October 21, 2011

Starbuck’s as a Victorian Novel

What if I told you the most successful brand stories correspond with common genres in fiction? And that these storytelling archetypes give the brands meaning and power?

Take Starbuck’s, for example.

The Victorian era inspired Charles Dickens, George Eliott, Elizabeth Gaskill, and other novelists to explore the individual’s place in society. It was a period of tremendous change, when people gathered in the marketplace and private parlors to converse about the issues of the day, gossip, marry off friends and family, and to feel a sense of rootedness.

Starbuck’s is the 21st Century coffee house version of 19th Century Victorian society in a warm, and pleasantly predictable environment (Starbuck’s being the master of the customer experience). Here, people gather with their book clubs, church groups, and associates; and to study, write and surf the Internet in the company of others—all for the price of coffee drink, served up to the individual’s exact specifications.

Even the name Starbuck’s originated from Victorian times. (Starbuck was the first mate on the whaling ship Pequod in Moby Dick, published in 1851.)

Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at some other major brands and their corresponding fiction genres to see how–and why—their stories resonate so powerfully.

Looking at your brand narrative: Is it an Victorian novel, adventure, romance, or thriller? Myth or folktale?

 

 

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October 19, 2011

Process, Patience, and Polish

From instant mac ‘n cheese to Instant Manifestation, there’s not much you can’t get by pushing a button.

Except for maybe a compelling brand story.

Crafting a narrative for your business takes time, patience, digging, and polishing. I recommend hiring a professional, unless you have the objectivity and ability to recognize the gems in the rough that give make your brand story sparkle.

Here are some of the steps I use with small businesses:

1. Have the client answer 7 Essential Brand Story Questions.

2. Query a dozen or so of the client’s customers about their experience with my client. Ask them what problem my client solves to see if their answer matches up with what the client thinks.  If it doesn’t match up, we address this immediately.

3. Have the client answer 5 Questions: Arc of a Brand Story. These questions (included on my blog) draw on the main elements of fiction to get at the nuances of the brand.

4. Compile this “data,” looking for common themes and responses to shape the narrative. Let the information percolate for several days, and see what my right brain comes up with.  This is the art part of the part-art-part-science of discovering a good brand narrative.

5. Polish and then present up to three story ideas (roughly a one-paragraph synopsis for each idea) and work with the client to decide on the idea “feels” the most believable and engaging. If I feel strongly about one idea over another, I do my best to steer the client in that direction.

6. Polish the chosen idea. I write a one-page narrative that describes the brand. This piece isn’t for publication; its purpose is to inform the content and visual aspects of your brand—a logo if you need one, website graphics, video, and other marketing.

Throughout the process, you need to willing to toss out good ideas for better ones. In fiction, this is known as“ murdering your darlings”–getting rid of sentences, paragraphs and even entire scenes the writer has fallen in love with but that aren’t believable or don’t move the story forward.

By the way, your brand story should do both: Be believable and move your business forward by engaging customers and communities.

To learn more about this process, email me. You can also go to my blog to read about central conflict, heroes, villains, and other aspects of a good brand story.

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October 14, 2011

Like Breathing

Story is with us all the time. It’s so automatic, so integral to our human experience, we don’t notice it’s there.

Life is built on and around stories.

Imagine, not telling your spouse about the pelican you saw learning to fly inches above the surface of the bay, catching its beak in a wave, and then tumbling out of control. Imagine, not telling your best friend what it was like growing up without a father. Imagine a successful company without a story to tell.

Think about it: Without story, there would be no friendship, no schools, no media, no religion, no political movements, no psychotherapy, no community, and no businesses.

Story helps us understand ourselves and the world, and make sense of life’s complexities.

When I was nine, I wrote the story of my family. It was a tough time. My mother had died, my father had remarried, and I found myself in a blended family of seven. I’d been the oldest of the three children my father had had with my mother. Now, I was number two under one of my two, new stepbrothers.

I don’t remember how much I wrote, or even if I finished the story, but I knew intuitively that writing it was essential.  And while I was writing, I felt the presence of an imaginary reader. By telling this “reader” I was telling myself, and creating meaning out of a situation that felt confusing and chaotic.

Story is the complex, connective tissue of human experience. And, oh, yes; story differentiates brands and informs and inspires customers and communities, too.

It is as natural and necessary as breathing.

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October 11, 2011

Falling in Love at Denny’s

Following up on my brief post re: Denny’s menu insert copy, the headline below is a twist on the original concept of romance (i.e. milkshakes that steal hearts).  It tells the story of a couple falling in love over a Denny’s strawberry cheesecake milkshake. The headline is fun, nostalgic, and makes me want to keep reading:

Our eyes met…and we  just knew.

Or how about this headline, in which the customer loves the new milkshake so much he/she has to drink it through not one but two straws–or decides to generously share it with a friend:

Required for maximum enjoyment: Two straws. Friend optional.

And finally, because I can’t resist a little wordplay:

This shake takes the cake. 

This headline, a tad corny, I admit; grabs the reader’s attention and would lead nicely into a concise description of the product and reasons why it’s a milkshake unlike any other.

What do you think?  Which of these headlines do you like or hate, and why? Do they make you want to keep reading? Order up strawberry cheesecake milkshake the next time you stop at a Denny’s?

 

 

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October 4, 2011

What Were They Thinking?

Some ads are brilliant, others only so-so. Still other ads have us wondering what the heck the creative director and copywriter were smoking.

Denny’s menu insert promoting a new strawberry cheesecake milkshake belongs in the latter category. I mean no disrespect, but come on, guys–a good milkshake steals tummies, not hearts. Unless Denny’s is talking about the clogged arteries that could result from ingesting too many said milkshakes, in which case they might want to rethink both the concept and copy.

For fun, I’ll be offering up some alternative ideas for copy in subsequent posts.  So stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September 30, 2011

Thanks for Helping Me Grow

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. ~Cicero

Some nights, when we remember how good it makes us feel, my daughter and I take turns saying three “Thank-you Gods.” It’s been a ritual since she was three-years-old. Typically, she’s grateful for her family, friends, school, and good food.   We end thank-you-Gods with a blessing for “All the grownups and children in the world and every living thing.”

As a small business owner, it’s easy to get caught up in the “Where’s the next project?” mindset and to view marketing as a means to an end, rather than as simply an opportunity to connect with the people who’ve hired us and helped us grow.

The opportunities that come our way are the sum-total of where, and to some degree who we are as business owners. Yes, we make our own futures, through hard work, and marketing ourselves, and a willingness to learn new things, but we don’t do it alone.

I’m extremely grateful to the clients who’ve entrusted me with their marketing and copywriting over the years. This morning, I spent some quiet time silently thanking the mentors, clients, and companies I’ve had the honor of working with. Starting with the temp agency that got me the admin gig at Miller Freeman Publishing eons ago, the San Francisco Art Institute and then PC World Magazine, followed by the many dot-com’s and brands–from Palm to Microsoft to Barnes and Noble.com–I’ve worked with. Finally, there are the recent small business clients whose brand narratives I’ve been privileged to craft.

I’m a better marketer, better writer, better consultant, and better person because of them.

I’m going to begin sending thank-you notes to these people. I will let them know how they helped me grow, and how much I learned working with them. I know it’ll be worth the time.

Image by SnoShuu Photos.

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September 28, 2011

Big and Small Decisions

The other day, a mouse crossed—no, rolled across—my path.  Now, mice don’t roll.  So I stopped and watched it.

A cat (possibly our male Siamese) had caught it, but it had managed to escape. Or the mouse was rabid, as my husband later suggested.

At any rate, it lay on the sidewalk–beady, unfocused eyes, hovering between life and death.

And here I was just out for a nice walk to clear my head.  A little fresh air, and communing with the California Oaks and I’d be good as new.

But fate had something else in mind. Fate said, “Look at this mouse. It’s suffering. What are you going do about it?”

My sister once decapitated a rattlesnake with a garden shovel. She yanks tics from her Border Collie’s flesh with her bare hands. Me, I’m a wimp. I’ve never killed anything bigger than an ant, and the occasional spider for which I feel incredibly guilty.

I could walk on by, pretend the mouse and I had never crossed paths. But that would be cowardly, and I’m not a coward.  Just afraid sometimes to do what I know I have to do. You’ve been there, I know it.

The human brain makes a decision six seconds before our conscious minds are aware of it. So, see, I did know.  Or at least my brain did.

I weigh my other options: Plop  down on the sidewalk and sit with the mouse while it dies. Bear witness to its suffering. As if the mouse was a dying relative, and I the one chosen to hold his hand as he crossed into the next world.

I lower my foot, and chicken out. The mouse flops onto its other side. Stares at my sneakered foot on the sidewalk as if to say, “Get on with it, lady.”

I don’t hesitate this time. The little critter doesn’t die right away, damn it. He’s still moving–just barely. I step on it two more times. I feel relieved. There’s no blood, no guts, no sound.  Not the gory outcome I’d imagined.

I pick up the mouse by its tail and when I get home, set it gently in the garbage can, and say a little prayer when I close the lid.

Decisions–big and small–are like this.  We pretend not to know what’s right for ourselves, our families, our businesses—the person or animal we should help but don’t know how, or if we should.

But in the end, we get real with ourselves, and take responsibility for what’s in front of us to do.  Create that new product line, keep up on our blog, reach out to prospective clients.  Throw a wild idea out there to our customers and see what they say.

We find the courage, and stomp our foot.  Something dies—I believe it’s our fear–and we feel more alive for it because we’ve done the right thing.  The thing we know we have to do because it’s right there in front of us.

Filed under mere musings, Small Business Marketing, Story.
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September 23, 2011

The Vision Thing

I have a new hero: My niece. She’s eight and the full expression of her middle name, which is Starr. Look up “fun,” and there’s her picture. Since she was a baby, my sister and I have kidded about how she seems to have a constant party going on in her head.

She lives in the Phoenix area, where temps hit 118 and no one blinks.  School kids have to spend recess indoors so they won’t faint from heat exhaustion.

A few weeks ago, she had an idea. It was a biggie. Call it a vision. She asked herself, “What if we could build a climbing wall in the school gym?”

She started talking up her idea with her parents, her many BFF’s, and other kids at school.

She and her “team” set up a lemonade stand and raised $85, standing in the sweltering sun. People gave the kids $20 for a cup of lemonade, told them to keep the change.

In the car on the way to school the next day, she said to my sister, “I feel really good, Mom.  Just like I did when we volunteered at the homeless shelter.” She had an enormous grin on her face.

Fired up by the lemonade stand experience, my niece wrote a letter to the people at Cliff Bar telling them about the climbing wall. She asked for a donation–anything would be fine.  Cliff Bar sent her several hundred Z-bars to help out with the fund-raising effort. The PTA got wind of it and said they wanted to contribute, too.

She didn’t write a vision statement or call a meeting, or sit around wondering how to make it happen.  She took action. People got inspired, and involved.

I used to think of the vision thing as a serious, nose-to-the-grindstone deal you do alone. Not anymore.

Without joy, there’s no vision.  Hell, there’s no life.  Not a real one, anyway.

A couple of days ago, Cliff Bar sent my niece’s school a $1000 check. The kids need to raise between $5,000 and $7,000 for the wall.  They’re going to get there.

That’s the thing about joy.  It knows no limits.

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September 21, 2011

It’s Not All About You

Your About page is one of the most visited pages on a website. Its content can make or break an introductory phone call or email from a prospect.

So what’s makes an effective About page?  Is it more or less important than your homepage? What should you include and what shouldn’t you include in your bio, and why?

Your website in three parts

Think of your website as three main parts. The homepage is part one: A benefits-rich, attention-grabbing description of the problem you will solve for the customer, and how. Part two is the about page, this is the part where the main character (the customer) meets you and decides if there’s enough potential “chemistry” there to merit an email or phone call. Part 3 is the product/services page that describes and hopefully differentiates you from the competition.  (You have a contact page and other pages, and hopefully a blog; but these first three are your primary pages.)

It’s your story, sort of

Your About page should convey information about your skills, job history, training, associations, and hobbies in terms of how this information contributes to your ability to solve the customer’s problem.  This is what makes your bio relevant. Otherwise, it’s just a glorified resume.

Look for the unique storyline.  What themes continue to show up throughout your life, regardless of the specific job, training, or education? One way to answer this is to look at your values.  It may be making a positive contribution to humanity, financial prosperity, striving for the highest quality customer service, or creating new systems.  This the essence of your personal brand story—the “what-makes-you-tick” that helps would-be customers decide if you and your product or service are a good fit.

TMI?

A long, long time ago;  I cleaned motel rooms to make money for extra clothes, my own phone, and other stuff my parents couldn’t afford to buy me. To entertain myself while I was working, I made up stories in my head about the guests who’d stayed in the room. The wrappers in the trash, a forgotten comb or tie pin were my story “prompts.” This tidbit about my past illustrates how innate storytelling is for me.  And yet, my stint as a motel maid is probably more than prospects need to know about me.

Chris Brogan wrote a great post about the limits of authenticity in business. Your customers don’t need to know about your broken relationships or nut allergies.  Your job is to instill confidence and convince prospects of your unique ability to solve their problem.

Want to brainstorm–gratis–for 15 minutes on your About Page? Contact me at lee@crediblecommunications.com or 415-302-0356.


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