For me, marketing is all about product, brand and people. It is about the messages and experiences you offer to get people interested in and committed to your product. Today with new platforms, tools, technologies, it seems increasingly complex – but at it is core it is still amazingly simple.
And while today an app may make more sense than an ‘ad’ – people haven’t really changed. The only thing that is changed is the way they consume information, and that brand experiences (brand-being) shape brand perception increasingly more than what the brand says (branding.)
When I design brand experiences. There are simply universal human truths that I keep in mind. Here are 5 Quotes that keep me focused.
1. “Make the customer the hero of your story.” — Ann Handley
Building the right experience is not about my creativity. It’s not about the really cool idea I want to try (note – I do have lots of cool ideas…but that is not where a good marketing experience starts). It also doesn’t start with our client’s product.
It starts with the customer. Their needs, their problem, their story. Customer understanding first and product and brand connection.
2. “Start with empathy. Continue with utility. Improve with analysis. Optimize with love.” — Jonathon Colman
This is definitely true for digital projects, but it is actually true for all projects. Empathy is customer understanding first, utility is about offering the customer real value in the marketing engagement. It could be information, humor, experience sampling, or something else, but the customer should get real value for their time. And then it is about improving the customer experience for next time.
3. “A word after a word after a word is power.” — Margaret Atwood
We sometimes undervalue the power of words. In the right order, in the right cadence – they can change our perspective on everything. Words as Margaret Atwood said are also empowering, they allow us not only to communicate to others they allow us to properly define ourselves. How and what we speak can change everything.
4. “If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they’d punch you in the face” Hugh Macleod
This is a great reminder for me. Ourwords have power, but often in our industry we use them very casually and selfishly. We focus on ourselves, we yell, we exaggerate, we self promote – we do things that we would never do in real life, if we wanted someone to like us. It is important that we not not only try to push our message, but that we also try to pull people into a conversation.
5. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
Every experience leaves an impression. Great marketing leaves the consumer feeling positive about their experience. Even if they don’t recall the ad, consumers do recall positive associations. That’s the goal of great marketing, create a brand experience that is considerate of the consumer, that places their POV at center, but tells our story contextually and compellingly.
