Are you making your ads and presentations memorable by telling stories? Facts vs Stories: The winner is...
"In the average one-minute speech, the typical student uses 2.5 statistics. Only one student in ten tells a story. Those are the speaking statistics. The "remembering" statistics, on the other hand, are almost a mirror image: When students are asked to recall the speeches, 63 percent remember the stories. Only 5 percent remember any individual statistic."
Page 243, Made to Stick, Why some ideas survive and others die - by Chip Heath & Dan Heath In this issue: 1. Why Your Retail Store Needs a Good Web Site 2. How to write Ads That Build Brands Your goals are your own business. Helping you reach them is ours.
Craig Arthur - Wizard Partners Consulting PS. Have you booked your seat to Boom Your Business, Nashville? (Aug 1st & 2nd)
1. Why Your Retail Store Needs a Good Web Site Even if you don't do e-commerce. By Wizard Partner Dave Young Thanks to Holly at GrokDotCom for finding this article on SearchEngineWatch. Media measurement company, Nielsen Online, conducted a survey to examine the relationship between online research and offline purchases. They found that 80% of participants who had recently bought consumer electronics from a brick and mortar store whose site they visited first. - 53% bought from the site where they spent the most time.
- 58% would choose the internet if they could only use one channel to conduct product research on consumer electronics. Only 25% chose the brick and mortar store.
I get asked all the time about the importance of having more than just a first generation "my nephew built it" web site for your LOCAL clothing store, plumbing shop, cafe, bank, insurance agency, etc. My answer is always, "I can't believe it's 2008 and you're still asking that question. " But, some people will only listen to the numbers. The numbers are still speaking. They haven't changed their minds. I can help you. Posted in - Online, Marketing, Customer Experience
Wizard Tip: First Create a Delightful Customer Experience "Any conversion process is like a leaky bucket - you pour water in, and water spurts out all the holes. You can keep adding more and more water to the bucket, or you can patch up the holes. Clearly, patching the holes first makes much better sense. Create the delightful experience first then drive the traffic." From Waiting for Your Cat to Bark by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg with Lisa T. Davis
Keep these five tips in mind when developing a campaign to cement your brand image.
By Roy Williams "Brands are built on consistency, and the roots of consistency are patience and attention to detail. It's going to take a lot longer to build your brand than you feel it should." Before we get started, let me warn you: This is going to hurt a little. Creating branding ads that resonate with your audience is certainly not the easiest thing you'll ever do. However, following my tips will help you simplify the process.
Having read hundreds of mission statements, I remain convinced that they're worthless as a source of brand essence. If you peel back the idealism and happy talk, you'll find that what companies say in their mission statement is quite different from what they actually do on a daily basis. This is also why most branding ads don't work. To be successful, your brand must be built on what you actually deliver.
Look at your policies, procedures and daily management practices: What behaviors are you measuring and rewarding? Examine your purchasing and pricing practices; these impact your brand far more than anything you might say in your ads. Finally, look at your décor and lighting through the eyes of your customers, and listen to the sound of your store through your customer's ears--you'll begin to glimpse the truth of your brand. Examine the soul of your company through your daily actions, not your beliefs, and you'll soon write branding ads that will ring like a bell.
The keys to successful brand writing are these:
1. Find out what your customers are saying about you. Bad ads are filled with phrases you like to say about yourself. Good ads are filled with what your customers say about you when you're not around. To be successful, your branding ads must sharply echo "the word on the street" about your company. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, got it right when he said, "It has always seemed to me that your brand is formed primarily, not by what your company says about itself, but what the company does." You'll discover the truth behind your brand when you can explain why customers come back to you.
2. Substantiate your claims. Overstatement is passé. Today's customers are equipped with a sensitive hype-meter whose needle jumps at the slightest sign of "big talk." So be sure to offer proof to back up what you say, even if that proof lies only in the customers' past experience or in their long-held assumptions. Branding isn't just about the facts: People buy brands with their hearts as well as their heads. Brand loyalty is built on the fact that our purchases remind us--and tell the world around us--who we are.
3. Double the verbs; whack the adjectives. Search for evocative words. Sniff out overused phrases. Stimulate customers' minds with thoughts more interesting than the ones they were previously thinking.
Count the verbs in this famous branding ad I wrote a few years ago: "You are standing in the snow, five and one half miles above sea level, gazing at a horizon hundreds of miles away. It occurs to you that life here is very simple: You live, or you die. No compromises, no whining, no second chances. This is a place constantly ravaged by wind and storm, where every ragged breath is an accomplishment. You stand on the uppermost pinnacle of the earth. This is the mountain they call Everest. Yesterday it was considered unbeatable. But that was yesterday. Rolex believed Sir Edmund Hillary would conquer Mount Everest, so for him they created the Rolex Explorer. In every life there is a Mount Everest to be conquered. When you have conquered yours, you'll find your Rolex waiting patiently for you to come and pick it up at Justice Jewelers. I'm Woody Justice, and I've got a Rolex for you."
4. Link your "first mental image" and "last mental image." The psychological principles of primacy and recency mean that in any list, the first few words and the last few words will be the easiest to remember. Great ads focus on a single point and contain that point in both the opening and closing statements of the ad. When possible, link your last mental image to your first mental image, and you'll elevate customers' ability to recall your ad. The Rolex ad was focused on you and your accomplishments. The watch was merely a symbol of those accomplishments. "You are standing in the snow...I've got a Rolex for you."
5. Be consistent. The consistent use of the same colors and fonts is often called "branding," but true branding extends far beyond a visual style signature. The brand essence you've translated visually must now be translated into an auditory style signature in your radio and TV ads, as well as throughout your store. Does the auditory style signature of what your customer hears while "on hold" agree with the balance of your brand essence?
Brands are built on consistency, and the roots of consistency are patience and attention to detail. It's going to take a lot longer to build your brand than you feel it should. Here's the bottom line: If you think you're going to be able to measure brand progress at the end of 12 short months, you're dreaming. Brand development isn't measured in months, but in years. Twenty-four months is the soonest you can hope to begin seeing fruit from any brand orchard you might plant today.
Hey, I told you this was going to hurt a little. (Notice how the last mental image-pain--is linked to the first mental image in this column?)
Good luck with your brand.
 Closing Thought... Critics "A nitpicking needle-snout can always see a problem and will happily poke holes in whatever solutions are proposed by others. Like a mosquito, he sucks the life out of those around him. Slap the bastard and move on." – Roy H. Williams See you next week. Craig Arthur - Wizard Partners Consulting
Your goals are your own business. Helping you reach them is ours.
Call or email to book a FREE alignment meeting. No obligation. No pressure. It is at this meeting we both decide if there is a fit between our 2 companies. It is only then can we explore your options. We will never try to sell you. Call (07) 4728 4866. |
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