🍱 Marketing as Investment; Storytelling done right
Winning at this thing called marketing
Hello and welcome back to The Marketing Kable, where I'm taking you along on my journey to discover ideas, voices and campaigns that can inspire us.
something to read
all marketers are negotiators. Unless you had uber-cool (borderline irresponsible) parents when you were younger, you probably had to have undertaken negotiations with yours over certain demands - particularly materialistic ones.
"I NEED this laptop to improve my research projects for school!"
"This digital clock is essential for me to wake up one time!"
If you, through these earnest, somewhat dramatic appeals, tried to convince them that whatever you had to have at that moment was for the greater good, for your long-term success, you were convincing them to invest in the future.
According to four big-shot marketers at the Festival of Marketing, you need to apply the same formula to convince your boss to pump more resources into marketing.
They suggest you start with vocabulary - marketing as an investment, not a cost. Make sure everyone on the team understands your marketing strategy, and keep things simple when you explain it.
They also suggest taking everyone along on the marketing journey and focusing on key metrics that drive real results. When it comes to metrics, it's best to be totally upfront, especially if you're trying something new.
Finally, a reminder to be realistic about how long it takes for change to happen and to give the investment time to make an impact.
something to watch
all marketers are empathisers. I don't have an ad for you, but a video that analyses ads. Specifically, good ads. What makes a good ad?
When it comes to choosing between products, good advertising can make a world of difference. In a market full of options, even the smallest details can make one product stand out from the rest.
But what makes an ad really stand out? The answer lies in creating an emotional connection between the consumer and the brand. We shouldn't be telling people about our product - we want to make them feel something.
It might sound weird, but the most successful ad campaigns never actually focus on the product. Instead, they create an atmosphere that resonates with their target audience. These are the ads that we remember, talk about, and that influence our purchasing decisions.
For example, I love this ad by IKEA Malaysia. Instead of talking about IKEA's products, it zooms in on the ideas that drive IKEA by asking big-picture questions like "What if... we always side with the many people? What if we try to design new behaviours instead of new products?"
These questions are accompanied by visuals of real people in ordinary, relatable situations - lovers dancing on a terrace, a mother playing with her baby, and an old lady hanging her washing out to try. By associating itself with the every day, IKEA establishes an intimate connection with the viewers and inserts itself into a larger One World narrative. After you watch the ad, you're left feeling a sense of kinship with the people and the planet, and that's the feeling that IKEA wants to leverage.
something to listen to
all marketers are storytellers. Before I joined Bee (and the world of marketing), I thought of stories as enchanting pieces of art produced by literary writers. Even though years of studying interdisciplinary humanities will teach you to look at EVERYTHING as text, somewhere inside me, I carried a bias towards the written word, the book.
But marketers have expanded my horizons, and I now understand that stories mean much more than that. When a brand wants to sell its product or services, it has to tell its story to the people who want to hear it. The strongest impulse behind any successful campaign.
Listen to Dr J.J. Peterson from Storybrand outline the StoryBrand framework, developed by Donald Miller, in an interview with RVRB Agency. StoryBrand is a seven-part formula for crafting a compelling story that works for all types of companies, including nonprofits, news journalism, B2B, and B2C.
If you're trying to create a marketing message that resonates with your audience and motivates them to take action, then the StoryBrand framework could be just the thing you need.
Here's how to create a story that puts your audience front and centre as the hero:
First off, you gotta identify what your customer wants. Just one thing, mind you.
Next up, what's the problem standing in their way? Be clear and concise.
Then, position yourself as the guide that can help them overcome this problem and achieve their goal.
Give them a plan that's easy to follow, and ask them to take action.
But wait, there's more! You also gotta paint a picture of what their life will be like if they don't take action (hint: it's not pretty).
But on the flip side, you also wanna show them the upside of taking that action. That's the vision you're trying to cast.
So let's say you're selling mattresses. Your story might go like this:
"You deserve a restful sleep after a long day, but your old mattress has you tossing and turning all night long. All night. We understand. We've helped 1000 customers rediscover how they slept when they were babies. Here's all you gotta do: come to one of our stores, find your sleep number, and buy the perfect mattress for you. If you don't, you'll be tossing and turning all night. But buy our mattress, you'll wake up every morning feeling like a million bucks! Go conquer the world!"
In the StoryBrand framework, you're not the hero of the story. Your customer is. You're just the guide that will get them where they're going.
That's it for this edition of The Marketing Kable. If you received this newsletter as a forward, do consider signing up. It's forever free and just for you.