A Brand Alive is a two-part blog on how your brand’s story is critical to your marketing. You can catch up with part one here!
Placement, price, product, and promotion all have their place in marketing. But in his book The Marketing Rebellion, Mark Schaefer introduces a brand new P to the equation: purpose. Consumers are flocking to purpose-fueled companies and brands. They want what they spend their money on to mean something. They want the placement, price, product, and promotion to all have a purpose.
Today’s Consumer
Today’s consumer is savvy, and they’re in charge. They know what they want, how they want it, and how much they want to pay for it. Today’s consumers talk to each other. They tag your products in Instagram posts, praise you in enthusiastic Tweets, and brag about your amazing customer service in online reviews. But they’re not afraid to post about their bad experiences; they warn others to avoid your company after you didn’t send a refund fast enough, and they’re quick to share their experience at the local Mexican restaurant that gave them Montezuma’s revenge. Today’s consumers have the power to make or break brands.
Trust Me
Consumers today don’t instantly trust brands. They test. They poke holes. They don’t listen to or believe glittering generalities. They’re allergic to bullshit, and they only seek the truth. Today’s consumer would rather purchase a llama power shaver from a certified, authentic llama herder who has made it his mission to rescue every llama from razor burn. Today’s consumer would rather investigate and educate themselves on what cereal will provide the best nutrients for their toddler instead of letting the cereal aisle product placement dictate that for them. Today’s consumer would rather educate themselves on which pickup truck model gets the best gas mileage, has the longest warranty, and gets the best resale value. Today’s consumer arms themselves before they buy anything — and they buy from the brands that have a purpose. They buy from brands that do good and clearly identify their mission. They buy from brands that celebrate diversity, promote sustainability, and save the planet. Today’s consumer seeks purpose, truth, light, and human traits. Today’s consumer is done with corporate nonsense speak, lawyer talk, mumbo-jumbo, gobbledygook, and overall bullshit.
So Now What?
Look at your website. Read the copy. Read the mission. Read the product descriptions. Did you put yourself to sleep? Does it scream legal jargon? Does it talk down to you? Does it use every major corporate buzzword like holistic, actionable analytics, big data, brand identity, and responsible? If your website and social media read like assembly instructions for a Flux Capacitor, it’s time for a change. It’s time to dig deep into the mind of your target consumer and feed them the content that they’re looking for — not the content that Bob from Legal wants slapped on the site. Start creating your website copy and content for the very people that you hope to draw to your brand. Start creating human content.
Make Your Content Human
Human content is alive. It celebrates emotions. It takes readers on a journey. It paints a picture, brings your brand to life, elicits emotion, and builds confidence and trust in who your organization is as a whole. Human content doesn’t push a product; it pushes emotions. It educates. It doesn’t talk down, shame people, or alienate them with unnecessary legal jargon. Human content celebrates realness and authenticity.
Human content celebrates how a product or service has changed a life or built a village or solved a complex social problem. Human content gives us hope in humanity. It makes us feel whole and makes us feel — period.
It’s time for your brand to start focusing on people and how you can connect with them on a truly human level. It’s time to be a shining star online, and that starts with humanizing your brand. It starts with knowing why you do what you do, why your organization exists, why you love your customers, and why you feel the way that you do about various topics. Content today starts with finding, embracing and leading with your why.
On Target’s Why
We believe that everything that we create, do, and say can touch human beings on a personal and emotional level to build trust and connect them with brands.
What’s your why? Is your content alive? Does it tell your brand’s story? We should chat. Like soon. It’s that important. Give us a call today at 407-830-4550 or hit us up on our contact form. In the meantime, tell Bob to get that legal nonsense on your website. Go ahead…. We’ll wait.
