Do you know the three biggest and most frequently used lies on earth? Probably they are these:
- I couldn't reach you.
- No, it doesn't make you look fat at all.
- I do everything for you.
And the greatest liar in human history on par with Baron Hieronymus Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Münchhausen is almost certainly J.R. Ewing, oil baron of Dallas (TX). His All Time Favorite "Bobby, you're my brother and I love you. And everything I do, I do just for Momma and you!" remains vivid in our memories to this day. He probably even believes that, J.R., and thus not only lies to Bobby, but in one wash even more to himself.
Mr. Ewing is in the very best company with this behaviour. Namely in ours. We, too, lie to ourselves all the time, preferably with a variation of J.R.'s classic: "I'm only doing this for/because/because...". In truth, we hardly ever do anything for rational for/because/because reasons. Especially not when we buy something. And certainly not for anyone but ourselves.
We define ourselves by our origins and affiliations, or re-define ourselves by masterfully changing them, as far as we can. I'm now a Berliner, I'm now a Buddhist, I'm now a vegan, a blogger, then I'm gone ... And we constantly define ourselves in our society by what we buy. This is the time and the world we live in. Brands give us orientation, and with brands that we like, we give others orientation about us.
Science has different figures at its disposal, but the bottom line is that all experts agree: we make practically all our decisions emotionally and intuitively. And we do so long before we officially decide. The associated facts are good and important, but in the vast majority of decisions they serve only to provide us with argumentative justification for our emotional decisions. Mainly in front of ourselves. Somehow, our consciousness always punches us out of the shit that our subconscious has gotten us into.
A few years ago, a person whose best friend I was asked me:
"I need to buy a computer, which one should I get? Windows or Apple?"
"Apple, of course!", I said.
"Why? Are they better?"
"No. It's a question of character."
He bought a Mac battleship ammunitioned up to the bow, and that, he told me, was so that his daughter, a film student, would visit him more often. So he bought the computer for himself. A question of character, as I said.
You know it yourself. You go out because you need a coat, come home with two coats and a pair of overpriced shoes, each one the best purchase of your life. The jacket and the other pair of shoes don't really matter any more. And neither does the belt. And the jumper - you'll never get Kashmir for that price again (they're crazy, I think ...).
Incidentally, this also applies to the totally reasonable, bone-dry, rational B2B world. Why? - Perhaps because owners of two coats and too expensive shoes also decide there? Who knows ...
And when giving a gift? The only thing greater than the disappointment over an inappropriate gift that you receive is your own disappointment over an inappropriate gift that you have given someone. Yes, we give gifts so that someone is happy. And that is precisely the reward for us. This joy as feedback. The information about ourselves. From this we again get a bit of an answer to our primal question, which can't use a lie as an answer (but all too often gets one).
Is that selfish? Maybe, but in any case it's human. We are like that. Yes, you too, not just me.
Speaking of the original question: that's what it's all about.
We finally want an answer to our original question.
In truth, there is only one question that really interests us humans. We ask ourselves this question day in and day out in the most diverse variations, forms and disguises.
With our preferences, our purchases, with our postings, with our clothes, with our likes and shares, in fact somehow with everything we do, we seek answers to our original question, because every statement implicitly asks for feedback. Every feedback tells us more about ourselves than the statement does and thus provides another piece of the puzzle of the answer to our life-accompanying question: "Who am I?"
The question "Who am I?" is ultimately the question of the meaning of our lives that occupies us, and many of us never find the satisfactory, final answer. And so we keep searching and searching and searching. Because meaning is what we really need to live - nourishment for our soul.
In search of meaning.
I don't know if it's just more visible than it used to be thanks to the WorldWideWeb, or if it's actually happening: More and more people are aggressively searching for the meaning, the truth and the why in everything they do. A myriad of offers of books, courses and counselling services on the subject of "finding your destiny" in all conceivable variations are buzzing around and being eagerly accepted. An industry is emerging. More and more people want more time and less stuff, and are looking for more in their work than just a way to make a living.
So it's no wonder that brands that offer something credible in the area of sense-making demonstrably perform better than others. This can be seen in KPIs, stock market performance and share of wallet. Most people around the world say they prefer brands that offer something like meaning and purpose. The ever-coveted Millennials say it especially loudly. And Unilever confirmed some time ago that its two brands with meaning, Dove and Ben & Jerry's, are growing twice as fast as its other brands and that Unilever is therefore working on all its brands in this direction.
Brands with Benefits activate values.
Values are the building blocks of our big "Why? Values are also what give a brand its added value. And it is values on which a powerful, effective brand story must be built. Then brands with benefits are created.
But beware: something like this only works sustainably if the values are developed from within the company and not if they are grafted on from the outside. Otherwise it would just be advertising in disguise and will be exposed faster than J.R. Ewing can say "Bobby, you're my brother ...". When people are looking for truth, you can only meet them with truth.
Every good story since the invention of the situation fire is built on values and first and always asks the intrinsic question: "Which archaic core value is in danger?" That's how you can immediately tell if it's a substantial story with real nutritional value, or bubblegum-level entertainment. And believe it or not: series like Dallas have more real story content than their superficiality would lead you to believe. That is one of the secrets of their success.
You can also tell from the values question whether it's a brand story or the storytelling chatter that everyone who is at least partially illiterate and moves through the marketing world on two legs feels they have to push in front of them. I won't say all of it, but well over 99 per cent of it comes from people about whom they say so well in American: "They can't tell shit from Shinola." - – Shinola is, by the way, a wonderful example of a brand that has been completely rebuilt and refocused on values, meaning and purpose.
The one decisive factor for success.
By the way, this applies to everyone who does marketing communication, not just international mega-brands. It applies to B2B, it applies to small businesses all the way to solopreneurs, it applies to every industry.
So here's the winning question: how much time does your audience spend with you and your brand, and how much do they actively participate in your story because it's relevant to them? Involvement is the one critical success factor that separates the hackneyed advertising pitch from the wheat with brand nutritional value these days. The real measures of success are Time with Brand and ROI - Return of Involvement, not short-sighted Return on Investment. Better still ROE - Return of Engagement.
You spread the fertiliser of success on the field of your activities already at the conception stage if you internalise a simple principle: No information without interaction.
Small talk is expensive.
I'm not saying it's easy to implement, because it's not at all. That's also why you don't find many well-done campaigns. No, it is not easy. But it is necessary.
Because if you and your audience don't have a topic of conversation that interests both of you, then all you have left is small talk about a single topic. In contrast to boring parties, it's not about the weather, but about the price. And then small talk suddenly takes on a very unpleasant meaning for you.
The key to success lies in the cassette labelled "Relevant Values". Because as soon as and only when a brand story is animated by values that touch a longing in the audience, a storyworld is created in which brand and audience meet and interact and spend precious Time with Brand together. And then a really strong bond is woven.
Push is dead. Long live Pull.
If nothing changes in the mindset that has dictated marketing communication since about 1830, i.e. if we continue to think that pushing our stuff in front of as many people as possible with programmatic advertising and similar sneak-in tools is a success, things will get dark. The special effect of storytelling and content marketing lies in the direct opposite of push, in pull.
Let's inspire our audience with things that are beneficial in their lives. Then we don't have to desperately pursue it, people will come to us. No more adverstalking - story instead of advertising! Advertising only creates echo, story creates resonance.
The prerequisite for this is that every brand understands and activates three simple principles:
- Which core value do I address in a sustainable way, i.e.: which longing of people do I share?
- How can I satisfy and nourish this longing in equal measure?
- What can I stimulate, distribute or initiate that is so important to people that they continue to distribute it because it tells them more about themselves than about me?
Nobody does anything for Bobby Ewing, but only for himself. Even if it looks different or even if you believe it yourself. The truth is: Nobody cares about our shit, but only and exclusively about their own. Therefore:
- Your story can never be about your brand and must always be about your audience.
- Your brand is not the hero, your brand has to make its users the hero.
- Brand story needs relevance and independence - but best of all: brand story means independence through relevance. For your brand to get quality time with its audience, it has to be relevant. That means ... (see 1).
The principles are simple, but their implementation is not. The basic prerequisite is a change in attitude in the company itself and not just a lot of young people with Snapchat accounts in the marketing department. This starts with the company management and includes all departments, especially of course marketing, sales, service and first and foremost human resources - keyword employer branding.
When you masterfully bring these principles to life, something special will emerge. Then your audience will use your story in search of answers for themselves because they can make a statement and get feedback.
Hero Branding® means: story sharing instead of storytelling.
A real Hero Brand is never the hero herself, but makes her audience the hero. It doesn't talk its audience into something and thereby push itself into the lives of its customers, i.e. it doesn't engage in storytelling. A real hero brand does something much better. It connects its own story, i.e. its world of values, with the world of values of its customers. It understands the art of story sharing and thus develops a magnetic pull. It attracts customers.
Every customer who uses a Hero Brand tells the brand's story because it allows them to tell their own story about themselves. And their own story is the only one that interests people.
That's why, even if storytelling is now driven through every village as an annoying buzzword, the sentence my grandmother, old Story Dudette, once wrote on the living room wall of the Southfork Ranch with J.R. Ewing's nose blood still applies: " No Story. No Glory."