What is branding?

“Building a Storybrand”?Summary

Two mistakes brands make when they talk about their products and services:-

1)?Brands fail to focus on the aspects that help people to survive(making their life easier).

2)?Brands cause their customer to burn too many calories in an effort to understand their offer.

The keynote is to make your company message about something that helps the customer survive and to do so in such a way that they can understand it without burning too many calories.

People don’t buy the best products, they buy the products that they can easily understand.

The Secret Weapon That Will Grow Your Business:-

Nearly every story you see or hear involves the following:

A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN, and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS.

There are three questions potential customers must answer if we expect them to engage with our brand:

1) What do you offer?

2) How will it make my life better?

3) What do I need to do to buy it?

The Simple SB7 Framework:-

A CHARACTER HAS A PROBLEM AND MEETS A GUIDE WHO GIVES THEM A PLAN AND CALLS THEM TO ACTION THAT HELPS THEM AVOID FAILURE AND THAT ENDS IN SUCCESS.

1. A Character:-?Remember the customer is the hero in the story, not your brand.
2. Has a Problem:-?Company tends to sell the solution to the external problem but the customer buys solutions to internal problems.
3. And meets a Guide:-?Customer is not looking for another hero, he is looking for a guide.
4. Who gives them a plan:-?Customer trusts a guide who has a plan.
5. And Calls them to Action:-?Customers don’t take action unless they are challenged to take action.
6. That helps them to avoid failure:-?Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending. Simply put, we must show people the cost of not doing business with us.
7. And ends in success:-?Never assume people understand How your brand can change their lives. Tell them.

1) A Character:-

The customer is the hero of the story. When we define something our customer wants and communicate it simply, the story we are inviting them into is given definition and direction.

Examples:-

Financial Advisor:-?“A Plan for your Retirement”

College Alumni Association:?“Leave a Meaningful Legacy”

“In story terms, identifying a potential desire for your customer opens what’s sometimes called a story gap. The idea is that you place a gap between a character and what they want.”

A critical mistake many organizations make in defining something their customer want is they don’t show pare down that desire to a single focus.

Choose a desire relevant to their survival. Once a brand decides what their customer wants they often make the second mistake, What they have defined is not related to the customer sense of survival

What does survival meaning??Survival meaning primitive desire we all have to be safe, healthy, happy, strong.

For eg.:- Brand should focus on these survivals

1) Conserving financial resources.

2) Conserving time.

3) Building social networks.

4) Gaining status.

5) Accumulating resources.

6) The innate desire to be generous.

7) The desire for meaning.

2) Has a Problem:-

Now you entered in the customer’s story, your next move should be you start talking about the problems your customer’s face. The more we talk about the problem our customer’s experience, the more interest they will have in our brand.

From where the problem is coming?

Every story needs a villain. He is the number one device storytellers use to give conflict a clear point of focus. The stronger the villain, the more sympathy the hero has.

Four characteristic that makes for a good villain on your story brand script:-

1.The villain should be a root source:-Frustration is not a villain, frustration is the feeling that villain makes us feel. Villian is high taxes etc.

2.The villain should be relatable:-?Villain should be immediately recognizable.

3.The villain should be singular:-

4.The villain should be real.

Three kinds of conflicts that villain makes us feel:-

1) external problem

2) internal problem

3) philosophical

Examples:-

TESLA MOTOR CARS:

Villain: Gas guzzling, inferior technology

External: I need a car.

Philosophical:- My choice of car is going to protect the environment.

3) Meets a guide:-

Customer is not looking for another hero, he is looking for a guide.

Two characteristics of a guide:-?Empathy, Authority

Express empathy:-?Empathy statement words start like “we understand how it feels too….”, “Nobody should have to experience….”, “We care about your toyota….”

Demonstrate Authority:-. There are four easy ways to add just the right amount of authority to our marketing.

There are four ways to add authority to your marketing:-

Testimonials;?Statistics; Awards; Logos

4) Who gives them a plan:-

Customers trust a guide who has a plan. The plan creates clarity. Plans can take many shapes and forms, but all effective plans do one of two things: they either clarify how somebody can do business with us, or they remove the sense of risk somebody might have if they’re considering investing in our products or services. If you confuse you will lose. After potential customers listen to us give a keynote or visit our webpage or read an e-mail blast we’ve sent, they’re all wondering the same thing “what do u want me to do now”?

We must tell them to . . .

1.Measure your space.

2.Order the items that fit.

3.Install it in minutes using basic tools.

Even though these steps may seem obvious, they aren’t obvious to our customers.

Two plans that we can effectively use to encourage customers to do business with you:-

1) THE PROCESS PLAN:-?A process plan can describe the steps a customer needs to take to buy our product, or the steps the customer needs to take to use our product after they buy it, or a mixture of both.

2) THE AGREEMENT PLAN:-?If process plans are about alleviating confusion, agreement plans are about alleviating fears. Unlike a process plan, an agreement plan often works in the background. Agreement plans do not have to be featured on the home page of your website.

5) And calls them to action:-

Customer don’t take action unless they are challenged to take actions. Your customers are bombarded with more than three thou- sand commercial messages per day, and unless we are bold in our calls to action, we will be ignored. If our calls to action are soft, they will not be noticed.

Two Kinds of Calls to Action

There are two kinds of calls to action:?direct calls to action and transitional calls to action.?They work like two phases of a relationship. Let’s consider we ask our customers to buy but they don’t. This doesn’t mean we have to end relationship with our customers. They can be our future customers. Direct call to action includes “buy now”, “schedule an appointment” etc. The direct call to action is something that leads to sale, or at least is the first step down a path that leads to a sale. Direct call to action is simple and obvious but transitional call to action can be equally as powerful to grow our business.

6) That Helps Them Avoid Failure:-

People are more likely to be dissatisfied with a loss than they are satisfied with a gain. According to Daniel Kahneman, in certain situations, people are two to three times more motivated to make a change to avoid a loss than they are to achieve a gain.

“You’ll only need a few terrible, dastardly, awful things to warn your customers about to get the point across. Too much and your customers will resist you, too little and they won’t know why your products even matter. Once we’ve defined the stakes, your customers will be motivated to resist failure. Next, dramatically increase their motivation by helping them imagine what life can look like when they buy your products or services. After they see what you offer and how it can make their lives better, you’ll have included stakes in the narrative and customer engagement will grow.”

7) And Ends in a Success:-

“Don,” he said, “always remember, people want to be taken somewhere.”

“We must tell our customers what their lives will look like after they buy our products, or they will have no motivation to do so.”

The three dominant ways storytellers end a story is by allowing the hero to:

1. Win some sort of power or position;
2. Be unified with somebody or something that makes them whole; and
3. Experience some kind of self-realization that also makes them whole.

“Human beings are looking for resolutions to their external, internal, and philosophical problems, and they can achieve this through, among other things, status, self-realization, self-acceptance, and transcendence. If our products can help people achieve these things, we should make this a core aspect of our brand promise.”

People Want Your Brand to Participate in Their Transformation

“Brands that participate in the identity transformation of their customers create passionate brand evangelists.”

A few important questions we have to ask ourselves when we’re representing our brand are:

1. Who does our customer want to become?
2. What kind of person do they want to be?
3. What is their aspirational identity?

“The best way to identify an aspirational identity that our customers may be attracted to is to consider how they want their friends to talk about them.”

“A hero needs somebody else to step into the story to tell them they’re different, they’re better. That somebody is the guide. That somebody is you.”