by Dave Sutton
Of course, all of us have a personal brand story, whether you’ve consciously created one or not. It’s absolutely essential to recognize this fact and be inten- tional about crafting your own story. A personal brand story is more than what you do for a living. It speaks to who you are and what you represent- it speaks to the core of why you do what you do.
To help you get started, here are three specific exercises you can take to write your own personal brand story:
Exercise 1: Discover Simplicity in Your Purpose (Your “Why”)
Why do you do what you do? What is your purpose and what do you stand for?
Henry Ford believed civilization would only thrive and grow if people had reliable and affordable transportation. Elon Musk has taken a stand for a future with the masses utilizing transportation from clean, sustainable sources of energy. Finding your “why” is not a straightforward task. You must evaluate your own values and beliefs to reveal your personal motivations—that which drives your behaviors. If your “why” centers on making a lot of money or just making enough
to cover your bills, you have to dig deeper.
“An entrepreneur’s drive is not about making money, but about making a difference in people’s lives.”
— Sir Richard Branson
You won’t be able to build a business that can last if it doesn’t mean more than money to you. Find your passion—the “why” that motivates you to jump out of bed every morning to take on the world.
Exercise 2: Bring Clarity to Action (Your “What”)
After you’ve discovered your “why,” the next step is describing what you do. This doesn’t necessarily mean you describe your industry or the type of business in which you currently work. If you only think about what you do in the context of your
current situation, you will likely miss opportunities for breakthrough invention and innovation. You need a transformational “what”—the things that you do to enact the changes required to fulfill your “why.”
If Henry Ford had limited the scope of his “what” to the manufacturing pro- cesses and technologies of his day, the Model T would never have been possible. He once famously said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Likewise, if Elon Musk had limited his scope to electric vehicle production standards and accepted the current state of battery technology, the Tesla would have never come to be.
“Transformation isn’t about improving.
It’s about re-thinking”
– Malcolm Gladwell
The most remarkable personal stories are generally about a transformational journey. What traditions and norms must be challenged? What are the treacher- ous obstacles to overcome and the pitfalls to avoid? What overwhelming odds must be beat? Who are the “villains” that must be conquered? Who are the “drag- ons” that must be slayed along the way? By bringing this level of clarity to action you can create a more compelling and emotive story for yourself and the journey you want your audience to accompany you on.
Step 3: Make Your Audience the Hero (Your “How”)
Keep in mind that you are not the hero of your own story. After all, you don’t want to come across as a braggart!
This is not to suggest that successful entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Mark Cuban don’t project a certain level of arrogance in how they intend to achieve their purpose. Quite the contrary, they most certainly do!
However, with their personal stories, successful entrepreneurs describe not only how they plan to achieve their “what”, but they also invite their audience to become part of the story. If you doubt this, just ask a new Tesla owner about their personal role in reducing carbon emissions on the planet.
Compelling personal stories resonate when your audience can put themselves at the center of the stage. Your audience is the hero and you are simply the guide on the journey. Your story is not really about you. It is about the difference you make in other people’s lives and how you guide them to a destination they could not otherwise reach on their own.
You must clearly state the outcomes and how you generate impact. Most people have neither the time nor the inclination to try to figure this out on their own. And if they are forced to figure this out for themselves, you have likely already lost them.
Remember that your personal brand story, is not about “closing the deal.” It’s about providing a few simple and clear sentences to open a doorway for your audience to walk through and engage with you. It should make them pause and consider what they have just seen or heard. In the few seconds that you have, they will not fully grasp the depth of your story. But if you have given them a reason to care, a reason to listen, and a reason to engage, they just might consider making your story a part of their own.
Always remember to ask yourself: does your personal brand story pass the test of simplicity, clarity, and alignment? Is your story so compelling that it can transform your listener into a storyteller on your behalf?
In his commencement speech to the Stanford class of 2005, Steve Jobs gave some simple but compelling advice to the graduates:
“You’ve got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”
— Steve Jobs
Chapter 8
Formulating a Clear and Compelling Marketing Strategy
f a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Not to open up a philosophical debate, but it is an interesting thought experiment for marketers to consider: If you tell a great brand story and no one is
around to hear it, does it make a difference?
What if you tell a great brand story, but it’s to the wrong people, or at the wrong time or in the wrong place? Do you make a difference?
A great brand story boils down the essence of why your brand should matter to people. It gives them a reason to care, a reason to buy, and a reason to stay.
Ideally, it compels them to respond on an emotional level.
But, what if that story never gets in front of the right people? What if it gets to the right people, but at the wrong time? Or through the wrong channel? What happens?
If you start a campaign to tell your brand story without a clearly defined
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strategy that targets the right audience and aligns with measurable business objectives, you’re not going to make a significant impact.
Good marketers tell brand stories, great marketers tell them with purpose.
Consider the story of TLC Vision, a $300 million eye care services company. TLC held a leading position in the LASIK eye surgery industry thanks in large part to their simple brand story built around the promise of delivering life chang- ing moments for patients. However, they lacked the right strategy to reach their target audience and give them a compelling reason to care, a reason to listen and a reason to come in for a consultation. They needed to get their story into the market in the most effective way to drive growth in consultations and LASIK eye surgery procedures.
What’s a TLC Moment? It’s a moment after having LASIK at TLC when it truly hits you—your life has changed forever thanks to clearer, crisper vision. It’s the beginning of a more fulfilling life. If you’ve ever considered LASIK, or even just thought about it, now is the time to take the next step.
TLC’s traditional go-to-market strategy was based primarily on receiving referrals from optometrists and ophthalmologists. A key competitor, LASIK Plus, disrupted the market by introducing a direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising model. By circumventing the referring physician, LASIK Plus was able to build an authentic connection directly with the target audience and gather important insights about their needs and wants.
In order to keep up, TLC knew they had to complement their referral-based model with a new DTC model. However, TLC did not
understand the different market segments, buyer personas or the steps patients took in making a decision
to have LASIK surgery. Although they were an early adopter of blade-free LASIK technology, TLC did not believe it had fully leveraged the benefits of the new technology and were concerned that positioning was not clear with their target audience. Since they had been relying largely on referrals, they had limited data about consumers and their decision-making journey.
Market share was stable but recently TLC had ceded leadership to their key competitor. To tackle these challenges, TLC started by sharpening their brand story and focusing on their points of differentiation and preference at each point in the patient’s decision-making process.
The TLC marketing team started with consumer research. They clearly defined different target segments, personas, and the LASIK decision journey of different segments of consumers. They refined their 6-second brand story and mapped differentiating benefits to each touch point in the decision-making journey to trigger desired consumer behaviors.
They were able to activate their segmentation strategy by developing a set of “golden questions” to identify which segment the consumer is a member of and reveal where they are in their own decision-making journey. The creative strategy focused on alleviating fears and concerns of the target audience with regard to safety and the quality of outcomes.
One of the high impact campaigns featured an endorsement from golf super- star Tiger Woods. Years earlier, Tiger’s LASIK eye surgery had been performed by a TLC surgeon. It was a total coincidence. At the time, Tiger had a consultation and chose TLC just like any other patient and was provided no incentive to do so. If one of the most successful professional golfers of all time trusted his eyes to TLC, why not you? The authenticity and relevancy of the endorsement was particularly compelling for the more fearful target segments.
The results of the new strategy were dramatic. TLC Vision experienced an 18% increase in leads, consultations and procedures. They also saw a 50% increase in consumer awareness of the TLC brand. Most notably, their online consultation bookings grew from 5% to 15%. TLC had a great story—but a shift in their go-to- market strategy really brought their growth into focus.
Story without Strategy is Art; Story with Strategy is Marketing
If you feel like you have the right story, the next step is to clearly connect that story to your existing andprospective customers through formats that they consume, in channels that they use, across every touchpoint and at just the right stage in their buying journey.
As we saw in the story of TLC, you must develop an understanding of the cus- tomer and their decision-making journey. This enables you to activate your brand story through an integrated marketing strategy based on what really drives your customers to care, to engage, and to buy. It builds your story in a simple, clear and compelling way. Marrying the right story with the right strategy generates a profit- able and productive customer experience. Profitable, because you are targeting cus- tomers who truly fit with your business, see the value of your products and services and are willing to pay a fair price to have that experience. Productive, because you meet your customers on their terms and enable them to make your brand story a part of their life story. Afterall, the two things that contribute most to winning in the marketplace are your brand story, and how your customers experience that story.
Winning Strategies Result in Profitable, Productive Customer Experiences
Creating a profitable and productive customer experience means that marketing must develop the specific content, offers and messages that are delivered at each “touchpoint” in the customer journey. Touchpoints include each and every customer
interaction, from a first visit to your website to meeting with a salesperson to con- tacting customer service to renewing their contract to advocating for your brand.
A truly transformational marketing strategy is guided by your customers’ interests and needs, and architected to respond to those interests with a more per- sonalized experience. Again, your customer is at the center of the story and the center of your strategy. The goal? Create a remarkable customer experience that reflects the compelling nature of your brand story and cannot be easily copied by your competitors.
“By definition, remarkable things get remarked upon”
— Seth Godin
Transformational Marketing is Marketing That Sells
In many companies today, marketing is still primarily focused on the front end of the experience—generating leads. It’s a bit like a relationship commitment prob- lem—some marketers today are so focused on “dating,” they don’t know what to do after they’ve “closed the deal.” And marketers without a remarkable customer experience will soon see their “dates” jumping ship as soon as something new and interesting—or maybe just a tad cheaper—comes along.
It’s also worth noting that having a customer experience that just “feels good” or “entertains people” isn’t worth much. If it’s not generating money for your company, just focusing on the “fun” side of branding at the expense of hard sci- ence is like tossing fistfuls of cash out the window, music blasting, while driving down the highway. Fun, yeah. Profitable, no.
At its core, marketing is demand generation. Ads drive awareness…to drive sales. PR drives thought leadership…to drive sales. Social media drives commu- nication…to drive sales.
Regardless of the tactic, the ultimate goal is to drive sales—selling more prod- ucts and services to new customers or generating repeat business with existing customers. That’s why Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are tasked with figuring out how to create not just good customer experiences, but also profitable and productive customer experiences.
Transformational marketing strategy requires a new mindset and a different blend of skills. Transformative marketers weave together the strategic focus and
business analysis of a management consultant with the creativity and marketing expertise of a world-class agency. And, as we have noted, instead of focusing on the greatness of a company’s products and services, the company positions the customer at the center of the universe.
This requires a deep and specific understanding of the customer, i.e., what the customer wants and needs at every stage of their decision-making journey. Transformative marketers invest in understanding the entire customer experience much better than their peers. They also have much better processes for capturing insights about customers and applying these insights to their marketing programs.
Customer Insights Power the Customer BuyWay
Customer experiences that are truly remarkable—and profitable—require a new approach to understanding the customer’s journey. A transformative marketer knows how different segments of customers transit that journey, what their prefer- ences are along the way and how to adjust tactics in real-time based on insights from actual customer behavior. This is the Customer BuyWay.
The Customer BuyWay leverages both qualitative and quantitative research to develop a comprehensive understanding of the infinitely more complex, non- linear, multi-channel, multi-device purchase process that is today’s customer life- cycle. Unlike the popularized “Buyer’s Journey,” the Customer BuyWay doesn’t end at the purchase stage, but rather encompasses the entire customer lifecycle, across every touchpoint.
The first step is to identify and define your target customers. This involves a segmentation of your target audience and the creation of ideal customer “pro- files.” These profiles, also known as buyer “personas,” are based not only on cus- tomer and internal stakeholder interviews, but also quantitative survey data and customer behavioral analytics.
Key questions to ask during customer interviews might include:
• What are your core challenges and desired outcomes?
• Who, by role, has this need, challenge, desired outcome?
• Where do you go, both online as well as offline, for news, information and insights?
• When do you engage, ei
ther via marketing or sales call?
• How do you make decisions about purchasing products/services?
• Why would you choose our brand versus our competitor’s brand? Remember, this is only the first step.
Why not rely solely on this information alone? Interview and survey data can be imperfect. Employees and customers’ mood and attention can play a factor or they may tell you what they think you want to hear.
The one thing that your customers or prospective customers can’t hide? Their behavior. So, collecting and analyzing customer data across the organization—from tracking online engagement to what they purchase to how often they seek support— will arm you with the insights needed to begin translating your story to your cus- tomers through messages they seek, in formats that they consume, in channels that they use, across every touch point and at just the right stage in their BuyWay.
Segmenting by behavior opens up a constellation of possibilities for market- ers. Instead of relying on static segments based on industry or role, it allows you to create dynamic segments based on how your customers actually behave. Not what we think they do. But what they actually do, mapped to their personas.
Navigating the Customer BuyWay
The path to purchase, repeat purchase and advocacy is no longer a direct route down the traditional sales funnel. It is now more like a spiral. Customers see, and