Breaking News: Your brand has A LOT less to do with YOU than you think

It's true. People just don’t care about you.

• They don’t want to hear about your 50th anniversary.
• They don’t really care that your Great-Great-Great Grandpappy founded the company.
• They don’t want you to tell them about all the awards you’ve won.
• They certainly don’t believe you when you tell them you are “different”.

Imagine for a second...

Someone interrupts you while you are sitting at a Starbucks taking a moment out of your hectic day and browsing new car leases on your phone when someone stands in front of you and says,

“Hi, I’m Jack. Did you know that my grandfather was the fastest talking car salesman in the city. He taught my dad how to do it too and now BOTH of them marvel at how I can sell anything to anyone. The company that makes the cars I sell tells me how great I am all the time. Look at these awards they gave me for making them so much money! I’m like a selling machine! By the way, we have a huge selection of used cars to sell people too! Those are even more fun to sell because there is a ton of room for me to negotiate a DEAL!!! I love making deals, gets me all fired up. Oh, by the way, I know every business says they have great people, but we have the best! That’s why we’re different than all the other car dealers that say they’re different too. You can trust me when I say that, because remember, I have a grandfather who was a great salesman. Hey, next time I see you doing something else, I’ll make sure I remind you again. Yeeeee hawwwwww! (abruptly leaves)”

Ridiculous, right? Sadly, aside from the “yeeee hawwwww”, it's not much different from the majority of marketing I see today. Some industries are worse than others.

Why does this approach seem so abrasive?

Simple…it shows ZERO care for the customer. It doesn’t address any of the feelings, questions of life situations the customer cares MOST about.

Might I suggest a different approach.

People (present company included) want to hear about THEMSELVES FIRST.

It isn’t that these things aren’t good things. It's just that until you do the hard work of EMPATHETICALLY CONNECTING with potential customers, they can’t care, because you haven’t shown them that YOU care about them.

This is why deploying EMPATHY in your marketing, messaging and internal communication is the single most predictive indicator of future success.

Same setting…a quiet moment at Starbucks in the midst of a hectic day…

“Hi there. Boy these quiet moments in the middle of busy days are gold, aren’t they? I noticed you are looking at cars…it can be so complicated and time consuming…and most people feel like they are going to get ripped off some how. That just isn’t how anyone should feel when they’re about to spend so much money on something. I have so many friends that were having the worst anxiety over it that I decided to create a car buying experience that people actually could trust. My dad and grandfather always taught me to care about every dollar a customer spends with our dealership and over the last few years, people who have bought a car from our dealership gave 4.8 star average rating on “trust” and “simplicity”.

So what’s the main difference between the two posts?

EMPATHY.

The second approach makes the CUSTOMER the main character of the story. The auto dealer is simply the GUIDE. The one who exhibits and understanding of the customers struggle and then shows that they have made effort to ease the pain and provide a better way that gives the customer what they want.

SO…

...the next time you are ready to tackle your branding and marketing, I hope that you will remember this article and you will start by DEPLOYING EMPATHY. Remember, your potential customer is the main character and your job is to guide them. If you adopt this simple mindset, I PROMISE you will build connection with your customers like never before.

And as you already know, todays marketplace is ALL ABOUT CONNECTION

If you know a colleague, friend or boss who might benefit from this message, I would be so grateful if you shared this article with them. Let’s grow EMPATHY together.

Pursue Clarity.

PS. I also talk about these types of topics on my weekly podcast. You can check it out at www.claritycompressed.com

PPS. If you need some help getting your organization’s branding, marketing and content aligned…well, it’s why I founded Congruent. I’m always ready to help.