Make Your Brand Story Resonate With Your Customers

Everyone has a story.  Every company, every product, every community, every industry has a story.  Think about your own story for a moment.  If you were to write your biography, how would it go?  What would it say about you?  Everyone, no matter how young or old, has gone through experiences both good and bad.  These experiences may have been experiences that others have also lived through.  But everyone views these experiences differently.  What might have seemed to be traumatic and life-altering to one person can seem like just a bump in the road of life to someone else.  Now, in writing your personal story, remember that not everyone really cares to hear it.  But some people, the key people in your life, will want to know every juicy detail.

What's your story?

Now relate that to your business.  Your business also has a story to tell.  Whether your business has only been in operation for 3 months or for 25 years it still has a history.  And, just like your personal story, not everyone cares to hear about your business.  Only a few key people really want to know who you are.  Your story is the basis of your brand.  You can’t develop a brand until you know the whole story.  So, think about what you want people to know about you.  Being authentic is the key to developing trust with people.  Be upfront about your shortcomings.  Let people in.  We’ve all made mistakes.  We’ve all done things we wish we could go back and change.  But life moves on and going back to change something that’s already happened isn’t possible.  The bigger your company gets, the more you are under the microscope.  I hate to say it, but there are people out there who want to see you fail.  Most people genuinely want to see you succeed, but some don’t.  But those aren’t the people you need to be concerned with.  When you remain authentic and conduct your business with professionalism and respect, and handle mistakes swiftly and with dignity, you will make a name for yourself that people remember in a positive way.  Those naysayers who want to bring you down won’t be able to. 

Who are the people you most want to attract?  You may very well have more than one target market, but don’t try to be everything to everybody.  Like I said, some people are not people you need to be targeting to.  So, think about how your target market wants to communicate with you.  What do they want and why do they want it.  People want to feel a sense of belonging, a connection, a feeling of being understood.  Last year, Shania Twain published her autobiography.  I went through an experience very similar to one she had gone through and as I was reading her feelings about it, I felt like, “she gets it”, she’s someone I could totally sit down with and talk about this and we could totally relate to each other.  She is one person who automatically comes to mind when I say “personal brand”.  Like Madonna or Cher, Shania only needs one word for people to know who she is and what she’s about.

Company brands are no different from personal brands in that they create an image in the minds of their customers.  That brand is developed through trust, by being true to who they are and marketing to like-minded consumers.  People develop a loyalty to a brand because of the feeling of understanding and connection.

So, whether you are developing a brand for your company or a personal brand for yourself, keep these tips in mind.

·         Stay true to who you are

·         Don’t apologize for who you are

·         Own up to past mistakes but don’t dwell on them.

·         Market your message to the right market

You’ll know when your brand story has resonated with the right market.  Your ideal customers will become repeat customers and become the biggest ambassadors for your brand.  So, what is your story? 

Brand Loyalty: Marketing the New Kids on the Block, Then and Now

Anybody remember the New Kids on the Block?  You know, the boy band from the ‘80s?  Many people remember them as a manufactured, over-marketed group of teenagers calling themselves a “band”, a boy band to be exact.  In the late ‘80s you couldn’t escape them.  They were on every magazine cover, every talk show and every radio station.  You could buy everything from bed sheets to lip gloss to action figures, not to mention the vast array of posters that so many teenage girls plastered their bedroom walls with.

Whether you like the New Kids or not, whether you think they have any talent or not, there is no question that the New Kids had a tremendous impact on entertainment marketing.  Their marketing team knew exactly what they were doing.  They knew exactly who their target was, what they wanted and how they wanted it.  Hormonal pre-teen and teenage girls were spending their allowance money on a fantasy.  Although teenage girls have been doing this for years… swooning over actors and singers…with the New Kids, the marketing team now had 5 guys to use instead of just one lonely solo singer.  Each guy had their own image, presumably manufactured to appeal to as many different teenage girls as possible.  Donnie Wahlberg was “the bad boy”, Jordan Knight was “the sexy one”, Joey McIntyre was “the baby” and got the attention of the 8 – 12 year olds, Danny Wood was “the smart one”, and Jonathan Knight was “the shy, quiet one”.  Every girl had their favourite guy and the fans were adamant that these were the true personalities of the guys and there was nothing manufactured.

To many people it might have seemed to be a bit of overkill, but to the fans, they couldn’t get enough.  There is no doubt that the New Kids had a brand that nobody would forget, whether you were a fan or not.

Then, all of a sudden, they disappeared.  No more concerts.  No more albums.  No more screaming, crying girls.   Fast forward 20 years to 2008.  All of these die hard fans are all grown up, with only memories (and maybe a collection of posters, pins, T-shirts and dolls) of their favourite band.  In 2008, the New Kids quietly announced a comeback.  No over the top marketing efforts were needed.  Why?  Because they knew that their target market was a loyal bunch even 20 years later.  They released their first album since 1990 and went back out on a North American tour.  It was no surprise to the fans that the tour was sold out.  The non-fans were now calling them the Old Kids on the Block and joked that they’d be coming on stage with their walkers.  But even if they did, the fans would still be okay with that.

Over the past 4 years, the New Kids haven’t had to do a whole lot of marketing.  But of course what they do now is geared to a different demographic.  Where teenage girls once went crazy for T-shirts and magazines, grown women are now spending hefty sums of money to go on a yearly cruise hosted by the New Kids.  Some of the guys have solo careers as well.  For instance, Jordan Knight recently went on tour to promote his solo album, complete with tickets for his fans to have brunch with him.  His albums would have sold even if he hadn’t gone on tour, but creating that extra connection with his fans is just his way of continuing to feed that brand loyalty.

The New Kids know they have a sure thing in their fans.  It’s cheaper and easier for companies (and boy bands!) to retain existing customers rather than acquire new ones.  When your company is new (like the New Kids were in the mid – 80s) or you’re launching a new product, strong marketing efforts are needed to capture the attention of your target market.  But once you have those loyal customers it is imperative to build relationships with them.  Then, like the New Kids, your fans will still be spending money on you 25 years later.