Strategygram: The Sale Is In The Story

All brands are in the transportation business.?

They purport to transport the customer from the psychological state she is in, to a preferred psychological state.

For this translocation, the customer is called to venture beyond the Land of Trust into the Land of Hope.?

That’s because a brand’s promise is grounded in its trust credentials and while trust is always important, it takes you only so far. A brand’s promise is ring-fenced by the limits of the brand’s performance, performance that cannot always snatch victory from the forces of reality holding sway over the customer’s circumstances.

For instance, a brand of cologne will push forward with promising a bloke he’ll smell deliciously nice, but pull back from guaranteeing he’ll snag an attractive partner by dinner time. It will allude to success, but it won’t assure it.

How, then, does a brand spur a customer’s journey where the destination—her desired outcome—is beyond the ability of the brand to promise??

For some marketers, this may be a rallying call for enterprising pushiness à la Jay-Z, the world’s first hip-hop billionaire, seller of over 140 million records, the winner of 24 Grammy awards, and the record holder for the most number-one albums by a solo artist on?Billboard 200,?who confessed in his song?U Don’t Know:?"I am a hustler, baby; I’ll sell water to a well."

Notwithstanding Jay-Z’s success (“I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.”), when it comes to galvanising customers, a brand must tap into the mental video the customer is running in the screening room of her head, featuring what she would like to accomplish—do, feel, belong, be—within the pressures and proddings and promptings of the situation she is in, if only she could first overcome the obstacle that stands in her way.

This obstacle acts as the door through which a brand’s relevance walks in. For without that obstacle, there is no problem for the brand to solve, no role for the brand in the customer’s life. In fact, without the conflict caused by that obstacle, there is only habituated enactment of a routinised purchase.?

No conflict; no drama; no story; no entry.

A brand embeds itself into the customer’s mental narrative by offering a potential solution, a jigsaw piece that fits the customer’s problem puzzle. The bigger the problem, the tighter the fit, the righter the brand.

A brand intensifies the customer’s sensitivity to her story, amplifies the urgency for solving it, and magnifies hope for its resolution.

After all, people aren’t just buying a better product, they are buying into a better version of themselves.

That’s why the bond between a customer and a brand always begins with the?customer’s story?(what she wants to accomplish) rather than the?brand story?(what it offers).

What triggers the customer’s story??

The ‘play’ button for the consumer’s mental video is pressed by stimuli that can take a variety of forms.

The stimulus can be?internal?(“I feel burnt out—I need a holiday”) or?external?(“All our friends have bought new cars—we should too”).

It can be?life-stage driven?(“Now that we have a baby, we need diapers”), or?episodic?(“I’ve got a hefty increase in salary; a new wardrobe: here I come!”), or?cyclical?(“I’m bored with my shampoo; I’ll try something different this time”).

It can be?high-impact?(“Our neighbour’s house was burgled last night; we should upgrade our home security system”), or a?low-pressure nudge?(“The heels of my shoes are wearing down—I better get them mended!”).

The stimulus instigates the customer to feel something must be questioned, something must be actioned, something must be brightened.?

That’s how the?story prompts?arise for the customer’s self-narrative: through musings.

Musings about?herself?(“What if I could…?”, “Suppose I wasn’t…?”).

Musings about?other people?(“What do others…?”, “Why should they…?”).

Musings about?things?(“What is the most/least…?”, “How are they alike/different…?”).

Musings about?ideas?(“Is that really so…?”, “What does it mean…?”).

Musings about?connections (“What else…?”, “What’s next…?”).

Your brand enters the conversation in the customer’s head, exhibiting its credentials to stand out from:?direct competitors?that accomplish the same task in the same way (say, another ballpoint pen);?indirect competitors?who accomplish the same task in a different way (a fountain pen);?replacement competitors who accomplish a different task, obviating the task your brand performs (a computer keyboard; speech-to-text software).?

A brand seeks to be?saliently distinct,?tilting the consumer’s favour in its direction, by highlighting its point of difference, be it small but enough. It’s not about assertion; it’s about argument. Perhaps the advice that Desmond Tutu gave in his?Address at the Nelson Mandela Foundation?in Johannesburg on November 23, 2004 is apt for many a brand too: “Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.”

To embed itself in the story, a brand may have to erase the customer’s doubts—is it affordable? reliable? easy to use? to get? a priority? befitting my image?—and highlight the upside of choosing it while subtly underscoring the downside of not choosing it.

Ultimately, of course, it is in the nature of human beings that a brand’s argument will often merely provide a rationale for an emotional decision resonating with the dream in the customer’s head.??

“People do not cry because it is the end. They cry because the end does not correspond with their imagination of it. Their first choice is always their own imagining; they refuse to be deterred by warnings. They say I choose this because although the price is high the thing itself is more precious, durable and beautiful. The light of imagined events is always so arranged that the customers do not see the flaws in what they have chosen to buy with their dreams.” (Janet Frame,?You Are Now Entering The Human Heart: Stories.)

That is why brand taglines—and their shorter half-life siblings: advertising campaign slogans—encapsulate for each brand?why it matters?(“Belong anywhere” Airbnb); or?why it’s better (“The happiest place on Earth” Disneyland); or?why it evolves a better you?(“Because you’re worth it” L’Oréal).?

In the end, it is always about the customer’s dream and always about the question:?Your brand is in the shop window, but is it in the mental video?

Sattar Khan

This Strategygram titled ‘The Sale Is In The Story’ is part of the series I’ve created where each Strategygram condenses one strategic thought into one image.?

The series is a visual guide to strategic thinking and provides handy image prompts for brand strategy workouts.??

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