A number that you should definitely remember for 2017: 31,536,000 - These are the seconds in which every (potential) customer can have contact with your brand this year, feels like a king and wants to be treated as such. In short: every second. Better said: the year 2017 offers you 31,536,000 chances to outperform your competition (next year, too, by the way).
Yes, the internet has changed everything, especially life. The comfort zone feels like a board of nails, and no sooner do you think you've done all you can, than an Uber turns the corner somewhere and drives your own business model into the wall. In the end, even Uber is not spared from this inner truth - or put as an Austrian consolation word: They will also walk again.
And then there's the media, and then there's advertising, and then there's social media. Snapperlot! For many years we were proud of ourselves when we trumpeted: "The only thing that lasts is change!" and "For us, the focus is on people!", but who could have assumed that we were suddenly right, and so now the salad? What kind of #shice is that!?!
Let's not quibble: the times when people (fka consumers) did what we wanted are definitely over. Advertising has long since ceased to smoothly separate them from their money. On the contrary: more and more people are even paying so that they no longer have to see advertising. For the realisation that stalking is not a viable basis for a solid relationship, we have spent a lot of advertising money in recent times, currently something like $520 billion a year. As my grandmother, old Story Dudette, used to say, "Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn." And learn we should.
People are in power, and markets are smart, fast conversations of those people - honest conversations, conversations that don't stop, conversations that we as marketers don't always like. But we can be part of them if we contribute something that makes those conversations more interesting, or starts them in the first place. This is about relevance, content and experience, seen mercilessly from the perspective of our audience. A brand that still talks about itself these days has already put the ash cross on itself.
Every brand, every company needs to recognise what business it is really in. It's definitely not the product and its value, but the values associated with it and the connections people have with each other and with their brand. That is everything. Because that's the only thing that creates meaning and precisely the ideal added value that transforms a commodity into a branded product. Charge a good MP3 player with meaning. If you do it right, you can call it an iPod and charge many times the usual price for it. Brands with Purpose - brands with meaning - demonstrably perform better: whether that's in growth, share of wallet, stock prices or KPIs. The added value is then materialised in factual added value, namely in your balance sheet.
What do you need for this? The perfect brand story. - In principle, this is not complicated, but it is difficult to implement. That's why there are so many brand stories, but only very few good ones. So:
- Radically adopt the perspective of your customers. The best way to do this is to throw your products and brands, including communication and all points of contact, under the bus to a few customer groups and just observe carefully what happens. In order to gain nourishing insights, bring in experts for methods such as the currently very topical Design Thinking. I prefer to use our two self-developed methods Hero Branding and Story Thinking.
- Recognise the longing that drives your audience and what values are associated with it.
- Find - not er-finden(!) - the shared values of your brand with your audience. This is exactly the content of your brand story that you absolutely need. Because if anything can be guaranteed, it is: No Story - No Glory!
- Find - not er-finden(!) - the meaning that your brand can play in people's lives. How does it make people's lives better, and what does "better" mean in your case? For example, does it contribute to self-confidence? Or does it give the feeling of belonging to a special group, does it enable freedom, does it give security, joy, mobility ...? So are you in the self-esteem business, or the enabling business, or the community business ...?
- Consider where and in what form this meaning must and can be authentically experienced - beyond advertising. Where are the touchpoints where real brand experience is created, outside of ads, posters or TV spots? This is where the brand story comes alive and becomes strong because brand and audience are in an exchange, interacting, talking. This is where they share common values and desires, where the buzzword storytelling as a substitute for surreptitious advertising is transformed into effective story sharing, where truth is created.
With all the numbers, facts and figures that the marketing and media Excel industry has to offer, ultimately only one metric matters: Time with Brand, i.e. how much time does your audience spend with you - regardless of how they use the product?
There are people who think they are hilarious and there are people who tell good jokes. It's better to be where the laughter is, because that's where customer experience and relationships grow.