Your Brand Story: 10 Events That Trigger a Review

Change begets more change and oftentimes people in the middle (aka your team) are caught in no-man’s land wondering what is the new company story. Here are 10 events that trigger it’s time to review and rewrite your brand story.

1)        You’re targeting new industries or audiences

Companies in growth mode often look to new industries or vertical markets to target. Having a solution for customer needs in those markets is important, but equally important is how a company communicates its brand story to break through the messaging din with a content mission that aligns with growth strategy and business imperatives. Complete Merchant Services (CMS) moved from Payment-as-a-Solution platform for the health care industry to the direct sales companies and then to franchisees.

2)    Your business changes focus

Perhaps you’ve hired or acquired a team that fills a critical void. Maybe it even creates an additional profit center. With expanded offerings, your DNA changes. Sometimes this means a name change or sometimes it just means a fresh look at the solutions you’re bringing to the table. Case in point: Before the totally retro Chicago-based Build This entered the scene in 2018, it was strictly a web design firm. Then it adopted app development and, out of its trendy offices in the Chicago Board of Trade building, changed its focus – and its brand story. A fresh new website with technology imagery, an expanded offering including one-day websites, and a “We’re More Than An Agency” headline on the company’s about page was a successful brand story rewrite.

3)    Merger or acquisition

This is a biggie. We have witnessed first-hand the impact a merger has on a company’s brand. It’s understandable that company executives focus on the financial and tax implications when entering an M&A. However, a common brand story has to be developed and then introduced to clients, prospects and, most importantly, the people who work there. Reston, Va.-based Hinge Marketing offers a downloadable rebranding kit. In addition to a new name and look, changes also occur in business practices and employee training.

4)    Your business model changes to bring a fuller solution through strategic partnerships

Sometimes, it makes sense to form strategic partnerships to offer clients fuller solutions. Chicago-based Fortress Consulting, for example, pulls in marketing and creative experts as needed to show a more complete story. (Check out the new “life after pro football” branding project they did for Matt Forte. Cool stuff!). As your solution expands, so does your brand story.

5)    The customer journey changes (does life ever stand still?)

How does your customer see you? How do you view your company and what it does? Is how your customer buys products or services in your market changing? Customer journeys shift and companies that can stay ahead of the wave will thrive. The ones that don’t rewrite their brand story – Blockbuster, Sears, Montgomery Ward, American Motors Corp. – often find themselves out of business or a target for an acquisition.

6)    You choose to break away from companies in your industry and how business has “always been” done

Let’s say your industry is one based on price. It’s transactional, your product a commodity. But you don’t want to do business that way. You choose to step apart from the pack. We call this your unfair advantage, also known as your differentiator. When your company understands its unfair advantage, your story will set you apart from everyone else in your industry. It often is not what you think. Silver Spoon Desserts, for example, has an unfair advantage of employing single moms from Chicago’s distressed neighborhoods. Why? Because owner Tamara Turner was a single mom, and she understands women in that situation don’t need a handout, they need a paycheck. When customers hear her story, they become believers. What’s your unfair advantage?

7)    The last time you reviewed your brand story was when “Frozen” was the highest-grossing film of the year.

That was 2013. Six years is a long time in business. Technologies change. The customer journey changes. Global markets change. How has your company changed? How has your brand story reflected that change? Is it frozen in time?

8)    Digital transformation

This is the business buzz phrase, which really means the Internet of Things (IoT). From cloud-based computing to shopping online to software as a service (SasS). Digital transformation is designed to improve the customer experience, but it’s more than technology. Great piece in Harvard Business Review that talks about what needs to be done internally prior to and during implementation of digital platforms.

9)    The dynamics of the industry have changed

Industry change is often a result of several of the points made above – digital transformation, the fluid customer-buying journey, new technologies, etc. Again, staying in front of the wave, through professional development, attending seminars, reading forward-thinking publications and listening to industry podcasts can help you stay aligned with industry trends. Ask: how is your brand story adapting to the shifting sands?

10)  Your company’s vision goggles need replacement

If our vision in life stayed the same, there would be a lot more professional football players, fire personnel and professional singers in the world. These were my children’s visions when they were really little. Guess what? None of them are going into these fields. When a company’s vision – that altruistic destination that is not yet, but oh so desirable – changes, the brand story changes too. Because it’s not just about internal stakeholders. Your customers and other champions need to be part of your vision too.

3 Simple Questions for Brand Confidence

Miranda Rodriguez, founder of Marketing Uninhibited, loves rabbit holes. She regularly jumps down them to advise businesses about marketing (as a word girl, I’m awestruck by people who voluntarily do this). Miranda and I grabbed a couple leather chairs at Tredwell Coffee, a super chic hangout in downtown Aurora, right next to her office. We chatted up marketing like it was everybody’s top priority (and it really should be).

As a writer, I know for fact that asking the right questions can mean the difference between flying down the highway and sitting roadside with a flat. So as Miranda started talking, I found her general conversational wisdom about brand and marketing absolutely fascinating. So I offered to write a blog on it. Here’s what she shared.

Start with Discipline

Your to-do lists and goals are golden. Stick with them. This takes severe discipline (the kind my fourth grade teacher Sr. Monica demanded — strict and clear). Growth-bound businesses are overwhelmed. For example, networking is a goal that consumes a lot of time. So does blogging and social media and speaking gigs. Focusing on less with more effort gives more focused results (and keeps your sanity in check).

……………….

Question No. 1:

Does __________ (insert marketing activity here, like: networking event,

sponsorship, social media spend, etc.) fit the business goals

our company is trying to achieve? No? Then it’s a “no.”

………………

Trust the Process

You have to trust your marketing. Believe in marketing like you believe in your dog at the end of a bad day or your best friend from college who never let you walk home alone. No matter your marketing plan, you have to trust it will work. Marketing is a long haul. Frustration after a week is energy wasted. Give your brand strategy up to six months.

………………

Question No. 2

Is our marketing strategy taking us in the direction we want to go?

………………

If You Have a Vision, Then You are Sound

Recently, I was sharing with a client our desire to grow in 2019. He said to me, “Just saying you want to grow is a step toward making it happen.” Our exchange reminds me of Miranda’s point about vision: If you see where you want to go, you have a sound business. You’ll build your path. She says you have to be “unwavering” in what you want to accomplish. You might not know all the steps (that’s where Miranda comes in, so keep her contact information close!), but keep going. While minutia is an important part of the process, the larger vision is just as important. I loved how she explained that when you understand the big picture, the little steps in between make a lot more sense.

………………

Question No. 3

Do you believe, with 100% confidence, in your business mission?

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How do you find your brand confidence? Share your ideas here so we can keep the discussion going.

Married to Each Other AND the Business

“Seriously. Are we really husband and wife now?”

The question sounds like a refrain that a couple might utter while standing at the altar. But for my beautiful bride of 27 years, it comes up nearly every evening as we transition from business partners to life partners.

Friends, family and clients are fascinated (and dumbfounded) that Michele and I operate K+L Storytellers AND are wife and husband. “We’d be divorced” is a common response we hear through a haughty laugh and swig of a vodka-esque drink.

One point for sure: It’s not always easy. In fact, it can get darn right nasty as business and marriage roles often intertwine, making neither very fun.

So how do we make it work?

There’s not an easy answer. One advantage we have is that our children are older. They are not tugging at Mom every 15 minutes. Another advantage is that we’ve been in business together on and off since 2003. The nature of the business has shifted, from public relations/communications to storytelling and content.

Our business, like so many others, took a massive blow in late 2007 through 2011 when our clients were cutting costs in their own fight to stay afloat. As a result, I returned to the corporate world, which stabilized our family and financial lives, but also strengthened my education. I worked with younger people who mentored me in SEO and social media. I teamed with marketing professionals who guided me on brand strategy. I sat next to data scientists who analyzed and heralded the importance of the numbers behind PPC, website visits and posted content clicks. I learned from other business owners on how to grow a business, engage new clients and how to better manage cash flow.

And then, through no fault of my own, I was laid off on my 58th birthday.

After countless job interviews and with no contract in hand, Michele asked if I wanted to rejoin the company. I was humbled and embarrassed because it was the only offer on my plate. But I was hardened in my resolve to help build the business back to peak form.

We are doing that. Together. As business partners. As wife and husband. As “The First Couple of Story,” a phrase used to introduce us recently as we shared the speaker stage. If that’s how people see us, we’re all in.

We comfort in knowing how the other person thinks, how we best work and what makes the other person’s head explode. We know we’ve always got each other’s backs. We can avoid landmines by staying out of each other’s way and trusting the other’s skills. We’ve learned to take emotion out of our strategy discussions (not easy for my Italian partner), and we’ve become better listeners.

One absolute key to our business success is to physically and verbally shut it down at the end of each Friday. It’s satisfying to play husband and wife with a martini (me) and a glass of Malbec (Michele) in hand on the back terrace at the end of the week. Wouldn’t you agree, Babe? (Full disclosure, Michele ignores me when I let this slip in a business setting. However, I often notice a hint of a smile.)

Tomorrow, Aug. 31, is our wedding anniversary, and I am more sure than ever that in business and in life, I picked the right partner.

Vision + Story

Live Your Values, Live Your Story

The Power of 3 in Storytelling

By Roderick Kelly

Co-founder, K+L Storytellers

Today is St. Patrick’s Day and a happy day it is.

The Chicago River is emerald, revelers dress as leprechauns and strangers are toasting each other with pints of Guinness.

It’s a fun day. Heck, March is a happy month.

We have March Madness, spring break and tax refunds. March signals the end of winter, a time for new life and the moment students can touch their graduation day.

March is the third month and all good things come in threes.

Storytellers, speakers and comics have known this for years and use the Rule of Three to produce vibrant, fun and memorable stories like The Three Little Pigs.

Here are some examples of the Rule of Three:

·         Hip, hip, hooray – a common cheer

·         Vidi, vini, vici -- Latin for I came, I saw, I conquered

·         Stop, drop and roll -- a fire safety slogan

·         Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- from the US Declaration of Independence

·         Faster, higher, stronger -- the Olympic motto

·         An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman walk into a pub……..

Now you know one of the great secrets of storytelling. The Rule of Three is used on corporate websites, in marketing materials and in advertising because it's simple, catchy and rhythmic.

Slãinte.

6 Keys to Great Brand Storytelling

By Roderick Kelly

Co-founder, K+L Storytellers

Telling stories. That’s what people do. We tell them when we lunch with associates and at the dinner table when we talk about our day. According to Jeremy Hsu in Scientific American, two-thirds of our everyday conversations are made up of stories. Take, for instance, my cousin Richie. He holds court at every family function, unaware that his authentic, humorous storytelling is seductive.

He is also passing along stories for the next generation. Storytellers leave legacies in their wake.

Companies have a story to tell as well. Their stories win hearts -- the place where people make purchasing decisions. Through the company’s values, culture, programs, audience, products and people, they show how their brand differentiates itself from competitors.

Here are six tips for great brand storytelling:

1)    Resolve a problem or conflict. Like a book or a movie, the story plot always finds the protagonist up to his or her eyeballs in conflict. Stories that explain how a company helped a customer overcome a specific challenge are noteworthy and remembered. “If you do what you do well, and you share your story, your brand will race to the top,” says Brian Chesky, CEO at Airbnb.

2)    Be authentic. Fake news is seen for what it is. Your story has to be truthful to be believable. “Purposeful storytelling isn’t show business, it’s good business,” says Peter Guber, chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment.

3)    Evoke emotion. This might be a call to action or spark an idea. “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic,” says Seth Godin, author.

4)    Back your story with data. Data is social proof that your product or service works. Remember, your audience buys with their hearts, but backs up their decisions with logic. Author Dr. Brene Brown says: “Maybe stories are just data with a soul.”

5)    Be consistent. From the person at the front desk to the loading dock to the C-suite, ask: Is everyone telling the same story? “You can’t separate the message from the messenger,” says Michael Margolis, CEO of Get Storied.

6)    Know your audience. Your audience is one person. It’s the individual reading your story, listening to your story or watching your story at any given moment. “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but the stories you tell,” according to Godin.

So a weasel walks into a bar. The bartender says, “In all my years of bartending, I’ve never served a weasel. What can I get you?

“Pop,” goes the weasel.

Maybe it’s my opener the next time I see my cousin Richie. Who knows? Maybe this corny joke will be the center of his storytelling — until a better story comes along.