The Great Branding Debate: 2016 & Beyond
We are now in the final quarter turn for 2015.
The Interweb is two decades old.
Wired and connected 24/7, we run a daily race within a paradox of being more linked, more “liked”, yet increasingly isolated. We gorge at the digital communication buffet and can't stop going back for seconds even when we're stuffed and bloaty.
As we approach 2016, these are key factors impacting the Great Branding Debate.
Another shift is coming.
And you will make choices for your business either by design or by default.
CHOICE#1. Do you expend your marketing energy and dollars in the hopes of attracting attention from as wide an audience as possible?
CHOICE #2. Do you concentrate your efforts on inspiring attachment from a tightly focused core of people who believe what you believe?
The future of your business depends on these two choices as you seek to adapt and grow in rapidly changing marketplaces.
But, who do you listen to?
Everywhere you turn, advertising fuddy-duddy’s think the marketing game is still being decided by the attention you generate from wide net platforms such as newspaper ads, radio spots, brochures, pop-ups, newsletters and every social media site you can name. They measure success in reaching as many people as possible, on as many platforms as possible , no matter how limp or lame the message may be.
But, as the digital communication buffet extends through the barn, out the door and past the farm, it’s become that much harder to get this rabbit’s attention, let alone keep it. Which is why the slower, more methodical seed-planting approach designed to inspire attachment is going to be even more crucial on business playgrounds through 2016and beyond.
The actual message – what you say - will matter even more as smart marketers adopt the ways of the tortoise.
Slow and steady has worked and continues to work for Ferrari, Marie Forleo, TOMS Shoes, Harley-Davidson, "House of Cards", Wizard Academy and Jim Gilbert, “Canada’s Huggable Car Dealer”.
Why?
Because we are trusting our personal B.S. filters like never before. The ability to quickly decipher, pick and choose exactly what we want to consume; which means the message had better be damn good for us to surrender our precious time. Which is what an over-the-top character named Frank Underwood taught Kevin Spacey and Netflix.
Those who insist on pitching us stale marketing bromides chock full of “features, advantages & benefits”, “unique selling propositions” as well as “fast, friendly, reliable service” will continue to be attention-seeking rabbits, hoping for a short-term, quick-fix to make the cash register ring. These types of marketers acknowledge the game has changed, but they’re still whistling the same tunes. Still part of a crowd trying to yell louder while the rest of us are tuning out fast.
But, never mind everybody else, let’s talk about you.
How will your business win this marketing race without you losing your marbles?
By getting “attention” or by inspiring “attachment”?
These are two entirely different approaches and will demand radically different tactics and techniques as you seek to reinvent and stay ahead of competitors who spew the same category language as you.
Attention seekers are everywhere and easy to find.
Streetwalkers, the Kardashians and Donald Trump sustain their individual or corporate profit models by attracting attention.
However, uncommon, purpose-driven success that spans generations similar to that enjoyed by the likes of Apple, NIKE, Starbucks, TOMS and Pike’s Place Fish Market lies within your ability to create a powerful, plot-driven story that touches people at primal levels. In other words, the focus is less on products and services and much more so on the story (“I’m a Mac”, “Just Do It”) they represent.
Story-based brands have absolute clarity on what they are really selling; in a way that that transcends the actual products or services.
- Starbucks sells a "third place" and "affordable luxury" not coffee.
- NIKE sells athletics, not shoes.
- TOMS is selling social justice, not shoes.
- Dove sells "self-esteem" not soap.
- Apple sells "cool" not computers or iPhones.
- Jim Gilbert is selling “trustworthiness”, not used cars.
The best brands in the world are built on kernels of emotional truths; not the actual products or services. These are the seeds of timeless, universal values that need to be sown before any digital rabbit with a pulse, feelings, emotions, hopes and dreams looks up long enough from their portable device to actually see if you are worthy of their brain cells at that particular moment.
Human beings have a natural need to connect with others in a tribal way, but first there has to be a reason.
Others have figured out their emotionally truthful reason.
Can you determine yours?
When was the last time you paused like a thoughtful turtle to reflect on what you think you are really selling as opposed to what your primary customer is actually buying? What if you discovered the person you are most anxious to serve has a very different reason in terms of why she is buying from you? What if her reason have nothing, or very little to do with the actual product or service you offer.
What if YOU and your story are the real reasons she would buy … and buy again … and tell her friends?
Over the past 30 years, this former reporter, newscaster and broadcaster has watched thousands of business owners squander squillions of dollars (plus man hours) on short-term marketing silver bullets. These are the “ad-speak” driven campaigns that promise much, but deliver precious little in terms of actual business results.
Rare is the business owner in 2015 who can step back long enough to see both sides of the Great Branding Debate and where his business is currently situated.
Rare is the business owner who can see far enough into the future to weigh the strategic impact between getting “attention” versus inspiring “attachment” and how that will affect the products and services you deliver to the like-minded people you most want to serve.
Rarer still, is the business owner who can reject the instant gratification offered at marketing drive-through windows and embrace the long-term benefits and implications of a Branding with Distinction? philosophy. This story-driven, attachment-inspiring approach hinges on recognizing three universal truths:
- Effective branding is a mental discipline; not a spending strategy. It’s about beliefs; not bucks.
- Without a compelling story there can never be rich soil to plant seeds that allow the magic of attachment to take root, grow and flourish.
- The best brands are the ones we actually bond with. And true bonding only happens when we dare to share those parts that make us real.
I am referring to our inherent flaws and public failures; our silly, blue-sky Ferrari dreams and crazy, far-fetched TOMS ideas; our professional setbacks and personal struggles. In other words, the parts about our story that makes us all too human, but fascinating to watch.
Earlier in 2015, I made a decision to swallow some pride, digest my own branding prescription, drop the professional fa?ade and share a story that I still have difficulty telling. I figured if I can do it, others might be inspired to throw away their social masks and allow us to see a real person as opposed to another robotic talking head.
Never before have you been offered the opportunity and the platforms to share the one thing that can’t be copied.
Your story.
The one still inside you that hasn’t been told.
The one thing that will set you and your enterprise on the tried and true path towards inspiring attachment.
Discovering, telling and living your own story with the goal of inspiring attachment may not be the flashiest or quickest route to follow on the highway to fame, fortune or making a difference, but it does work.
As you head into the home stretch for 2015, is your marketing strategy ready to embrace sure and steady?
If so, when will you begin?
"For kids growing up now, there's no difference watching 'Avatar' on an iPad or watching YouTube on TV or watching 'Game of Thrones' on their computer. It's all content. It's just story"
KEVIN SPACEY
P.S. If someone you know has a great business with an inspiring story not being told, please send them this post. It might be the content elixir they need to turn their marketing water into wine.
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Learn more about Gair’s keynotes, seminars and consulting programs at www.gairmaxwell.com. His book, “NUTS, BOLTS AND A FEW LOOSE SCREWS” waits patiently for you at Chapters.ca and Amazon.com. His newest E-Book, “THE BRANDING HIGHWAY“ – How to Accelerate and Differentiate Your Marketing Without Spending a Fortune on Advertising is available as a free download by clicking HERE.
“The Reinvention Chronicles” are offered freely each week and will NEVER be sponsored, sold out or hi-jacked by a corporate or commercial interest. (Unless,of course, someone like Gates or Google ponied up and cut us a cheque with so many zeroes we would be complete idiots not to say YES, take the money and do something for the greater good with it. We’re not that foolish or naive!)