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[PP Brand story] Bold provocative

 

The title of this post is PP Brand.

 

PP stands for Personalised Plate.  Here in our part of Australia, and perhaps where you live too, when you register a car, you can have the registration plate combination of numbers and letters allotted to you, or you can pay more for a personalised plate.

 

There must be many reasons for acquiring a personalised plate, but when someone sees your plate, they see your expression of your identity.

 

When I was growing up on a farm, we (my mother and I) recognised the locals' cars by their number plates.  These were not personalised.  I don't know if the concept even existed then.  But for majority of the locals, particularly of my father's generation there were two types of cars - Holdens and Fords and probably they could recognise those.  These were the men who could articulate a wide variety of types of cattle, and a wide variety of the crops you would grow to progress any particular type of animal to its best.

 

My mother, struggling to identify one out of many in either car type, I suspect, identified the cars by their number plates - or maybe it was just a topic of conversation.  The main two in our lives were ours and my aunt's and my mother referred to herself and the aunt as Mrs PIF and Mrs PEL because those were the letters in the number plates.  Ours was PIF 917.

 

Number plate as identity.

 

And now we have personalised number plates, sure signs of identity and therefore, if possible, brand.

 

Some mean nothing unless to those who know the owner, but there are those chosen with a message.

 

The one that made me super aware of this phenomenon was stopped at the lights as I was waiting to cross the street in our CBD.  It was on a low-slung, hugely expensive sports car, the motor purring as it sat there.  The Personalised Plate held one word and that word was

 

HATE.

 

The car and the plate screamed brand identity.

 

What would you associate with that setup?

 

My first reaction was "In yer face" and this is what Google provided

 
Aggressively or blatantly confrontational
Marked by, or displaying, a boldness of character
Offensive, causing or eliciting a strong negative reaction
Forceful, or having an immediate impact

 

I have had fun writing imaginary brand stories that involve that car.

 

The Archetype? --- has to be --- Outlaw!!

 

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What are you really selling?

What exactly are you selling?

What exactly is your client or customer buying?

The obvious answer, of course is, "your product or service".

And that is true,

until you actually have to persuade someone to buy,

until "sell" involves something more than the physical exchange of money or value.

Then it becomes fairly obvious that there is something more involved.

Let me say, right now, that what you are selling is a story.

A story is

the story of a change,

the change that your customer or buyer goes through when they use your product or service.

And that is the story you have to sell.

And while that change will have physical aspects and outcomes that might involve things like health, wealth, relationships; ultimately the result your client or customer wants is the emotion, the feeling.  They want to feel free, valued, better than, at peace; all sorts of things.  And they may not articulate that, but the want will be there.  

There is a saying that people buy based on emotion and justify based on logic.

And that is why stories are so valuable.  They can tap into the subconscious level of emotions.  We are wired for story and stories are inherently built on emotion.  

So your client story is vital in your marketing.  

Where are you telling your client story - that story of change?

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Would you let your son dive into this pool? Would a story change your mind?

I love visiting waterfalls and creeks and swimming holes in the rainforest.

There is beauty. There is  peace.
But also a  sense of activity as the water moves through its environment, trickling or roaring, making music of its own and changing the landscape as it goes.

This was a river, one of many, that we visited on our holiday, with all of the beauty and peace and movement. It is a popular tourist place, with facilities for visitors including beautifully maintained walks and lookouts. The river runs through huge rocks and the place is actually called “The Boulders”.

At many of the places we had visited before this one, there were swimming “holes” where people were swimming in the rivers, cold though the temperature was at the time, and other places where tour guides showed their clients how to inch across the rocks and slide safely with the water to a pool below.

It’s something that people do.

I have never swum in these water holes,  but I like to see the joy and fun that people have who do.

At a lake we visited there were the usual young men daring each other to feats of daring by diving backwards with a somersault into the lake, off a pontoon.

And in watercourses all around the country on any given day, there are children swinging out over lagoons and waterholes on an old tyre attached to a rope and jumping off into the water.

And all around the country, in any given year there will be accidents – people who want that fun, carefree joy and challenge – but who dive into shallow water or land on something submerged in the water.

There are people absolutely incapacitated because of such accidents or even worse.

In many places there are signs, just like this one …

and on the whole, people abide by them. Not always.

If I were a young man (or woman, though it seems to be young men who are more tempted), would I abide by them?

If I were a young man’s mother, would I want him to abide by them? I know the temptation is strong for the fun, carefree joy and challenge, and I know it is not always resisted.

But at The Boulders, the signs were different. And here’s where the story comes in.

 

I had never ever before seen a sign that said “Many people have died here”, and it was repeated on signs throughout the area.

People have died here.

That is a four word story.

I like to think it would have more impact than the standard sign.

If you were a young man (or woman), would you be more likely to abide by the rule?

If you were a young man’s parent or friend, would you be more likely to persuade him? I would like to think so.

I know as a mother … I would.

I was caught by this thought every time we passed such a sign.

But then when we walked out of the rainforest into the car park, I noticed this plaque on a rock.

Did he dive … and die?

Perhaps not, but if the story is that he did, imagine his mother, his father, his friends, his family, his community and how they felt when he did not return – forever – just because of that daredevil impulse.

That is a heartrending story of a young man who did not live out his life as he could have and whose death must have caused waves and years of anguish.

If you were a young man (or woman), would you be more likely to abide by the rule … knowing that story?

If you were a young man’s parent or friend, would you be more likely to persuade him?

I would like to think so.

I know as a mother … I would.

 

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5 Places you can use Story to Grow your Business (besides public speaking)

Your story mattersRight now, under the banner of a business called Pivotal Public Speaking, I am teaching small business owners about story - story for speakers? ... not altogether ...

If you are speaking to grow your business, then story is vital. It gives you credibility. It creates a deep engagement with your audience of potential clients. Most powerfully, though, it allows you to take a potential client into your business with you so that they feel, and hear, just what it is like to work with you, just what exactly it is that you do for them.

That is "if you are speaking ..."

The stories that you choose and tell, about your business, though, can then be used and re-used elsewhere with exactly the same power.

1. You can use them on the "About" page of your website/blog/web presence. They give that same level of engagement, credibility and awareness, that will have your web visitors clicking through to find out more.

2. You can use them on your sales pages. Let your prospective buyers know that you understand their pain and problems. Let them see your product in action. This is word of mouth marketing - online!

3. You can use them in conversations. You connect at a networking event. What more natural and yet powerful way of deepening that connection is there, than story? People arrive at your product display. Conversation, and story, will give them the human face of your business, your product, your service. And people do tend to buy people first. We know that, though often instictively.

4. You can use your story/stories in your social media marketing. On the surface this means sharing stories about your business - regularly. Facebook loves stories. Distill them down for twitter into tiny conversational pieces. Give them "corporate" style, if you need to, for LinkedIn. Under the surface, though, your brand story drives all that you do in social media. Confine all that you do, say and share to that defined specific story and you establish a strong brand presence.

5. Finally, you can use your stories when you are teaching. Many speaking engagements revolve around teaching about something in your business. Many businesses revolve around teaching something. Here the power of story is perfect for you because it creates engagement, it helps overcome objections to new ideas and it is a vital tool in the integration of brain function so necessary to successful learning.

So in "teaching" story, I am excited to be giving people far more than just a speaking tool, though it is certainly that.

If you are interested in learning more about story, either simply as a speaking tool, or as a tool to grow your business, why don't you join me?

You will learn

How to use stories for different outcomes.

How to draw an audience into your world or your business using story.

4 of the basic types of business story and where to find the ones in your business/life that will be more effective when you speak.

Story structure - the elements and processes of story and how to apply them and which ones work best in different situations.

How to integrate story into your speaking - how it fits into the structure of your presentation, how to use your voice, stage and stage presence to greatest effect and how to remember it.

Integrated into the program is a thread of how you use story to propel your personal growth, the growth of your business and your vision for the future

This is small group workshop format. In all of my workshops I find people learn much from each other, as they are learning from me, and I intend to maintain that.

The next workshop intake will be available later in the year. If you would like to be notified, please send me a message from my contact page and I will keep you in the loop.