07 Sep The Best in Town – A Brand Story
I went out for a meal last week with my wife. It was not good.
My meal was fine but my wife’s, a risotto, wasn’t cooked properly. And so it went back.
I slowly picked at mine (so that we could hopefully eat together) but when my wife’s 2nd meal arrived it was over-cooked, like porridge!
I know – people are starving, this is a first world problem.
But for a moment, imagine it’s your anniversary.
As a surprise you’ve made a booking at that same restaurant for you and your partner and now I’ve told you that story.
You’ve never been before and so you’ve no idea if it’s a one off or not.
Do you risk it or do you get recommendations on somewhere else to go?
That’s the power of a brand story.
Now, maybe you don’t have a restaurant, maybe you don’t even have a business.
This concept applies to personal brands, teams and so on.
If you have something to offer as a business or within a business then you will be treated like a brand. People will have a perception of you, a story, that needs to be managed by you. Let’s park that for another post and focus on the story for now…
You create a story that represents your brand, such as “The best in town!”
Also, customers, connections, communities, they all communicate their experience of you, your brand through a story – like my restaurant story.
The hope is that these perceptions, these perspectives – yours and those of people outside of the business – align.
So, you want to be the best in town, what do you do? You work hard to become what you believe is the best in town. Next, you tell people that you’re the best in town.
That’s your brand story.
If people’s experience of you is that you’re the best in town then you’ve cracked it, you’ll be known as the best in town, mostly because customers are confirming, ratifying and sharing your brand story.
However, if customers don’t think you’re the best in town and they tell others, their friends and neighbours, that they don’t think you’re the best in town, who will people believe – the people who say they are the best in town or the people who have experienced what you have to offer and disagree with your estimation of ‘the best’?
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room” Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder and CEO
There are many facets to a brand… behaviours and values, personality, your business associations… but that’s for another time….
What I want to emphasise here is that It’s about “design”.
“Word of mouth” is one of the most powerful forms of advertising there is and while you can’t buy it – not authentically anyway – don’t be fooled into believing it’s free.
As I’ve established, this kind of story comes from experience, and if that experience is to be replicated time and time again it needs to be understood, considered… designed.
It’s the design — the working out what the experience should be — that takes the effort: speaking to customers/connections, gathering feedback, prototyping, iterating and identifying customer gains (value, enjoyment) and making them integral to your brand.
So, what’s your brand story?
Is it by design?
Does it need work?
Had any great brand experiences recently?
Share them in the comments…
#design #experience #story #brand #PlayfulComms #advertising #servicedesign #advertisingandmarketing #customerexperience
By the way – the pic is not from the restaurant I visited but of my mum’s desert at a Ye Olde Horseshoe Inn, Belbroughton. It was her 80th birthday and we had an excellent night — heartily recommended 🎂😋⭐️
No Comments