The Story

At first, it seems like a harsh, ugly question.  But asking “who cares?” is a critical way to get to the bottom of brand discovery.  At CBC, we talk about three broad ideas:

1.  Find the Story (few companies do this as well as they think they do)

2.  Tell the story (the fun part)

3.  Prove the story (what should be the fun part, but few companies do at all)

But before you can tell or prove the story, you must know what the story is with ridiculous clarity and razor-sharp focus.  That’s where “who cares?” comes in as a great tool.

As you dig in to figure out what your brand is really all about–what it stands for–ask “who cares?” over and over again.  Close variations that are also handy:  “why is that important?”, “why should ____ care about that?”, etc.  Here’s an example of how it works out:
Your Company:  “Acme Bank is about excellent service.”

You:  “Yawn.  Who cares?”

Your Company:  “Our customers care!”

You:  “Why do they care?”

Your Company:  “Because it makes banking less of a chore.”

You:  “Who cares if it’s a chore? Why is that important?”

Your Company:  “Because banking is an irritation.”

You:  “Hmmm….who cares?”

Your Company:  “I care!  I want customers to be happy when they come in to see us.”

You:  “Why is that important?”

Your Company:  “Because this needs to be a fun place to work.”

Ahhh, now we’re getting somewhere.  So the brand isn’t about “excellent service,” it’s about the result of excellent service:  having a fun workplace for happy employees.  Starting with “excellent service” provides absolutely no differentiation whatsoever.  But digging deeper with a few rounds of “who cares?” uncovers something much more interesting and potentially differentiated:  having a fun place to work.  That’s the beginning of a powerful brand.

Now the next step is to develop 1,000,000 other ways to prove the “fun place to work” story.  But that’s a whole diferrent post…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 9:43 am and is filed under Bank Branding, Credit Union Branding, Bank Marketing, Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.