brand

The 5 “C Tips” for Brand Storytelling

Everywhere in today’s business world is the word Storytelling. You hear all the “experts” say…”Tell Your Story” or “Are you Telling Your Story Correctly?” But what does that mean?

Look, telling your company’s or brand story is critical in today’s business environment. Attention of consumers is at best “lacking” and if you’re not capturing their attention through stories or what I like to call “Brand Journeys” you’re losing. Telling your company’s story takes your Audience on journey, builds trust, and can inspire consumers, employees, and partners.

So how do you do it? I’ve put together 5 Simple Steps to consider when building your brand’s story and creating your Brand Journey.

#1. Be Clear

How Do You Know When It’s Time To Hit The Refresh Button On Your Brand?

by Brad Besancon

Remember the BIG brands of Sears, PanAm, and Blockbuster that once dominated their markets? They became the equivalent of rotten tomatoes. Brands like fruits and vegetables have expiration dates.

Brad Besancon and Robert Riggs of Clarity Digital Marketing ask Bill Peel how to keep your brand from spoiling. Bill is a Catalyst Innovator with 40-years of Big Brand experience.

Grab a cup of coffee and watch our Clarity Conversation of the week.

Did You Make The Mistake Of Creating An Accidental Brand?

by Brad Besancon

Accidental Branding or Intentional Branding?

We interview Bill Peel about the smart approach to branding your business.

Transcript

The Accidental Brand Versus The Intentional Brand

Robert Riggs: Hi, it’s Robert and Brad with the Clarity Digital Clip of the Week. And we’re talking to Bill Peel with 40 years of experience of marketing and branding experience.

Bill Peel: That’s correct.

Robert Riggs: So I know one of your favorite topics is the accidental brand. How does that happen?

Bill Peel: Well, it is my favorite topic, Robert, because I think if you’re not careful with the business and actually with your personal brand for that matter, and you don’t protect it and are not intentional with your decisions around your brand that you’re going to end up with whatever brand the marketplace assigns to you. And that can sometimes work in your favor and other times, it can be disastrous.

So the real message is, think very strategically and very intentionally about all your brand decisions, everything from the color, to the mark, to the name. And I know in today’s world, we’ve got a wide range of names that have popped up like Uber and Google and Amazon. It’s almost any name goes in today’s world. But I will say that you want to make very sure that you’re extremely about it, you understand all the implications.

And on an international level, how does it translate? There are words and there are marks that work very well in western culture. And when you go to Europe or you go to the Pacific Rim or you go to Latin America, and it takes on a whole entirely different connotation. So the message is to be very intentional about your brand.

Robert Riggs: Where do you start?

Bill Peel: Well, you start with a great name. And I think that you guys have a fabulous name. My mother should know. But you start with your name.

Brad Besancon: He helped us create it.

Robert Riggs: One day on a whiteboard.

Brad Besancon: One day on a whiteboard.

Bill Peel: Well, I think the key is that you have – your name should reflect what you do. Now, there are people that will look around and say, “Well, why does Amazon reflect a massive distribution company or what does Uber have to do with cars?”

Well, when you introduce a name like that, one of these new millennial type names, you really have to have a strong rationale behind it and explain what that means. So it’s really best if your name is reflective of what you do or more importantly, reflective of your value proposition. What are you delivering on the marketplace?

In your case, you’re adding clarity to people’s business. So I think you start with a good name. I think you can start with keeping it very simple. What I see more often is these brands are too heavily articulated. There are too many aligns, too many messages, too taglines. Sometimes you have a very simple and then the taglines, a sentence long trying explain. If you have to explain that much about the mark or about the name, you probably need to go back and revisit the name.

Do You Define Yourself or Company Brand on a Daily Basis?

by Brad Besancon

If Your Personal or Company Brand Is Not Clearly Defined, It May Get Hijacked

Transcript

Robert: If you don’t tell your own story, someone else will tell it for you.

Brad: Absolutely.

Robert: If something is happening around your company and you’re not out there, your competitor, an upset customer, they will tell that story for you.

Brad: One crisis.

Robert: Right. If you do not define yourself, if you haven’t defined yourself in the bio, the description on your webpage, all your social media, somebody is going to define you in the terms that you do not like.

Brad: And it’s a daily thing or a weekly thing for companies out there in the digital world. You say it all the time. Be your own publisher. Be your own – pump out good quality content. What does that mean? Well, that’s back to audience speak and understanding all that. We’ve talked to that ad nauseam.

But you’ve always said – we’ve had a couple of clients where there has been a midlevel crisis I would say because of a couple of complaints.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: What are some of the things that happened that we had to spend six months fixing it?

Robert: Well, they sat with the lawyers for days. Days, twiddling thumbs. You cannot do that. Literally, it’s seconds. There are precious seconds or you’ve lost it. It has gone away on you. You have to immediately show that you are what – you’re aware of the problem. You’re dealing with the problem. You don’t have to take a stance about the problem necessarily. But you better show people that hey, we’re on it.

Brad: You got to have a plan.

Robert: Right.

Brad: Right? The bottom line is in – United Airlines.

Robert: Yes.

Brad: In a matter of seconds, literally seconds, maybe minutes on the high end, their reputation was destroyed when that gentleman was taken off the plane.

Robert: Well, I mean here’s what every company, anybody in business needs to know and they need to – they need to school their – all of their employees on it. You’re always on camera now. You’re on – it is –

Brad: Every action.

Robert: Every action you take is being scrutinized by someone who has got their cell phone out. It’s going to be on social. It’s going to be – you need this awareness that you are always on. You’re always subject to being criticized, evaluated and hey, sometimes, good things happen and people put them off as well.

Brad: And guess who else has got that camera. Your competitors and that’s the whole key of the discussion is putting yourself out of business before they do.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: So have those conversations.

Robert: Oh, and, you know – hey listen. If I’m a guerilla marketer and my competitor, like a United, that happens, oh, I’m going to get out there on the backend of the dark web and everything else.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: And I’m going to really –

Brad: Lots of stories.

Robert: Yes. I’m going to really boost that.

Brad: Lots of stories.

Robert: I’m really going to help it.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: Yeah. So there are a lot of people that are better than the Russians at this.

Brad: Yeah. And they do it every day.

Robert: Yeah, yeah.

[End of transcript]

There’s A Screen Between You And Your Customers. Is Your Brand Present?

by Brad Besancon

Mobile First: The Screen Between Your Audience and Your Brand

Transcript

VideoTranscript

Brad: Well, hello everyone. It’s Brad and Robert with Clarity Clip again and we are sitting in NorthPark Center Mall here in Dallas, Texas and we’re – it actually is Valentine’s Day and we’re wandering around here doing some observations, some – listening to things, speak research. What are we seeing?

Robert: Well, we’re seeing couples on Valentine’s, a special moment, and they’re going, “Hey, honey. I love you,” and she’s sitting right over there.

Brad: Yeah, they’re texting.

Robert: Oh, I love you too.

Brad: It’s the screen between.

Robert: Smile, heart, heart, heart.

Brad: The screen between.

Robert: Yes.

Experiencing Life With The Screen Between

Brad: The screen between. And one of the things we’ve really noticed – I mean this isn’t new, right folks? This isn’t new. But really over the last couple of years, it has really gotten bad, if we can say bad. But what we call it now is we call it life being experienced with a screen between. We don’t just go to a kid’s event anymore. We don’t go to a football game anymore. We don’t come to the mall anymore without doing what? We’re on our phone.

Robert: Yes.

Brad: And we can’t just watch our child sing or dance. We have to video it. “What do they do with all the video?” I wonder. What do people do with all that video if they get done with it? This is so bad that I heard the social secretary for President George W. Bush talk about – it became an issue in the White House and these are big, high-end donors. They’re all aged. They’re baby boomers. They’re older and stuff and they started getting complaints at all the events for the donors and supporters that no one can see the president because everybody has got –

Brad: Everybody has got – everybody is doing this.

Robert: Yeah. So they literally – the Secret Service had a bucket as you would go in and they started collecting them. So the fact that that demographic –

Brad: It’s not millennials. It’s not just millennials.

Robert: It’s everywhere.

Brad: It’s everyone.

Robert: That’s what our clients do not understand.

Think Mobile First With Web Design

Brad: Yes. One of the things we’re also seeing, which we’ve been preaching, we’ve been talking about for years in our company is you better be thinking mobile first. With website design, you better be thinking mobile first. With photography, content.

How is your social media? You know, 60 something percent of our time online now is in social media. So how are you using this to better your brand and your connection? Because there’s no more, “Hey Robert, do you know somebody that does this?” and I just – yeah, call this guy and I just call him. It’s over.

Robert: So first off, if your team in your company and marketing, there’s – talking about a new website or they’re talking about what they do on Facebook, you have to first look, “Well, what does that look like on the mobile phone?”

Think Mobile First and Responsive Design

Brad: On the phone, on a 4.5, 5-inch screen, not a 27-inch desktop anymore.

Robert: You as the executive and business owner, you might be still looking at the desktop. But I got to tell you something. You’re not your customer. That’s not the way they experience the world. It’s not the way they’re going to experience your product or your service.

AudienceSpeak: Communicating Your Message & Brand Through The Screen

Brad: Yeah, it’s right back to audience speak. What is the people you’re trying to target doing? How are they interacting with your brand? How are they interacting with life? Which now we interact with life right here now.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: We don’t just come to a mall anymore and hang out. We’ve got to show on Instagram. We got to check in. We got to do all this stuff. Mobile, mobile, mobile because we are living in a screen between lifestyle now. So you have to think, “How can I get in between my potential client or customer’s life with that screen between?”

So whatever they’re experiencing, how do I interject my brand into that screen between to really connect and converse and then ultimately convert, right? That’s what we’re here for. So that’s our Clarity Clip of the week. We will see you here in the next couple of weeks and guys, get out there and enjoy life. Put the screen between down.

Robert: Thank you.

[End of transcript]