Why you should be able to explain your brand to a 5-year-old kid? And how to do it.
Nathalia Montenegro
Brand and Product Marketing | Brand Strategy and Product Positioning
The short answer is because at the end of the day we are all kids in adults’ bodies.
The complex answer
Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology, says “In every adult, there lurks a child – an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed and calls for unceasing care, attention and education. That is the part of the human personality which wants to develop and become whole.”
Every time you try to communicate your brand and offerings to someone, you are not talking with a mature whole adult, you are talking with the child who lives inside them. The kid who is searching for love, acceptance, care, protection, playfulness, learning, pleasure.
But as grown-ups - at least on how we look - instead of asking for candies, holding into our mom’s arms, and showing off drawings to get praise... we buy clothes, we build businesses, we go on weekend adventures.
Following the spirit of the time, as the contemporary world evolves, efficiency also becomes something we look for as an answer to fulfill our inner child needs. We want better, faster, and stronger of everything and anything.
However, we must be aware that this is not the fulfillment in itself. It is just the means through which we believe we will find it.
The importance of feeling
If you ask what people want, they will give you all the wrong answers - and it will drive you crazy offering solutions that won’t ever be enough.
But if you ask them how they FEEL, you will find a closer answer about what they are looking for.
We buy things and hire services, because we all want to feel different from how we feel regarding a specific angle of our lives.
Why do I travel? Because I want to feel different from how I feel in my routine, I want to feel inspired and creative, I want to gain perspective to bring more satisfaction to my daily life.
Why do I use google services? Because I want to feel less overwhelmed when searching through the enormous amount of digital garbage I accumulate online.
Different groups of people are likely to feel differently about the same things. That’s why it is important to understand your niche and audience. But this is a topic to be explored another time.
The simple answer
The simple answer for why you must be able to explain your brand to a 5 year-old kid is because you will make sure that everyone understands what you offer in terms of value. And if people understand what you are offering they are more likely to buy from you.
We don’t put effort into understanding things we don’t.?
This is not a natural behavior of the human being. We are afraid of the things we don’t understand, and to protect ourselves we push them away. This is the story of all atrocities committed by us along our existence.
If people are not clear about what your brand offers to them, they will push it away.
I talk to many CEOs and business owners who despite running their companies for years already, still struggle to make people understand what is so special about what they do, and why. They are not running their companies to their full potential, because even themselves struggle to see which one it is.
If you have a solution which you are confident that helps your audience to get what they want (love, acceptance, care, protection, etc). But you still struggle to make them fully understand that, it means that you are not articulating your brand value properly.
You are not explaining your brand to a 5 year-old kid.
How to explain your brand to a 5 year-old kid:
This is not your tag line
Before you go in a rush to judge the previous suggestions in terms of application, or to start communicating your brand as you are talking to a 5 year-old at every touch point, just stop. And reflect.
This is an exercise for gaining brand clarity. An exercise to practice how to articulate your brand in a way that people understand the value you give to them.
From the simple fact that you are able to explain it to a 5 year-old, it will give you plenty of possibilities to articulate your brand value in different ways, for different purposes.
Final reminder: Don’t be afraid to sound simple. We love things and people we understand. We avoid those we don’t.
Now tell me, how would you explain your brand to a 5-year-old kid?
AI Product Designer & Manager
1 年Makes a lot of sense.