Essential Signposts for Telling a Brand Story

Posted on | March 19, 2008 |

by Dan Hill

A brand has to be more than just a guarantee because a guarantee is too rationally oriented-A brand transcends product, and creating an emotional aura around a brand must transcend it because a guarantee focuses on an often stated, explicit brand-product relationship. An emotional aura concerns the intuitive brand-consumer relationship. This split is like the dual pathways of our decision-making process. The high road is characterized by conscious, rational thought, while the low road is emotionally-oriented, works more sloppily, but also more quickly to alert us to danger.

From an evolutionary perspective, we are especially attuned to our emotions because of the protection they afford us. The rationally oriented company states a promise. But as consumers, we’re listening subconsciously for an implied promise, a sense of security and wellbeing that a utilitarian-minded guarantee can’t even begin to address.

Create a Male/Female Brand

A brand should embody the psychology of both genders. This means acknowledging and responding to common masculine as well as feminine sensibilities across the spectrum of touch points.

Failure to be inclusive risks losing too much.

For one thing, there’s the marketplace potential lost by neglecting either of these two major segments. And second, ignoring this rule means that a company won’t typically be able to tell as powerful a brand story because it is being blind to half the brand’s strength.

All of us embody both viewpoints. So a company should leverage the psychology of men and women alike, while adjusting the specific gender mixture to fit the specific offer, target audience, and consumer touch point. Despite the advantages of being more dualistic, companies often don’t get there. In short, the culprit is sexism. An entirely too masculine perspective tends to flow from brands that continue to be dominated by male executives within companies and male creative directors primarily calling the shots at the advertising agencies. There remains no greater point of vulnerability for companies than the gap between male leaders attempting to sell to predominantly female shoppers.

Develop a Signature Clue

At Barnes & Noble, it’s the stuffed, oversized chairs. For Harley-Davidson, it’s the engine’s blatting sound (which I hear the company has at least investigated trademarking). Each of those details is its brand’s signature clue, a differentiator that represents a vivid aspect of the brand.

We’re driven by what is specific, physical and immediate, instead of by harder-to-follow abstractions. So an effective signature clue adheres to the central, initiating role that sensory perceptions play in shaping emotional responses, and delivers with force. Consumers seek to simplify their lives by quickly classifying brands. So a signature clue must be readily subject to intuitive response. In brand story terms, the signature clue is, in effect, the plot’s climax.

It’s the riveting moment that offers the greatest intensity. As in a novel, the climax is ideally more than a memorable highlight, however it’s the point when various characters and events come together to forge a cohesive whole. The signature clue doesn’t just spark the imagination. It must be meaningfully linked to the story, and in tune -on the very same wavelength that hums with the emotional pay-off.

Dan Hill, Ph.D., is president of Sensory Logic, Inc. - a scientific consumer insights firm that specializes in gauging both verbal and non-verbal subconscious reactions to advertising, retail environments, product design, packaging and presentations (i.e. political candidates).

Dan is a guest contributor to eBrandMarketing.

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