HOW TO MAKE THE CUSTOMER THE HERO OF YOUR BRAND STORY

The Brief Faculty

For those who couldn't join us today, you can read the text here.

It contains the story of Michael Dubin and how he built his company to the value of 1 Billion Dollars using the power of  #brandstory  in less than 5 years.
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The Full text of an address presented by Ayo Moses Ogedengbe at The Brief Faculty on November 28, 2018

Time: 11 AM

Duration : 1 hour

Topic: MAKING CUSTOMERS THE HERO OF YOUR BRANDSTORY .

The Case Study: THE DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB

What is a brand story?

For most people,  the assumption is that a brand story has to do primarily with the history of a business.
 
They are not totally wrong.  But there is more to it. Much more important is the need to know that a brand story is the uniformed narrative that includes the feelings that your brand creates.

As against regular advertising, which is basically about showing and telling your products and services or business features,  a brandstory must inspire an emotional reaction. As a matter of fact,  it is more about the emotion that it generates.

Variables that can shape your brandstory  include:

1.The product
2.The Price
3.The History
4.The Quality
5.The Marketing
6. The Point of Sale experience
7. The purpose
8. The values
9. The location
10. And most importantly,  what other people say about you. Or your product,  as the case may be.

Every Brand has a story. 

It's always there from the the point of the idea, the vision,  mission, purpose and the sum total of the experience created.
It's in the daily efforts. 

From the point of idea generation and fine tuning,  concept development,  growth and down to saturation point, there is a constant struggle from brand owners and managers to sell products and services in a way that the consumer is happy to buy.

As the marketing communications field continues to evolve with the need to meet changing demands of consumers,  technology never stops changing the means for reaching people. 

In this age of constant noise,  aided by the advent of social media,  gaining the attention of consumers has become even more difficult.

How many times have you been with a friend and while out on a dinner date,  fellowship or even business meetings,  you see that they are mostly on their mobile devices rather than pay attention to the business at hand?

The attention span of consumers has been dwarfed greatly by the presence of so much  noise. 

To sell a product or service,  the need to capture the attention of the consumer in the midst of this noise has become very ardous.

Advertising copies that grab and sustain attention are no longer those that scream the names of brands and flashes their icons at intervals, or simply saying what the brand offers.

Public Relations programs that win are no longer those which merely publicises activities of brands or show social investment profile.

The key to delivering on brand value propositions  appears to now be more and beyond mere selling,  but by telling.

Brands that win in this new age of digital media  are those which truly puts the customer 1st ahead of everyone and everything else. 

The ultimate desire of the consumer is to be happy (emotial  desire) with their purchasing decisions.

Consumers have been , too many times,  deceived by claims that products and services never meet (Bad emotional experience) and this has dwarfed the trust element further.

Consumers want to win with their decisions. Who wants to be a loser?
Brands that takes a critical look at the desires of their customers,  understand the problems, develop products and services that solve those problems end up with the potentials to win in the market place.

The truth however is that winning is not guaranteed unless  it can gain and sustain attention,  as well as create the right emotion.

Pretty much more than gaining attention, a brandstory must connect with the need of the consumer to retain it.

It is only when this is achieved that repeat purchases occurs sustainably. When this experience is repeated, what you achieve is brand loyalty. People naturally love to be told,  rather than to be sold. 

Indeed,  Brands that win today in the market place are those that tell stories rather than seeking to sell by pushing their products into a very noisy space.

One of the most valuable thing about developing good stories for your brand is that if you tell a good story,  customers become brand ambassadors for free.  They become a part of the brand family.

Having presented a little about brandstory telling,  Let's look at a Case Study.

I have found THE DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB experience to be a beautiful one. 
Before the Dollar Shave Club,  most consumers of shaving sticks / blades go through hell and spend so much buying getting their supplies.

You are probably wondering why getting a shaving stick will be a problem. 

Again,  that's the power of using stories to present problems that appear not to exist.

In this case,  the problem was the Cost and stress of waiting in line to get products which inadvertently creates a Poor customer experience
Then came a young gentleman enterprenuer named Michael Dubin with his Dollar Shave Club Idea in 2011.

What was his Idea?

To Create a platform where people can sign up to get supplied shaving sticks at a ridicuouly affordable price every month without leaving their comfort zones.

Having achieved that,  he thought of a marketing strategy. 

Marketing strategy -

It is important to note that this was a startup brand up against a multi-billion dollar brand like Gillette... owned by the global giant known as Procter and Gamble.

So,  they decided to create a brand story out of consumers prevailing experience and their own offering for a happy ending.

Brandstory Idea:

To tell the customer we (Dollar shave Club) exist where they are.

To replay the challenges they face everyday (Bad Experience) .

To show them (consumers) that they are only making Roger Federer (since he was getting huge marketing deal) richer when they continue to pay so much for a shaving stick (Emphasizing the need for consumers to get value for money)

To show consumers that at ridicuouly low cost,  we will deliver better shaving sticks to them anywhere (Connecting to their needs and happy ending desires).

Medium:

Using television was almost out of it due to cost and static position of the TV.

Having Figured that there were about 4 billion phones in the world at the time with capacity for videos,  they knew the way to go.

Decision : Create a brand story and use on Website and YouTube.

They (Dollar Shave Club) commissioned  and launched their brandstory video at about 6:30 Am on March 6, 2011 and placed it on their website and youtube channel.

Results:

In less than 1 hour,  the site crashed from too much shopping. 

They worked at it and restored the site knowing that demands were out there.

In less than a year, they were getting a huge chunk out the market share of Gillete with speed.

At about the same time,  venture capitalists started pursuing Michael with funding offer.

First was a direct 1 million US dollars offer in funding from an investor. 

They attracted and gained 2 million subscribers in 2012 and 160 million Dollars in private equity funds.

In 2015, UNILEVER quickly moved in and started talking to Michael and his partner about the possible purchase of their company. 

In 2016, the company was acquired by UNILEVER for 1 Billion Dollars in Cash after Michael turned down a 500 Million Dollars offer from the same company.

The Dollar Shave Club became a major news around global investors christening Michael a business and marketing genius for creatively using the power of storytelling telling to disrupt a market that was hitherto believed to be saturated.

In using stories to gain and retain attention,  it is important to always remember that the customer is the hero. 

How much he or she is willing to pay, competition,  how the product will serve him or her,  where the products will be made available,  the location,  core values,  community responsibility,  social impact and all other relevant variables are central to the customer.

HOW TO DELIVER A FANTASTIC BRANDSTORY IN A DIGITAL AGE

1. Build the brandstory behind the scene.  Remember how a story is infused with personality.

2. Get your brand active on social media. Stories will spread through the power of social media.

3. Tell the story everywhere.

4. Ensure the story depicts the customers interests and incentivise them for telling the story everywhere

5. Use the customer experience as desired and encourage storytelling all the time as a brand

6. Never forget to always make the customer the hero of the brand story.

In doing this consider all the needs and wants of the customer and create a happy ending.

NOTE:
If your brand story doesn't start with the customer as the focus,  you have got to think again to know if you truly have a brand story to tell.

So,  in closing this presentation,  I would like to ask a question.

Who is the boss?
Who is the hero?

Thank you so very much for your time. It really is a honor to have been given this opportunity to share with you.

I do hope you enjoyed it. 

Glad to take your questions and contributions.