Notes on Customer-Centered Messaging and Clarity
Notes from Chapters 2 and 3 of Building a Storybrand 2.0:
Place yourself in the middle of your customers’ story
“[N]euroscientists claim the average human being spends more than 30 percent of their time daydreaming—unless they’re reading, listening to, or watching a story unfold. Why? Because when we are engaged in a story, the story does the daydreaming for us.”
“The brain remembers music and forgets about noise just like the brain remembers some brands and forgets about others.”
“Story is similar to music. A good story takes a series of random events and truths and distills them into the essence of what really matters.”
“When storytellers bombard people with random information, the audience is forced to burn too many calories to make sense of the drama.”
“The essence of branding is to create simple, relevant messages we can repeat over and over so that we ‘brand’ ourselves into the public consciousness.”
I liked this anecdote about Steve Jobs and Apple, which you can also read about in the Walter Isaacson book:
“In 1983, Apple launched a computer called Lisa, the last project Jobs worked on before he was let go. Jobs released Lisa with a nine-page ad in the New York Times spelling out the computer’s technical features. It was nine pages of geek talk nobody outside of NASA was interested in. The computer bombed.
When Jobs returned to the company after running Pixar, Apple became customer-centric, simple in their product offering, compelling, and clear in their communication. The first campaign Jobs released after returning from his time at Pixar, then, went from nine pages in the New York Times to just two words on billboards all over America: Think Different.”
“The same rules that get and keep a movie audience’s attention also get and keep a customer’s attention. And attention is what you need more than anything else.”
“Brilliant screenwriters know how to use the formula while still avoiding cliche. The same is true for brilliant marketers, by the way. The ability to keep it clear yet unique is what makes them brilliant.”
“When we position our customers as the hero and ourselves as the guide, we will be recognized as a trusted resource to help our customers overcome their challenges.”
“The only things people buy are solutions to problems, and if you haven’t identified your customer’s problems or fail to talk about them clearly, you aren’t going to sell anything.”
“Customers aren’t looking for another hero; they’re looking for a guide.”
[Art inspiration for post image: Art Deco]
