deeper level and see how they are engaging with your brand in the moment, as they share their moments. Instagram goes beyond the Like, the Pin and the Tweet, because it shows you what people care enough about to capture, save and share. It’s the ultimate truth telling focus group, in real time.
It’s now possible for Orla Kiely to see how her products fit into her customer’s lives.. She can witness their reality from the comfort of her studio and engage with them if she chooses to.
And it’s not just the big guys who can leverage this platform. I’ve watched designers grow followings and artists create a fan base that led to real world demand for their work.
This is big. It changes everything…. don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
UPDATE: Just a day after I published this post I heard about newly launched Hashpix and how power Instagram users can sell (and are), limited edition photo prints online. This changes everything…. again.
Image by Kevin Harber.
Jimmy Choo Doesn’t Sell Shoes
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Jimmy Choo has spent the past fifteen years successfully selling exactly the same thing over and over again and that thing isn’t leather or heels.
When a woman holds or covets a pair of Jimmy Choos, she isn’t imagining how the shoes will feel on her feet, she’s fantasizing about how she will feel in those shoes. Jimmy Choo packages that feeling and the story she tells herself, then sells it back to her.
If you’re in any doubt about that, just read these Choo Stories.
Then work out how to get your customers to tell those kinds of stories too.
Image by Kekkoz.
What If You’re Not Selling To Joe?
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
In a Googleised world it’s now possible to get a logo designed within a few short days for just $40. I know because my friends at the design agency Mat Dolphin wrote a post about it for Creative Review, The £25 Logo.
What’s a designer, a freelancer or a creative entrepreneur to do?
You’re not creating average designs for average Joe. You don’t need to preach to the unconverted. Tell the story that needs to be told to the people who want to hear it. If those people aren’t looking on Elance don’t tell it there.
Remember that the iPhone doesn’t matter to everyone and you don’t need to either.
Image by Michael Dornbierer.
Why ‘How To’ Is The Wrong Place To Start
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
I hardly ever write ‘how to’ posts, even though they are a great way to drive ‘traffic’ to your blog. If you want to do that, go write a great list post.
Focusing on the ‘how to’ stops you thinking about the why and the what first.
Most companies question, how they will get their product noticed, before thinking about why on earth it will matter to customers? In a world where we’re bombarded with messages that we can choose to ignore, more of the same in a brighter package or more colourful box isn’t what we’re searching for. It isn’t what we tell our friends about either.
If you haven’t seen The Greatest Movie Ever Sold watch this trailer, the toe curling moment comes at 1.00. You don’t ever want to be in the position of the poor Ban deodorant marketing executives.
When customers and investors (or maybe even you), don’t understand your story or how to communicate it, your ideas and your products blend in. Your brand fails to connect with your audience and they don’t have a reason to buy into what you do and why you do it.
When people really ‘get it’ your brand has the potential to attract investors, dominate a niche and reinvent a market. Communicating the essence of a big vision is what has always, and will continue to power successful brands.
When your brand story makes an emotional connection with your customers they’re more likely to spread the word about who you are and what you do. Your customers have a bond with your brand. They buy in.
Starbucks didn’t set out just to sell coffee at premium prices, their mission was to be ‘the third place’ and the Apple brand is built on so much more than the utility and specifications of their products. Your potential customer’s relationship with your brand will likely begin before they actually purchase your product. Just as the cover of the book frames the content before the first page is turned. Doesn’t matter whether you sell coffee, computers, a writing workshop, design services or even deodorant.
Brand leaders always ask ‘why this’ before they work on ‘how to’.
That’s why we believe in them.
Image by Walt Jabsco.
Giving A Damn Is Seriously Underrated
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
My boys had a sick rat last week. At the vet’s she was weighed and had her chest listened to. The vet sent her home with an antibiotic and instructions. If she didn’t get better very quickly the outlook wasn’t good.
At ten the following morning I got a call from the vet nurse. She asked how Luna was doing. If she was breathing any easier, or eating anything yet and if we had been able to get the medicine into her. She reminded me that it was okay to call back if we had any concerns. We were having this conversation about a $12 rat, that had another year of life in her either way and I just can’t stop thinking, (and talking) about it.
Nobody called the day after my son had a biopsy taken from his neck to see if he had a rare tumour, (thankfully he didn’t). Nobody called when they lost his school book order, or when we were without Internet for two weeks.
When nobody calls we interpret that as nobody cares. When they do call it blows us away and we tell ten friends.
That’s your opportunity.
Image by rofanator.
Your Brand Is A Story
filed in Storytelling
I’ll never forget the day my son read his first word. We were living in the UK at the time, I was driving through town that day when he piped up from the back, “that’s Asda”. I whipped my head around and saw him pointing an impossibly tiny finger at the huge ASDA sign towering above the road. He was just 18 months old. He’d barely learned to speak at all and yet he was forming an impression of a brand. Making meaning from a set of experiences he’d had and then tying them together. Just like this five year old.
Your brand is a story. A window on awareness. More than just a logo or a price ticket. That story is shaped by the experiences people have around everything you do, from typeface to copy and even how they felt and what they saw on their very first shopping trips with their mum. It has the power to become the stuff of myth and legend (even for a tiny audience), if you enable people to see themselves as part of the story too.
Image by Slimmer Jimmer.
What If Post-it Told A Different Story?
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Everyone knows what Post-its do. You know they come in every colour, all sorts of shapes and sizes, easy peel and super sticky. And yet Post-it keeps telling you that stuff in its marketing. They tell you the things you already know about features and benefits. Stories that don’t mean much, that any brand could tell. The what not the why.
What if Post-it told the story from the inside out? What if 3M tapped into the meaning being made with its products, by showing you how and why Post-its are part of your story too?
We don’t simply want to benefit from the products we use, we want to believe in them too.
*Bonus brand strategy for 3M and Post-it*
Sign up for an account on Instagram and check out the 5,000+ stories being told about how people believe in your products there.
Image By Lia C
What Is A Brand?
filed in Storytelling, Worldview
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as, “A Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”
Brands are much more to us than designs and symbols that differentiate. There are an infinite number of definitions of a brand, here are just twenty.
A Brand Is
1. A promise.
2. The way we differentiate this from that.
3. Whatever the customer believes about a company.
4. A feeling created.
5. The tangible representation of personal or company values.
6. A set of expectations met.
7. The way a person or company communicates what they do and why they do it.
8. Trust built between a customer and a business.
9. A company asset.
10. Your word.
11. A set of unique benefits.
12. Reasons to buy, or buy into something.
13. A story we tell ourselves.
14. Communication with and without words.
15. A symbol of belonging.
16. Signals sent.
17. A waymarker.
18. The experience a customer has.
19. A complete field guide to a business.
20. The impression that’s left at the last interaction.
What’s your definition?
Image by Painted Book Lady.
When What You Sell Isn’t What You’re Selling
filed in Storytelling, Worldview
Yesterday I skipped the early gym session, packed up my mac book and headed out to the hair salon. This particular salon runs a no appointment system, it’s first-come first-served. So I got there almost an hour before they opened, sat on the floor outside and worked. Ten minutes later another lady arrived, twenty minutes after her yet another who I’d seen before. With fifteen minutes to opening time a grandmother showed up, excitedly chatting to two little girls about how they’d be talking to Carmel and she’d know what was best for them to do.
By nine there were six of us all queuing for the same stylist. By 9.05 there was a three hour wait for a $20 trim with Carmel, even though there were at least four other stylists available right away. A couple of people chose to wait and some were reluctantly bumped to others.
I watched her work all morning. The first question she asked, before she even picked up a scissors was, “is this for the graduation, and if not when is that?” The next client was asked how long before her three month trip overseas, it was apparently important not to put too much colour in this time round, so that the timing was just right for the last colour before her trip. Carmel explained to the frail old lady who couldn’t cope with a two hour wait that she had a couple of colour clients already, but that she’d tell the other stylist what to do. I heard her reminding her colleague about the frailty of the hair quality and how they needed to use the mildest possible products. The grand daughters were having back to school trims. They were done in five minutes by another stylist, while the grandmother came to have a chat with Carmel as she mixed bleach.
Of course there are others in this salon who can cut and colour almost as well as Carmel can, but that’s not what people willing to wait for an hour or two, maybe more, are buying. She’s not selling a $20 haircut, she’s selling something people crave even more than looking just right for their son’s graduation… caring, connection, belonging and yes, even love. All of which take something ordinary and make it extraordinary.
Your business needs people who care this much. Often your products and services don’t need more bells and whistles. They just need a little more love.
Image by Mondopanno.