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Excerpt from book to be published by Greenleaf Book Group Summer 2011. StorySelling is a unique brand planning approach utilizing the principles of storytellingBy Jim Signorelli, CEO ESW Partners Marketing Services, Chicago
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Chapter 6: The StorySelling Process: First things last (from soon to be released
book: StorySelling: Telling and Selling Your Brand Story
One day, while attending a college introductory marketing class, the professor asked me to
define “The Marketing Concept” in front of everyone in attendance. Not having been fully
prepared, (well, not having been at all prepared) I stood up and sheepishly answered, “buy
low, sell high?” My answer received a loud laugh. Unfortunately, I wasn’t trying to be
funny. The next person the professor called on bounced out of his chair with a hey-anyone-
should-be-able-to-answer-that-one swagger. And after the professor showered him with
high praise, my embarrassment morphed into humiliation. I have never forgotten The
Marketing Concept. More than 30 years later, I can still recite it verbatim:
The Marketing Concept:
Firms should analyze the needs of their customers first before making decisions
about how to satisfy those needs better than their competitors.
Shame is an underrated memorization aid.
The Marketing Concept suggests a two-step sequential ordering of “how” marketing is
done. “Analyze the needs of customers and do this BEFORE making decisions on how to
satisfy those needs.” This was religion. The companies that followed this sequence were
destined for marketing heaven. “Production oriented” marketers, or those who reversed
the order, would be banished to marketing hell. Some 30 years later however, I’ve become
the Martin Luther of The Marketing Concept.
Okay, deciding to put the horse buggy plant into over time, one might first want to conduct
some research to see how many people will switch back to driving cars. And for new
products, surveying consumer needs before betting on invention makes a great deal of
sense. However, for the brands that fall somewhere between the new and the barely
staying alive, I would strongly recommend breaking away from the stranglehold that The
Marketing Concept can potentially put on a brand.
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The Marketing Concept is often interpreted as another way of simply saying, “the customer
is King.” So find out what the King needs first, than satisfy the King. As I’ve said, to think
that marketing should be done any other way is considered blasphemous. But sin with me
just for a moment. Nobody will know.
First, consider “New Coke.” In taste tests conducted throughout the world, the King said,
“Wow, this tastes better than the old stuff. Bring it on!” But when Coke introduced it, the
King got very upset. “How could Coke abandon its very rich heritage?” the King said.
Oldsmobile had a long-standing position as the upper- middle- class Cadillac. The King
said “your car is for old people. You need to make it more youthful. So Olds reintroduced
itself as “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile.” Clever line. But R.I.P Oldsmobile.
The Gap tried to change its logo to reflect more of what the King said he wanted: a
transition from classic to cool and sexy. After being ridiculed by the King over the
Internet for changing the logo, this same spokesperson lamented, “[we] learned just how
much energy there is around our brand, and after much thought, we’ve decided to go back
to our iconic blue box logo.” 15
KFC discovered that the King was becoming more health conscious and told KFC to get with
it. “You guys are selling fried chicken. That’s not healthy.” So KFC ran ads that said, Hey
King, “UnTHINK KFC,” “we are now emphasizing our new grilled chicken.” “Great,” the
King said. But then stopped going to KFC as often.
Whenever I give these examples of marketing mistakes, I get one of two “yeah buts.”
‘Yeah but’ they defined the King wrong., or ‘yeah but’ they didn’t ask the King the right
questions.
And to this, I rejoin with “yeah but,” it doesn’t matter. In all cases, the brand forgot
something very important. Regardless of what the King says he wants, there’s only so
much change a brand can make given who the brand is. Markeing conceptors say study
the King first. We say, study yourself first.
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First things last.
Storywriters, at least the best among them, do not start by conducting focus groups to help
them decide between genres or story themes. Doris Kearns Goodwin isn’t going to stop
writing historical fiction and Phillip Roth isn’t going to start writing Harlequin novels
because a reader survey says doing so would help them sell more books. Certainly,
storywriters ultimately need to understand who and where the most likely prospects are
for the purposes of shaping and marketing their stories. But those considerations only get
in the way, up front. Stephen King was once asked to comment on a story he had read.
“No,” he bemoaned. “It’s not a very good story. Its author was too busy listening to other
voices as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.” 16
The StorySelling process does what is prescribed by the Marketing Concept , but in reverse
order. Instead of beginning the planning process by focusing on customer needs, we start
by concentrating on what the brand currently stands for from the inside out. Said another
way, we first arrive at an appraisal of what can or can’t be done with a repositioning of the
brand. Established brands, by definition, have meanings that are well entrenched both
inside and outside their organizations. We need to know what meanings are associated
with the brand before delivering against any researched aspirations of its constituents.
This is not to say that different aspects of the brand’s essence can’t be amplified or made to
work harder. But consider first your own reaction to being told by someone you know that
he “has changed.” Even if you want to believe it, would you?
So, we don’t start with consumer research. Rather, we start by excavating the brand’s
meaning from its own expert cultural historians: management, and employees. And we do
this with the help of tools that facilitate an articulation of the brand’s meaning, as it is -
sometimes hard to do with words alone. You will be introduced to these tools in Part II.
But suffice it to say, our initial intentions are to construct the guardrails that will keep any
brand repositioning realistic. This helps us understand the brand’s limitations, while
making certain that everyone is on the same page moving forward. If you were to think of
the brand’s story as a map, the initial stages of the process consist of finding the ‘X’ that
marks “You Are Here.” Nobody knows where that ‘X’ is any better than the brand’s insiders.
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Finding the ‘X’
To start the excavation process, we think of the brand as a character in a story. Specifically,
we cast the brand as the hero. One of our initial tasks is to realistically appraise this brand
hero in human terms: what he/she is, what he/she isn’t and, based on what we find out,
what he/she could realistically evolve into becoming.
Brands can’t walk and talk, but like people, they manifest certain beliefs and values. Users
of the brand form relationships with them on the basis of similar beliefs and values that are
shared. Consequently, value associations become barnacled to the brand, and as we’ve
said, they are difficult, and often impossible to remove. This needn’t be a hard reality
when approaching a brand that is losing share and needs to “change.” We would argue
that ‘change’ is too strong a word to use with established brands. The brand may need to
merely emphasize different aspects of its identity. Or perhaps it needs to recast its identity
in a way that is more relevant to an audience that has migrated to a competing brand.
But change? Turning lemons into lemonade is easier than turning them into Chardonnay.
To understand the brand as a person, we look well beyond the brand’s superficial outer
layer or what it appears to be. Like people, we can only understand brands for how much
of the layer is peeled away and revealed to us. If all we see is the brand’s outer layer, then,
in our minds, that’s who the brand is. There’s a danger in not digging deep as has been
evidenced many times by brands that are still struggling with their identities.
Consider Xerox. Xerox associated itself with copiers. That’s what it was. When it tried to
introduce a computer, we resisted. Their identity as a copier manufacturer would not
allow us to see them in any other way.
Burger King introduced itself as the place where you can have a burger prepared your way.
McDonald’s has consistently been associated with the values of food, folks and fun. Is it no
wonder why Burger King has never been able to catch up once it’s functional selling
proposition became passé?
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Domino’s became the 30-minutes-guaranteed pizza place. It not only lost sales when
competitors started to operate similarly, it was left out in the cold trying to survive
wrapped in a me-too identity blanket.
On the other hand, Nike is much more than a maker of athletic equipment. It has gone
much deeper to associate with the belief that athletic performance is a function of
persistence. This belief extends to all forms of athletic gear and sportswear that carry the
Nike brand. Apple isn’t just a computer; it is an association with independence and elegant
design that manifests itself in any number of information products. Google isn’t just a
search engine; it’s an information force.
Whatever has been done to the brand growing up is difficult to reverse. The important
lesson is to know and accept a brand’s essence regardless of new consumer insights that
direct the brand away from its core meaning.
There’s Beauty in Every Beast
StorySelling is based on the premise that brands should fully strive for authenticity. The
main ingredient of authenticity is knowing “who” the brand is in addition to “what” the
brand does. It requires planners to address strengths and admit weaknesses. But
ultimately it calls for leveraging the brands strengths within the context of the change that
is required.
A recent campaign by Old Spice demonstrates just how this is done. Old Spice is the
Oldsmobile campaign done right. Okay, research probably said Old Spice it considered to
be the aftershave that old men use. Old Spice decided not to focus on the weakness of
their association with “old” but on the strength of their association with “men” and their
entrenched connection with the value of masculinity.
I distinctly remember listening to my dad shave every morning as I lay in bed waiting to
use the bathroom. It got so that I could predict the exact time when I’d hear the ‘slap, slap,
slap, of his hands to his cheeks as he would apply Old Spice aftershave. If I walked in on
him, he’d put some on me and all day I’d think I was like him. For me, Old Spice was part of
a masculine ritual that would someday be mine. Old Spice capitalized on the value of
manhood. But unlike Oldsmobile who tried to contemporize its outer layer, Old Spice
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contemporized its inner value. They didn’t apologize for who they were with a line like
“this is not your father’s aftershave.’ Instead Old Spice introduced the mantra,
“Smell Like A Man,” thereby associating itself with a core value that has never changed. It’s
their core value presented in the context of the twenty-first century.
Art or Science?
Most brand planners begin with consumer research whether it be in the form of focus
groups, one-on-ones, surveys or some other method of consumer inquisition. Because
StorySelling doesn’t, it is sometimes cast as art over science.
The point that needs to be made here is that StorySelling starts out as art before trying to
get scientific. Traditional approaches steeped in consumer research assume that change is
easy. Just find out what you have to build and “they will come.” Certainly, we are
interested in testing a brand’s position once we arrive at it, but it must be arrived at first.
And yes, we get at it from the right brain hemisphere before we employ the left.
Sometimes pegged as radical, in reality StorySelling springs from a more conservative
foundation. It is based on the premise that overhauling a brand’s identity should not be
taken lightly. StorySelling is not about identifying important changes that a brand must
make in order to win in the marketplace. To infer that something must change is to
suggest that starting all over is within the realm of possibilities. In contrast, we do not
throw out the old. Rather we embrace it, accept it, and figure out how to evolve it.
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