Storyhouse

As business owners we all agree that inefficiencies in marketing spend vs results are not just frustrating but downright costly. The old adage that “50% of my marketing works, I just don’t know which 50%” seems to haunt many business owners. The advent of social media brought new challenges for business owners to figure out, but often overlooked is the wealth of information that it provided about our businesses, if we cared enough/took the time to listen and uncover. Feedback loops that were out of reach of businesses in the past are now baked into an evolved customer journey allowing smart businesses to capitalize on this information, whether it’s good reviews or negative commentary. This newly available information is critical in determining how our advertising dollars should be spent. In fact there are 5 different stages of a customer journey that need to be analyzed, managed and iterated upon: Awareness Social Discovery Consideration to Purchase Experience Shared Experience In this week’s podcast we’ll examine each of these stages and discuss how to maximize the efficiency and even introduce you for the first time to some of these oft-overlooked stages. As business owners, we have a fiduciary responsibility to spend wisely for the sake of the business. The last thing we want to do is to throw good money after bad. By the end of this episode you will have a clear understanding of where the opportunities and efficiencies lie in your business and how to spread your advertising dollars appropriately across all stages of the buyer cycle.

Songs and poems stir something in our imaginations in a way that few other stimuli even come close. If I asked you your favorite song right now, you could not only name it for me, but most likely sing most of it to me (if you were so inclined!) You wouldn’t change the title to suit yourself, you wouldn’t change the lyrics and you’d be upset if a cover artist played that song without hitting every one of the notes enshrined in it’s music. Yet for some reason, we think it’s ok to edit or change a brand to suit ourselves. Salespeople often interpret the brand in whatever way gets them the sale, frontline staff tell a different story to the boardroom executives and the dilution goes on and on. Like our favorite songs, the greatest brands are forevermakers and while luck often plays a role in growth, more often than not, brand intention led to brand attention and growth. In this chapter of Storyhouse we address this “intention” to examine how to create a brand that has the potential to stick and be quotable. Campaigns such as “Just do it” and “Think Different” only came from a brand that truly understood it’s depth, duration and distribution. The iconic Dylan classic “Like a Rolling Stone” was a distillation of a 10 page essay. Great brands write through their problems to determine their true essence and direction. Join us as we discuss these points and many more to help you find ways to make your brand memorable and quotable for years to come.

As business owners we are cursed with the gift of knowledge of our own businesses, products and services. Have you ever found yourself wondering why it is that business is not growing and you’re not in the hands of more customers? After all your products are better than everyone else’s, right? It’s not unusual to feel this way. The challenge of course is that not everybody understands your offerings like you understand them. The good news is that there is a way to reverse this. Most brands fail or go flat when they are deficient in one or more of “The 3 D’s of Brand Proliferation”: Depth, Duration and Distribution. Many businesses launch to terrific fanfare with enthusiasm, aspiration and energy. Like a relationship, once the honeymoon period is over, things can go south quickly. Brands require management. I’m not talking about the management of your day to day operations but the overall brand structure and model. In this chapter of Storyhouse we’ll examine what it takes to avoid remaining a secret. In this chapter you will learn: The 3 D’s of Brand Proliferation. How to command a premium price by avoiding rationality and literal interpretations. Where to find the courage to commit fully to your brand journey rather than just sticking your toe in the water. How Stella Artois grew market share with foreign language marketing campaigns without subtitles. How to create a multi=layered brand that is sufficiently depthful to create demand. How to build a brand that extends beyond a single product or service. How to crack the elusive code of distribution, distribution, distribution.

This is not your father’s marketing. It can’t be. What worked then doesn’t work now and those holding on to the past with steely grips are bound to lose to the nimble, bold, ambitious and curious marketers. As David Bowie once said, “The future belongs to those who can hear it coming”. It’s coming and coming faster than ever in the world of marketing where Gen Y change their minds as often as their clothes and we are challenged to keep up and satiate their needs. In this chapter of Storyhouse, we’ll examine Content Marketing and the effect it’s having on how businesses grow. Content marketing is defined by the Content Marketing Institute as: “….a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” Specifically you will learn: How Nike, Red Bull and Michelin have reinvented what marketing means and how to copy their process. How to make the first steps in Content Marketing no matter how small or large your business is. Why Content Marketing is the single biggest shift in marketing in decades. How to identify which types of content you should be producing for your niche. How an unknown brand created a video that got them 9.5 million views, 23,000 followers on Twitter and 76,000 Facebook fans. Oh, and 12,000 new customers in 2 days using content marketing. How to open your mind to a new way of evaluating marketing opportunities by understanding consumer media consumption.

If you’ve arrived at this page hoping to read up on ways to improve your sex life, you may be disappointed. Instead you’re going to be educated and entertained on positional differentiation for a brand. No lovemaking images or diagrams I’m afraid, but instead we’ll focus on the one position that a brand needs, the emotional positional choice that a brand makes to leverage its value before it even goes to market. In this chapter we’ll discuss various brands that have developed a positional difference that transcends a simple campaign or tagline. Visa and 7UP are great examples of brands that have leveraged emotion to make their products must-haves, despite the many obvious negatives associated with brands that are full of sugar or that allow you to get in debt! Many brands leave money on the table in their rush to get to market, often ignoring the emotional obvious of the brand. It is this emotion and this positional differentiation that builds the most trust, equity and longevity in a brand. This chapter dives into exactly how to do that.

Revenue figures can be misleading; dangerous even. It’s easy to be wowed and wooed by top level revenue numbers that seem staggering or unatainable. What these numbers lack when orphaned in a sentence or sound bite is the cost of achieving such lofty digits. Take Amazon as an example, Take Amazon as an example; almost 20 years in business and yet to declare a profit, not that the shareholders care too much. The reality for most of us though, is that we’re not Amazon, we’re not capitalized as well, and we’re not the darlings of Wall St. Oh well, there’s still hope, believe it or not, and it comes from the application of Lean Brand Growth. A lean brand grows and survives based on efficiencies of operation. In this chapter we’ll examine the 6 steps of lean brand growth: 1. Philosophize 2. Productize 3. Operationalize 4. Brandize 5. Optimize 6. Premiumize – from premiumization. Specifically you will learn: How to understand each of these elements in relation to your business. How to apply these individual steps to gain fiscal efficiencies and market growth. Which order to approach these steps for lean brand growth. How to make sure that as you grow, you have a way to keep informed of progress or deficiencies.

There are only three ways to build a brand and if you hear differently, you should refer those purveyors of mistruths to this chapter of Storyhouse. We refer to these three essential drivers as the 3 BEs. Each of these BEs needs to be aligned perfectly to create an exceptional brand. The reality is that there are no perfect brands, but the closer these three elements are aligned, the more chance for relevance, longevity and profitability. Brand Expression – what and who you say you are or at least intend to be. (Be) Brand Experience – the truth of the expression. Have your experiences reinforced the brand expression? (Better) Brand Expectation – Were all expectations of all touchpoints of the brand met or exceeded? (Best) In this chapter, we’ll break each of these elements down in detail. Specifically you will learn: How to understand each of these elements in relation to your business. How to use these individual drivers to make better business decisions. Which order to build these elements for faster brand growth.