A digital media company (Nielsen Top 20 market) asked me to assess their branding and marketing; here are excerpts from my report:
This piece of content is well-executed technically but is too broad in concept and copy. If its true intent is to articulate a motivating mission statement—a brand promise—I would utilize it as a campaign launch only and then develop its messaging, across all platforms, into marketing that is more specific, visceral, and real. Let's look at its offer of "local coverage from where you live," for example. If research shows that this is something your customers value, let's not just say that we're in the business of giving you "local coverage from where you live" –any competitor could make that claim—let's show it more sincerely, more pointedly, in a way that creates meaning and serves to bond us, emotionally, to the customers we are hoping to sway.
Storytelling is the key; if we utilize effective, resonant storytelling, we can foster engagement and connection. As your potential customer, I don't want to just hear your claims—I want to believe them. I want to see how you do what you do and be impressed by it. I want to understand how you are different. I want to know what my experience as your customer will be.
One method for doing this is to directly share your philosophy—your sense of purpose—with your customers. What gets you up in the morning? Why did you get into this business? What do you hope to accomplish today? Welcome them in, reveal something sincere to them; make it personal, make it real. That's where the generic segues into the specific, where the abstract becomes the meaningful—and that's where an opportunity for real impact exists.
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There is a fantastic bullseye in this piece of content—the moment in which the teary-eyed woman looks into the camera and tells us why she's upset. That moment reaches me and makes me feel. If we stop being marketers and start thinking like customers—the people to whom we're marketing—we realize immediately that this is the type of arresting moment that makes us look up, listen, and remember. I only wish the content provided more opportunities like this. While I appreciate that we're using real examples to back up our claims, the moments we present aren't visceral enough; they simply tell me that you covered these stories, which is something I would already expect from my news source. As your potential customer, I need to know in what ways you are unique. How are you delivering a different experience and a different degree of value? If what way are you exceeding rather than just meeting my expectations? You can easily tell me what you do and what you've done, but in doing so you're keeping me at a distance, you're commoditizing me, you're telling me what you want me to think. At its best, this approach could strike me as irrelevant; at its worst, it could strike me as insulting. As your potential customer, I want something different—I want to feel respected, I want to feel engaged, I want to believe in you and your organization.