What's the biggest flop you've ever had a hand in? I mean, who always succeeds at everything? Not even DJ Ötzi only gives us poetry for eternity.
When I look at my professional wall of shame, I can say that there is surprisingly little on it. This meagre flop yield has absolutely nothing to do with my breathtaking genius, but above all with luck, which, as the saying goes, is bestowed equally on the brave and the stupid. Please check the appropriate box. But the three mega-flops in my shady trophy collection have nothing to hide in any flop competition. They were Olympic! My goodness, the shreds flew. But how!
TOO LAZY TO READ ON? THEN LISTEN TO ME:
In the blogcast, I read this recent blog article to you. With emphasis, of course!
I have (almost) forgotten two of them, but one is still vivid in my memory today. Back then, many moons ago, it was about the market launch of food supplements and the development of a brand for them. Natural food supplements, mind you. A fantastic product. Great people. Enough time and budget. Even then, it was such a rare combination that it immediately aroused suspicion. There had to be a catch somewhere, and not just for the disgruntled Viennese who, as soon as they smell the scent of flowers, look around to see where the coffin is. As it soon turned out, there wasn't a hook somewhere, but lots of hooks everywhere. So be it.
In me, who is about as competent in biology, chemistry and physics as Jacques Tati is in sumo wrestling, the subject area in question did not evoke any feelings of home. The scientist who had his hand on the cradle of the products explained to me the difference between natural and synthetic food supplements in simple terms: "If you take natural vitamin C, all the natural precursors of the vitamin are included. The body can store it and continue to use it. This is called bioavailability. But synthetic vitamin C lacks these important precursors. The body only uses the amount it needs. The rest cannot be stored and is excreted. With synthetic vitamin C, you are basically producing expensive urine." I don't know if this is true, but it certainly made sense to me. I have not forgotten this to this day and still only buy natural food supplements, so I am bursting with strength and glow in the dark thanks to the bioavailability. The current market price per barrel for my urine, on the other hand, is in the low single-digit cent range. That's the way it should be.
Bioavailability always comes to mind when I talk to brand managers in companies about their brand story. All too many of them are happy about effects, clicks and likes, about juicy emotionality and extremely original marketing communication, which there is nothing to say against at first. However, when I ask what the brand's purpose is, or what is being done(!) for the brand values, over and above statements, postings and campaigns, I see flaming question marks flickering over the heads of my interlocutors. However, there is something to be said against this, and that is: Alarm!!!
But then! When I address marketing messages that are completely out of sync with the company's own behavior and hear: "Yes, that's just our advertising ..." my nostrils puff out. It doesn't help that the clients gently pat my forehead with the words "Calm down, Gray, calm down ...". A threatening froth gathers in my lips and my hooves scuff nervously. Now I'm not just a circus horse, I'm also something of a Monty Roberts in the brand pastures, and in the face of synthetic brand stories, I'll tell you as the Brand Whisperer:
Dear people, we need to talk!
1. brand stories that do not come to life in the individual campaigns: expensive urine.
2. campaigns that do not contribute to the brand story: expensive urine.
3. brand stories that do not first have an impact on the inside, i.e. in employer branding: expensive urine.
4. brand stories that proclaim good things but are not lived and therefore cannot be experienced: expensive urine.
5. brands values based solely on business objectives: expensive urine.
6. brand stories that activate no meaning: expensive urine.
7. brand stories that begin with "Who we are ..." or "Once upon a time ...": expensive urine.
8. brand stories that proclaim the brand's heroic deeds: expensive urine.
9. brand stories that tell the history of the company and founding anecdotes: expensive urine.
Incidentally, this applies without restriction to all companies and brands, all sectors and all sizes, whether B2B or B2C, multinational brands or solopreneurs, start-ups and founders. So test yourself and your brand story with the above tips.
You can do the ultimate super-fast urine test right on your homepage, and it goes like this. A) Is it immediately clear to visitors what positive changes they can experience thanks to you? Or B) do they find out who you are and what you do? If B): improve immediately, please. Now!
But if you even say "I don't need a brand story because ...", you hear the dull echo of your words from a narrow, short cul-de-sac illuminated by the light of your falling star. You always have a story, the one that others tell about you. So it's up to you whether you want to inspire this story and provide it with nourishing impulses, or sail off to nowhere as a stowaway on your own brand ship.
Do the quick test.
You can tell whether your brand story is splashing into the latrine or whether it has a strengthening effect with plenty of bioavailability by the following:
1. your brand story comes to life in every single campaign, indeed in every single post. The inner core story istold in an interpretive way in the so-called key stories. Take a look at what Hornbach does and you'll learn from masterful professionals (and that doesn't just apply to their commercials).
2. every campaign, every piece of content in turn contributes to the brand story. Each individual implementation in the key stories therefore feeds the whole, the core story.
3. every solid brand story does not work from the outside in (even if many people hope for this and therefore do it mercilessly), but is rooted in the inside and thus has an effect on the outside. So if you don't have a convincing employer branding story, you don't have a brand story at all.
4. a nourishing brand story can be experienced in what the brand does for its cause, beyond proclaiming its stance in communications. Don't say how funny you are - make people laugh. Take a bended knee look at how always #likeagirl does it and think about what that can mean for you, in your own world, even if you're not in charge of an international mega-brand.
5. the values of a brand are the basis for the business goals (not the other way around). Otherwise, they are at best opinions and interchangeable chatter.
6. a convincing brand activates a meaning that goes beyond the pure product benefit, something that you as an employee or customer perceive as relevantly meaningful for yourself - see Hornbach again. As in the HavasMeaningful Brand Index has now been providing seamless evidence worldwide for 14 years, brand meaning not only leads to massive additional economic success, but also to the fact that 74 percent of brands could fuck off and nobody would care. Just those synthetic brands, without meaning, without a story.
7. a nutritious brand story does not provide its audience with figures, data, facts about itself and information about the product, but tells how it solves customers' problems, answers their questions, satisfies their longings.
8. nutritious brand stories focus on the customers as heroes, with the brand taking on the noble role of mentor, helping the heroes to achieve their goals.
9 A brand story with nutritional value does not celebrate its own history, however adventurous it may be, but describes the better future of customers, employees and the public. Real brand stories don't start with "Once upon a time ...", but with "One day ..."
In short: don't bother with synthetic marketing karaoke, just go for live rock'n'roll.
Convincing, moving and therefore effective brand stories are truthful, authentic and serious. They come from a benevolent heart. They are not aimed at telling people that they would be incomplete without this or that product, but rather to inspire: first internally and then externally. Genuine brand stories do not seduce, they accompany.
What helps?
If you're now saying: "Yes, I get it, it makes sense - but how do I actually go about it?" Or if you're like many people who say: "Yes, we're trying, but somehow we just can't get to the point ...!", then we should discuss how I can support you with my programs and tools from the New Story Academy. That's what it's all about: helping people who are trying to do real brand work to make their brand story bulletproof. This often succeeds quickly, sometimes even very quickly, because thanks to a great deal of experience and intensive learning from successful projects and superflops, a nutrient-packed powerhouse is available.
On the New Story Academy website you will find, among other things, a special offer for a quick vitamin kick - the PowerHour . There are also detailed workshop programs for extensive tasks, all of which have one goal: to enable you and your team to quickly and efficiently find a better brand story and tell it better than before. So that your team and your customers quickly understand what they have and get from you, why it is relevant to them and why they come to you and stay with you. The bottom line is that simple.
Why is this so important to me? Quite simply because I am convinced that most people want to and can do more with their companies & brands than just mindlessly sell their stuff to the affluent society. In our community, most of them are. They understand that we in the so-called economy have the powerful leverage to transform the dark narratives of our time about duality, dominance and destruction into a new story - the New Story. This is the story of connectedness, unfolded potential and found, experienced meaning. We write this new story when we support each other.
If you have any other specific questions, just send me an e-mail. You'll find my e-mail address at the bottom of this page. As a member of our Story Inside community, you can also book a free check-in meeting directly here in my calendar to book a free check-in meeting (online).
If we do that, we'll all feel better. Just like my grandmother, old Story Dudette, who doesn't think of my failures when she hears the word flop, but of high jump legend Dick Fosbury, to whom she presented his Olympic gold medal with the words: "New Story. New Glory."