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Get Your Head Out Of Your Ads When Your Brand Matures

shutterstock_82532311When MIDAZ* was first introduced, composers were heralding it as the next best thing since the piano. Sales had surpassed all expectations.  MIDAZ,* was introduced via a commercial that ran during the Grammy Awards.  Advertising themed “Introducing the key of Gee!,”  showed how MIDAZ’ was completely eliminating the need for computer-based navigational commands.   With MIDAZ, composers no longer needed a mouse or a computer keyboard.  Navigational commands could be directed more immediately by merely touching any of 8 piano keys.  For anyone unfamiliar with computer-based music composition this may not seem like a very important breakthrough.  But for composers,  it meant spending  less time going back and forth between the computer and piano keyboards to  edit, record or playback their songs.

Then, almost like someone flipped a switch,  the parade of inbound orders were cut in half when a new competitor,  VoiceKontrol,* introduced software that performed similar functions, but through voice commands.   MIDAZ  quickly reacted with advertising that explained how much easier their software was to set up and learn.  The company aggressively promoted the fact that, unlike competitive offerings,  no microphone was needed and that  keyboard touch commands were far more accurate than their less reliable voice-command counterparts.  MIDAZ also blitzed their trade with ads and merchandising efforts featuring explanations of how easy the program was to use.  They began a 30-day trial program and started discounting their price.  But despite superior performance characteristics, month to month sales substantially slowed. Add to this, margins began to shrink.

A year passed.  Sales and profits were now flat.  The president turned to a branding expert for advice.   Upon evaluating the situation, the expert reminded the president of Einsten’s theory of insanity, the one about continuing to do the same thing despite getting the same results.

“But we HAVE changed our approach,” the President complained.

“Actually, you haven’t,” the consultant replied.   “You still have your head in your ads.”

Taken aback, the president exclaimed, “Say again?!”

The consultant then explained that MIDAZ was no longer new and different, thanks to a competitor who was offering an acceptable substitute.

“In the beginning, all you had to do was talk about your advantage and the benefit of ease,” the consultant explained.  ”But now,  you no longer own ease, and you are being forced to share it.   Regardless of whether your benefit is stronger than competition,  the rules of the game have changed.  Welcome to the next stage of your brand’s life cycle.”

“But how do we fix it?”, management asked.

“First, don’t feel lonely,” the consultant said assuringly.  ”This is common for brands that have reached maturity.”

Maturity?

“Your brand is entrenched. It is no longer a shiny new object. ”

“You mean old,” the president lamented.

“Perhaps, but it certainly isn’t ready for the dust-heap.  In order to regain some lost vitality, your whole approach to marketing must change.  You need to stop searching for that silver bullet logic that is going to prove once and for all that your product is superior to VoiceKontrol. ”

“But it is!” the president exclaimed.

“Assuming it is, at this stage the word is out about what your product does and how well it performs.  Have you checked out forum reviews on the Internet lately?”

The president signaled the consultant to keep talking.

“Now that your sales have lost the pep they once had, consumers will respond more to you if they can identify with what MIDAZ stands for, it’s reason for existence.  You need to help them experience the link between who “MIDAZ” is and what it does.

“I don’t get it,” the president scowled.    ”What do you mean  by ‘Who?’ MIDAZ is a product, not a person.”

“Actually, its neither.  It’s a brand.  Currently one that acts more like a product, but should start acting more like a person, the expert retorted.  ”Let me do some digging and I’ll get back to you with a better explanation of what I mean.”

One month later, the expert returned with results of an investigation he conducted.  He started by reminding the president that many of his software engineers are musicians themselves.  ”The  bad news for you is that many would rather have careers writing music than designing software,” he said.   “However, the good news,  is that they are absolutely, completely, body-and-soul immersed in the world of music creation. They know first hand what a struggling musician must deal with in order to get noticed, let alone gain fame.”

“So?” I could have told you that,” the President said.

“Fact is, you don’t need to tell me.  You need to tell your prospects and customers. You need to tell them that you know what it’s like to be who they are,  what they believe in, and what they dream about.

Let VoiceKontrol continue hitting prospects over the head with technical facts that anyone can readily discover on their own.    Let them keep going for the head while you go for the heart.   Put the emphasis on the meaning of MIDAZ beyond its functional product differences.  Make the MIDAZ brand the hero of your story.   Don’t stop talking about how “MIDAZ” works.  But make product function and benefits the supporting characters of your brand’s story.  Promote the MIDAZ cause and show that it is similar to the cause of people you’re selling to.   Become the music writer’s advocate.

The expert went on to explain that instead of bravado claims about product superiority, “put your energies into finding ways to convince prospects that what you believe is  real and authentic.   Provide social media content that can help musicians achieve their goals. Conduct music writing contests.  Celebrate the works of up-and-coming music writers.  Once you’ve landed on who MIDAZ is and why it exists, ideas on how to make the MIDAZ brand story come to life find themselves, naturally.

With that, MIDAZ replaced their claim-based theme with a new advertising mantra, “Playing Should Be Easy Work,” sales and profit charts again began pointing in a northerly direction.

*No brands were hurt during the writing of this article.  Any resemblance to real brands, living, dead or maturing is purely coincidental. “

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A lesson in brand storytelling from two very different political campaigns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the early beginnings of the race for the White House, the news media seemed deeply concerned about who would have the biggest war chest.  Certainly, dollars have historically contributed a great deal to winning Presidential campaigns.  But given that Obama scored a 62% Electoral College advantage with only 4% more spending than Romney, the power of money has been seriously called into question.

Money buys audience reach, message frequency and media placement.  Money also pays for the creation and production of messages as well as the necessary wherewithal to administer those messages. We cannot discount the importance of these financial realities.

But there is one variable that has recently gained enormous power.  Unlike the other variables, it doesn’t depend on spending.    It costs nothing more than respect for its existence and adherence to its demands.  In part, it is driven by the new order of social media and its ability to make brands more transparent.  It’s called story logic.

 

Story logic runs deep in every brand, including those of Presidential candidates.  As consumers, we don’t see it, but we do sense how strong story logic is or isn’t.  To apply story logic to any brand, one must first see the brand as lead character in the story that it sets out to tell its audience. Specifically, a brand is very much like a story’s protagonist confronting certain obstacles to achieve certain goals.

 

Both story protagonists and brands are multilayered.  Their surface, or outer layers, contains visible behaviors.  In the example of brand Romney vs. brand Obama, each candidate’s outer layer consisted of things said, done, and promised prior to and during their campaigns.

Going deeper, the brand’s inner layer is like the engine under its hood.  It consists of beliefs and values that fuel the brand’s outer layer and helps audiences discern what the real beliefs are behind the brand’s behavior. As marketers, we can voice what a brand’s outer layer consists of.  But the truth of their inner layers is completely dependent upon the voices inside the heads of their audience.

 

Story logic is simply the linkage between a brand’s inner and outer layer.  When what we see or what we are told about a brand’s promise runs contrary to the value or belief we ascribe to that brand, the logic chain is broken and the story becomes something that doesn’t make sense.

 

In the contest between Romney and Obama, it was relatively easy to infer that each brand had polar opposite inner layers.  One was driven by the belief in strong government; the other put greater stock in the private sector.  From a social perspective, one candidate held more liberal beliefs and values and his opponent’s were more conservative.  We were able to infer the difference in values and beliefs from each candidate’s outer layer promises and plans to support specific policies.

 

However, when one looks at the many surveys taken prior to Election Day, a few stand out. They are those that reflect the relative consistency between each candidate’s outer and inner layer.

In a poll taken by Time Magazine, one month prior to the election, readers were asked, “Which candidate is more truthful, Obama or Romney?”  Obama outpaced Romney 72% vs. 28%.  In a similar poll conducted by Newhouse in October, Obama’s ads were seen as more truthful than Romney’s, 42% vs. 30%. Whether you give credence to these polls or others that asked similar questions, we all know that Romney was often described by pundits as a “flip-flopper.”  “Flip-flopping” occurs when a brand’s outer layer is perceived as a moving target. The biggest blow to Romney’s story logic came from his secretly filmed 47% comment that was picked up and repeatedly viewed on YouTube and other media outlets.   Despite Romney’s admission that this statement didn’t reflect his true feelings, it created a great deal of dissonance.  Dissonance is the enemy of story logic.

 

Some have argued that Romney’s ever-changing outer layer resulted from efforts to be all things to his highly fractionalized party. But in Presidential elections as with brands, the perceived consistency between beliefs, values, and actions has a great deal to do with winning votes or customers.  Lack of layer consistency, perceived or real, can only result in confusion, dislike, and distrust — or all of the above.  It is hard to know if Romney would have won had there been a stronger link between what he stood for and what he was promising to deliver. Arguably, stronger story logic would have turned off certain factions at the expense of others.

 

On the other hand, Obama had the story logic advantage.  Whether you agreed or disagreed with his actions and promises, his consistency was rarely called into question.  Clearly, he had obstacles to overcome given the worse economy since the Great Depression and social policies that were labeled by many as socialistic.  But unlike Romney, the link between his outer and inner layer was unwavering.

 

I’m often asked what is more important, a brand’s inner layer or its outer layer.  Rather than address that question head on, I often defer to brand success stories like Apple, The Ritz Hotel, North Face, Nike, and others that show how important it is to make certain that both layers are well defined and appeal to audiences large enough to foster growth.  But what I believe is more important than either layer itself is the logical integrity between the values and beliefs a brand stands for and its actual or implied behavior.  As with stories, brands depend on audiences concluding for themselves that what is portrayed is believable and authentic.

 

 

 

 


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StoryBranding™ Condensed

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StoryBranding in 30 words or less:

-Stories are powerful persuaders.

-A brand can be turned into a powerful story.

-Powerful brand stories create loyal followers.

-Loyal followers are better brand storytellers than you are.

For the unabridged version, go to www.eswpartners.com/storybranding and download a free chapter of StoryBranding ™: Creating Standout Brands Through The Power of Story.

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Context is King

F455N 1910s Empire Art Co. picture frame with 1960s photographI found this picture on the internet. It contains a portrait of someone I do not know. Perhaps someone’s antique. Safe bet that it is a portrait of someone who is no longer alive. I would also speculate that when he was alive he was important to someone or perhaps a company where this painting might be displayed . This is more than just a portrait. It’s a tribute.

Most of the clues I’m getting about this person are not in his portraiture. They are coming from the frame that surrounds his painted likeness. The frame is not a standard rectangular frame. Nor is it made of aluminum or appear to be store bought. Rather, this frame was apparently custom tailored, hand-carved and finished by a woods craftsman. Someone decided that this portrait deserved something extraordinary.

Like this painting, so much of the meaning we attribute to things is not in their content, but in their context. It is in the background against which the content is provided. Had it not been for this the frame, this portrait might tell an entirely different story.

Oftentimes, we don’t take notice of context. Paul Klee once said, “one eye sees, the other feels.” Context is often more sensed than seen. Yet context is often richer in meaning than content. Often non-rational, context can be very powerful,

Many in marketing have been proclaiming that “content is king.” Clearly, shared information via blogs, videos, white papers or books can do more for a brand’s identity than any other form of communication. I can’t argue about the importance of content. But I think there’s a good argument that content is not the real king. Context is.

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De-dupe!

Being mechanical means doing things in a prescribed way. It’s being the way others want us to be. It’s acting the way we think we’re supposed to act. We are mechanical when what we do is done because we believe it is the way to win favor, to be liked or to gain someone’s love.

coppelia the wind-up doll

The problem with being mechanical is that the truth about us usually comes out. And when others find out that we were only going through the motions and that we truly aren’t the person we were pretending to be, bad things happen.

It’s the same with brands. Think about that brand you bought with expectations that were never fulfilled, that sandwich that was way smaller than the one pictured on the menu, that super fast internet connection that is just a hair faster than the one from which you traded up, that movie preview that was far more exciting than the movie itself.

I can’t count the number of people I’ve met in my lifetime. But I know that whatever the number is, it’s big. Yet I can’t think of one solitary person who actually enjoys or looks forward to being duped. In fact, I would lay odds that many who are duped dislike it so much that they would warn others not to be duped. Duping can have some very destructive consequences for the duper.

So, if you’re a duper, start de-duping. Don’t be something you aren’t or can’t be. Don’t be the person or the brand that tries but isn’t what other’s want. Instead of being mechanical, be organic. That is, find your real strengths and celebrate them for all that they are. If those aren’t good enough, figure out a way to make them better. Whatever you do, avoid duping at all costs.

  

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