Would a 3rd Grader be Excited about Your Story?

Over the years, I have done a number of storytelling workshops and exercises, helping brands understand the importance of creating and maintaining a great story. As humans, we generally buy on two reasons, price and brand story. Truth be told, if there's no compelling brand story, then we usually buy on price. And there are certainly times we know we're spending more on a brand because of what their story means to us.

The challenge is that today, most brands have lost sight of what their story is, driven by the drive to lower costs. Unfortunately, that drive also can harm brands, making each one indistinguishable from the next. The recent surge in popularity of generic brands is driven by two key factors: economic hardship and a perceived lack of differentiation between generic and name-brand products. Consumers, facing financial pressures, often find generic alternatives just as suitable as their brand-name counterparts. (OK, AI helped me with that sentence, I just wasn't making it work!)

One of my favorite brand stories is that for Tums. Did you know that it was created by a pharmacist who loved to cruise, but his wife got seasick? So, he created something to help his wife, so they could cruise together. While on the cruise, she shared it with other passengers and it grew from there.

I like stories like that. They move away from simply being about features and benefits and create an opportunity to engage emotionally with the audience. And, when authentic and engaging, great stories allow for a brand to move away from pricing as their sole strategy.

So how do you help to tell your story or build a great? here are 2 exercises I like to do:

• Write down how you would describe your company as if it was a blind date you wanted to convince me to take out. What would she be like? Where would she like to go? Is she an expensive date or a cheap date? Would she like to be in a crowded hot spot, walking the streets of Soho or at a quiet restaurant? Next, ask other people at your company the same question. Does everyone describe the same person? Sure, there will be some variances, but if you think your blind date would like to go to a noisy, hoppin’ hot-spot and a colleague describes her as someone who would prefer a very quiet evening at the library, you either don’t work for the same company or you’ve got some problems with your core story! That’s step one in creating a brand story: understanding the stories that you believe are your company, theme park, museum, etc.—and understanding how your story plays to the different audiences within your company.

Exercise two is one of my favorite and gives you a great sense of how your story is landing. How many employees of your employees believe upper management telling them that our company is “all about the people who work here”, as so many companies do? One of the biggest challenges to overcome in brand storytelling is making sure that it’s told with the same conviction throughout the organization as you would have it told to your customer. Believe me, customers know when it doesn’t ring true!

• So, find a third grader or group of third graders and tell them your brand story. This is a great test group for storytelling. When kids are bored, they’re bored and they let you know. How quickly is your third grade audience bored? When do they start the shuffle? When you get a story that is engaging to that audience, then you’ll have the start of a usable brand story. Here’s a hint: your story is not the facts of your company—how many employees, when you started, etc. It is the soul and the why of your company.

A few key points to consider:

• Do you know your story and your audiences?
• Are you telling the same story with your employees?
• Are they telling the same story to your customers?
• Is your story authentic?
• Is your story engaging your audience?
• Do your actions deliver on your message?

Over the years, I've developed some questions to ask:

• Is the brand experience well defined? Is there a narrative story that the audience understands– or frankly, is there a narrative at all? When I was a kid on Long Island, there were commercials for JGE Warehouse that asked "What's the Story Jerry?" Could you answer that question for your brand? What is the story you tell to your customers every day? Could you define it? More importantly, can your audience?
• How does it stand out? We live in such a ‘me too’ world that it is often very easy to just copy what other people are doing, but that certainly doesn’t create a sustainable difference for your product or brand. And that leaves you to compete simply on price. Great brands are never built from price alone.
• Is it immersive? Can you lose yourself in the experience? Are there things that constantly pull you out of the brand experience? My wife can't focus on the movie we're watching when people in the audience take out their cell phones. What takes people out of your experience? Is there physical space easy to navigate? Are the lights, sounds, smells of your space conducive to the story you're trying to tell? Are employees more interested in what’s important for them and not the customer? All of this prevents customers from truly being immersed and engaged in your brand experience.
• Does it grow/change? If I engage your brand often, do I see it growing and changing with my experience with it? Does your brand learn more about me and make changes based on who I am?

I’m always amazed at how very good companies can miss some of these key items and turn what should be a great story into either a neutral or worse, negative story. Do you know your story? Is it authentic? Does it pass the blind date test? Are third graders excited to hear it?

In the end, there are three things about a great story:

• People want to hear it.
• People want to tell it.
• People want to participate in it.

The key learning here is simple: If people want to hear, tell or participate in your story, then you are sharing your brand conviction with them; brand conviction means brand customers.