Burn Baby Burn.

A story is true. A story is untrue.

The stories that we believe are the stories that survive.

Belief is everything. And the truth?

There is no singular ‘truth’. What we believe to be true, is true, for ‘us’. It isn’t necessarily true for everybody else.

In fact, a little more respect for each other’s truth and this world would be a happier, less dangerous, less fearful place.

The ‘truth’ resides in faith.

Creating that faith, that belief, in the minds of customers and in the context of business is called ‘Marketing’. Marketing moulds and sculpts a ‘truth’ that drives the propensity to buy.

Most simply put, Marketing is ‘sales foreplay’, it is about telling an involving story that is believed and leads to purchase at a premium.

We are then, all of us engaged in business, ‘story tellers’.

We build a preverbal bonfire and invite our potential consumers to sit around the pyre where we tell them our story. If the story is good and relevant and interesting, if it is compelling, then the people gathered will hang about to hear more. They will join us, become a part of our tribe. They will invite their friends to sit around the fire too. The better the story the brighter and more attractive the flame.

So one of the principal jobs in any business is to throw logs on the fire and keep it burning as fiercely as possible.

And that is the most basic insight into all ‘Branding’.

In plain speak, a Brand is a Promise.

A promise wrapped in a story that can be told.

A brand is not a logo or a name. The name, logo, identity, profile, communications, even the product, are all just vehicles for carrying a consistent promise into the minds of customers and potential customers.

People are interested in ideas and loyal to promises.

Not products.

Not price points.

The market is a competition between these ideas and promises.

Good marketing is all about telling great stories that people choose to believe.

Good business is all about making and keeping solid promises.

It stands to reason then, that ‘you don’t control your brand’.

No company does.

Brands do not exist on Boardroom tables or in Marketing Agencies. Brands only exist in the minds of customers. What the customer believes to be true is true.

The best anyone in business can do is put up signposts and point customers in the perceptual direction they want.

It is not a big step to then say: if any aspect of the business, along the whole supply chain, does not live up to and reinforce the brand promise at the heart of the story, the customer loses trust and seeks a more reliable promise elsewhere; the customer looks for a more credible story.

And so every business needs to answer two questions:

What is your Point?

Why should I Care?

The answers provide the rock upon which you build your church. They write your 'bible'. They tell your ‘truth’. They make the promise to keep.

The answers are the fuel for the pyre you choose to burn.

And how do you keep it burning?

Straightforward. Treat your customer as you yourself would want to be treated: Know what it is you are trying to say. Say it clearly and then do what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it.

Burn so brightly that people can’t help but be attracted to, and believe in, your light.

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