Aerodynamic Toaster

FABIAN VENTER 1 / 16

CreatingAerodynamic Toasters

WHY THE NEED FOR NARRATIVE IN MARKETING


Stories are simply a sequence of events. They may be factual or imaginary.

Retelling them is about “narrative.” Components of the story which weaken the narrative can be left out, others may

be emphasized. It may include parts leading up to the beginning of the story,

and post its ending, but when done well, it is entertaining and absorbing, and leaves

a lasting impression. All organizations have stories, but brands are shaped by narrative. This paper provides three

marketing axioms relating to the need for narrative in business.

In the beginning....

ENCOURAGE UNIQUE STORIES ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION

MARKETING AXIOM 1“The narrative around a product

trumps form and function”

DON’T TALK AT YOUR MARKET, TALK WITH YOUR MARKET

MARKETING AXIOM 2“The value of your organization is

proportional to the conversations taking place about it”

TALK WITH CLARITY AND CONSISTENCY OF MESSAGE

MARKETING AXIOM 3“Pellucidity is now the fifth

component of the marketing mix”

AXIOM: “A statement whose truth is so evident that little reasoning or demonstration can make it plainer.” (Wikipedia.org)

NARRATIVE


The rules of aerodynamics also apply to minivans. Right? The rule, “form followers function,” and the practical balance between them has long been a mantra of product management. But this is not always enough to impart value to buyers.

Let me give you an example. If we accept that mathematics, a wind tunnel and folks in white-coats can pretty much work out the optimal aerodynamic shape for a vehicle to slip safely and fuel efficiently through air, then why don’t minivans look like sports cars? Well, because the rule of practical utility (an

MARKETING AXIOM 1THE NARRATIVE AROUND A PRODUCT TRUMPS FORM AND FUNCTION


object must do what it is primarily designed, and expected, to do) impacts on its form function (the shape of something designed) which dictates that these two vehicles, built for very different roles, have to look different. Packing four kids and a dog into your sleek new Ferrari is impractical. Not much value in that. On the other hand, trying to do 140mph in your Toyota minivan is equally impractical. That’s an obvious explanation as to why they look different. But here’s the interesting part; if the rules of aerodynamics are consistent, which they are, shouldn’t one vehicle look precisely the same as others in its class? Well, yes, that sounds right. So why don’t they?

It’s because something else comes into play. Something less tangible, but important to each of us. This is the rule of valued individualism (products have a greater value when they add to a buyer’s need to feel, or be, unique). Renowned Harvard psychologist, Daniel Gilbert, explains in his enlightening book Stumbling On Happiness, how “...we almost always see ourselves as unique. Even when we do precisely what others do, we tend to think we’re doing it for unique reasons”. He goes on to add, “...we prize our unique identities, and research shows that when people are made to feel too similar to others, their moods quickly sour and they try to distance and distinguish themselves in a variety of ways”.

So, oops, there goes the equations and wind-tunnel tests. Just because your product’s form and function may be in harmony, it still needs to provide addi-tional value to the buyer to make him or her feel unique. You may be a member of the local Ferrari club, but it’s unlikely you’re part of the Lamborghini gang. You are different. They are different. Likewise mom may need that minivan, but wouldn’t it be nice if somehow her minivan helped make her look cooler than the other moms in the parking lot at the PTA meeting? You bet. Marketers know this—so while they constantly add features to their products to improve func-tionality, and alter its shape to help differentiate it, they work very, hard to create and include elements which provide an additional sense of uniqueness (needed by buyers).

“Even when we do precisely what

others do, we tend to think

we’re doing it for unique reasons”

Daniel Gilbert Stumbling On Happiness




Which brings us to the Aerodynamic Toaster. It’s a given that products have to continually improve to allow them to compete. But, and due in part to, the fact that modern design and manufacturing are very much in sync, gone are the days when organizations simply introduced, and crazily advertised better prod-ucts and services loaded with new features. Now product differentiation is no longer all that different. Give or take 25mph, a Ferrari can top out at about the same speed of a similar categorized Lamborghini. Even a low fat latte from Star-bucks isn’t all that hugely different from Peet’s Coffee–certainly not between the two stores I visit. A Mac computer can basically provide the same applica-tions as a PC, and vice versa. And one toaster really doesn’t do something another cannot do.

To stand out, to be truly different, additional value has to be included beyond smart form and function. Marketers have to go beyond the features and benefits, amazing technology, customer accolades, logos, and awards. ‘Valued individualism’ is not just derived from these things. It comes from some-thing else. And that something else is the narrative built around an orga-nization, its products and/or services. These involve the anecdotes, articles, chronicles, fables, legends, myths, parables, and yarns, with which buyers uniquely identify, allowing them to align to an organization, its products, service, culture, values, creativity, humor and attitude, and helps them to feel unique by doing so. BUT, and it’s a huge but, it’s not just about an organization telling a story, it’s about the evolvement of stories created (narration) jointly with its marketplace.*

This is the essence of modern branding, where the human elements of thoughts, feelings, experiences and beliefs—not an organization’s name or logo—trumps the necessity of form and function of products and services. This is what allows people to feel unique, and valued, and which differentiates one organization, and its products and services, from another.

* See the my second axiom of marketing.

This is the essence of modern branding,

where the human elements of thoughts, feelings, experiences

and beliefs–not an organizations name or logo–trumps the

necessity of form and function of products

and services.




Rule of valued individualism: The design and functionality of products and services

have a greater value when they add to a buyer’s need to feel, or be, unique.

Wide-spread: Form may vary, but modern manufacturing provides general consistency of functionality and reliability across all products. This includes variations provided to create unique points-of-difference which help shift a product from comparative parity to competitive difference.

Propriety: Stories told about your organization, products, service, culture, values, creativity, and attitude, which provide an intrinsic, and vital, value, with which customers identify.

FORM &FUNCTION

NARRATIVE

Form-Function: The shape of something designed, or its outward aesthetic appearance,

plus the rule of practical utility: The value of a product or service is directly linked to its

functionality. It must do what it is designed, and expected by the buyer, to do.

So while aerodynamics may dictate that a Ferrari should look the same as a Lamborghini, or that a Toyota minivan look the same as a Nissan minivan, it’s the unique, and relevant, human stories, told in interesting and engaging ways which provide an intrinsic, but vital, value for all involved.

SO WHAT ARE YOUR STORIES, AND HOW ARE YOU TELLING THEM, REGARDING YOUR TOASTER? BUT, AND I ASK NICELY, PLEASE DON’T JUST TELL ME HOW AERODYNAMIC IT IS. I ALREADY KNOW THIS.



ADDED VALUE


Marketing Communications isnow Marketing Conversations.Without the ability for marketers to communicate with the market, they’d be dead in the water. So it has always been, and so it will always be.

Well, that’s not entirely correct. The word communication essentially means the exchange of thoughts, opinions, and/or information, by signs, writing, or speech. The operative word being exchange. For years, other than face to face selling, research, and designated customer-care channels, there was little real exchange taking place between marketers and their market. Mostly it was a one way street. Marketers would figure out something to say, and then push it out to the world.

“YOU’RE WELCOME!”“WHAT’S YOUR STORY?”

“JUST DON’T PUSH YOUR PITCH ON ME”

“ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF”

MARKETING AXIOM 2THE VALUE OF YOUR ORGANIZATION IS PROPORTIONAL TO THE CONVERSATIONS TAKING PLACE ABOUT IT


Some of the world would listen and act accordingly. But this was hardly commu-nication in it’s true form. Then along came new technology, namely the internet, and its plethora of communication applications, making it vastly more possible for people to exchange opinions and information.

This impacted many things—such as...

Not only can marketers now talk directly, and individually, to 1. their market, their market can talk back. (Exchange)

The market can pass on the exchange to a specific person, 2. group, or groups—locally, or across the globe.

They can do it at almost no cost, and virtually in real-time.3.

This is a quantum change from only a few years ago, and can be both a blessing and a curse. Consider this... half of the world’s population is under the age of thirty. Which means billions of folks have never known a world without the internet. And they’re using it, particularly the social media component—the powerhouse of online communication. If Facebook® were a country, it would have the planet’s 3rd largest population. That’s a heck of a lot people, all with the ability to instantaneously share information, pass the word, invite ideas, share stories, and when needed, have the freedom to rant and rave. Cool huh?

Unless they’re ranting and raving about you, your business, or its products and services. The internet is full of stories of how organizations, large and small, screw-up, and get hammered online for doing so. Often over even the smallest of things. Sooner or later someone is not going to be happy with you, and before your know it, they’re blogging, tweeting, texting, and sharing complaints about how the cap on your peanut butter jar tightens to the left rather than to the right. Or why a certain Stanford doctor feels she doesn’t have to greet her patients

MARKETING AXIOM 2“The value of your organization is proportional to the conversations

taking place about it”


with a smile. On the flip-side, people are willing to praise. They rejoice in sharing good stuff. And they do so.

Of course, somewhere between the issues and the praise there’s the day-to-stuff—the general chatter about ideas, opinions, salutations, who’s buying what, how it works, how much it costs, who is chasing whom, and so on. It’s now a big free for all. Larry Weber, sums it up nicely in his book Marketing To The Social Web: “In the traditional communications model, your organiza-tion controls content creation and distribution. In the social media world (internet), you have little or no control over content or distribution. Indi-viduals communicate with other individuals and with groups, and groups communicate with individuals and groups—everyone with everyone. It’s highly democratic: everyone has access, and everyone can participate”.All this adds up to the need for marketing management to ensure its organiza-tion is participating—and the way to participate is through conversation. Which leads to the second axiom of modern marketing:

‘THE VALUE OF YOUR ORGANIZATION IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE CONVERSA-TIONS TAKING PLACE ABOUT IT.’

Marketing Communications is now Marketing Conversation. And it’s done online. (As with all conversation, by beginning with small talk–guided by good common social rules–introducing purpose through the sharing of facts, opin-ions and independent views, and finally, ensuring the exchange takes place in such a way that all parties involved in the conversation comfortably agree.)

This approach, assisted by the advent and rise of social media provides orga-nizations with ability to introduce information and open discussions about itself,

“...individuals communicate with

other individuals and with groups, and groups communicate with individuals and

groups–everyone with everyone. It’s highly democratic:

everyone has access, and everyone can

participate”Larry Weber

Marketing To The Social Web




and its market, in a transparent and participatory way, which leads to three powerful benefits;

Greater brand awareness (what’s your story?) leading to more business.•Understanding customer awareness, leading to better products and •services.Improved customer service; recognizing and responding to issues, before •the word spreads, (and when praised, using a little subtlety, and class, to pass it along).

Not too long ago it took a team of communication experts and a gazillion dollars to do these things, and even then it was mostly based on “talking at.” Now it’s about “talking with”, which can done be even the smallest of businesses. Often at very little cost, and with the opportunity for significant results.

SO, IF YOU’RE NOT ALREADY DOING SO, JOIN THE CONVERSATION.



It’s never been easier, or more cost-efficient to exchange thoughts, opinions, facts, and ideas, with one person, or millions of people.

DO THIS...

...AND YOU’LL INFLUENCE THIS HAPPY

UNHAPPY

THE MARKET

THE MARKETER

INSTANTLOCALGLOBAL


In a blink of an eye.How long do you think it took you to recognize the illustration of the paper plane? Or form an opinion about its flight path? Or the loop it appeared to have taken?

Amazingly, this happens in a blink of an eye. So fast in fact, that a team of Canadian Scientists discovered people can form an impression (in this case about a web page) within 50 milliseconds! That’s 1/20 of 1 second. What’s more, according to this research, this is enough time to form a lasting opinion.1

MARKETING AXIOM 3PELLUCIDITY IS NOW THE FIFTH COMPONENT OF THE MARKETING MIXpel·lu·cid [puh-loo-sid] – clear in meaning, expression, or style

1 Lindgaard G., Fernandes G. J., Dudek C. & Brown J. Journal of Behaviour and Information Technology, 25. 115 - 126 (2006)

10 SECONDS1 SECOND

1/20 OF A SECOND

* The first four components being; Product, Pricing, Placement, Promotion.(And yes, there is some irony that the word Pellucid is itself hardly clear in meaning.)

*


Right now, I bet you’re thinking about the impression the home page of your web site makes on first-time viewers. And so you should be. After all, we only have one shot to make a good impression. And it appears that this shot can be as short as 50 milliseconds. (Allow me show you how selective and fast your brain actually works. Choose, and remember, just one of the below cards. But be sure to remember the card you picked.)

Each day we are all exposed to thousands of messages thanks to TV, the internet, magazine racks, tweets, billboards, blogs, radio, texts, (and in my case, my wife) regarding invitations, proposals, instructions, explanations, opinions, ideas, requests, (and in my case, demands). You name it, and we’re exposed to it. The “noise’ is louder than ever before.

Thank goodness for the brain which adjusts the volume by ignoring things we perceive, believe, or know, are of no interest to us. Which is all very well, unless the information is about your products or services. On the other hand, the brain retains what we think is important—and bang, in an instant it’s a memory. (Everything you’ve just read is a memory.) And if the message is based on a strong impression, or experience, the brain will push it through the short-term memory section to the long-term area, where it can reside with the memory of that kiss you got at the last company picnic.

Which bring us to my third axiom. If my first axiom explains the value in the narrative surrounding an organization, its products and services, and the




second points out that marketers who “talk at” their prospects and customers tend to lose out to those who “talk with” (converse) with their prospects and customers, then the third axiom, points out that marketers need to be remem-bered. And remembered well.

The problem is that people will judge and form opinions in a split second. Lose them at this point and much of your past and future energy will be wasted. To help avoid this, organizations have to ensure that their communica-tion is clear, transparent and concise in style and meaning (pellucid)—or risk being lost in a sea of chatter. The adage “keep it simple” has never been more relevant or true. Of course this is hardly new information. But as the world becomes more complex and involved, too many marketers run the risk of trying to do, or say, too much.

Consider the Theory of Complexity which tells us that the more components required (for anything) the more likely it is that one of those components will fail, which leads to another component failure, and so on, until the whole system becomes unstable. (As opposed to the Catastrophe Theory which points out that when a critical element of a system fails, there’s big trouble. The more crit-ical the element is, the faster the failure of the whole schmear. Hence the term

“catastrophic failure”.) Perhaps a little dramatic, but I’m sure you get my point. Numerous marketing campaigns fail simply because they’ve had too many objectives, too many messages, (and all too often, too many decision makers).

By the way, did I remove the card you chose?




Web sites are a great example of how this axiom is forgotten. I know, I’ve worked for a few corporate giants, where the home page is valuable real estate, of which each department wants a slice—and often gets it—resulting in so many messages, everything becomes muddied and lost to a viewer. It takes gumption to keep it simple. Presentations, one of the most powerful tools in a corporate arsenal, are another example which all too often suffer the same fate. I recently assisted a high-ranking executive, of global banking giant, “tidy up” a Power-Point presentation. As the keynote speaker to 11,000 conference delegates, his team had decided it would be a good idea to squeeze in every possible chart, statistic and policy statement into his forty minute time-slot. The poor guy didn’t stand a chance. But he had guts (as the top players tend to have), and together we deleted 80% of his slides, and 70% of the content on those that remained. The result? His audience left with a the clear understanding of his message, a better understanding of his organization’s brand, and a great impression of the speaker. (The original presentation, we agreed, would have resulted in snores all around.) He kept it simple and won the day.

There are many other examples in every link of the marketing chain, ranging from instruction manuals, business cards, signage, flyers, commercials, brochures, Twitter Accounts, Facebook pages, and so on, which risk the same fate.

The point is, the world is cluttered with information, and people simply don’t have the time, nor inclination, to wade through stuff they don’t consider impor-tant. And when presented with new information, will judge and form instant opin-ions, (positive and negative). So ensure that all of your communication is clear, transparent and concise in style and meaning. Edit things down to allow your audience to take away the exact message you want them to retain. Keep it simple.



...we deleted 80% of his slides, and 70% of the content on those that remained. The result?

His audience left with a the clear understanding of his message, a better

understanding of his organization’s brand,

and a great impression of the speaker.

(As for the cards? It’s an old trick which illustrates that a person will spend the minimum amount of time assimilating information. If you’d spent a bit more time looking at the cards, you’d have noticed the second set were all different to the first. No matter which card you had chosen in the first group it would have been missing in the next. You had simply formed an otherwise opinion and acted on it.)


There you have it. Three marketing axioms based on the concept that narrative is an important component of

building businesses, developing brands, and selling stuff.

Hopefully they make sense. After all humans have been

sitting around fires telling stories for thousands of years.

No doubt there was one about a guy who used a unique spear tip to hunt down dinner. And

was asked where to get one.

ENCOURAGE UNIQUE STORIES ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION



DON’T TALK AT YOUR MARKET, TALK WITH YOUR MARKET

MARKETING AXIOM 2“The value of your organization is

proportional to the conversations taking place about it”

TALK WITH CLARITY AND CONSISTENCY OF MESSAGE



NARRATIVE

To be continued...


COACH. CONSULTANT. SPEAKER.

ABOUT THE AUTHORFor more than 20 years I’ve been marketing (and selling) something, to someone, somewhere on the planet.

I’ve done this for international giants (VP of Global Marketing for an organization BusinessWeek® magazine ranked 5th in the world’s top telecommunication companies and 118th in the world’s top 1000 global organizations), and many smaller operations.

Along the way I’ve been involved in hundreds of sales pitches, presentations, work-shops and keynote talks, providing me with unique marketing experience and invaluable lessons: Lessons I now share with folks from all walks of life and businesses.

It’s what I do. It’s my passion.

FABIAN [email protected]