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The Brand Story Web Marketing Process
By Jerry Bader (c) 2009

If websites have one overarching goal it is to create confidence
in whatever the website is promoting and who's promoting it. It
doesn't matter if it's a product, a service, a sales campaign,
or an idea, if the presentation is not minimally credible or
optimally motivational, then it fails as a means of marketing
communication.

Communicate to the Subconscious Mind

Branding is often thought of as a marketing strategy reserved
for major consumer product companies, but the fact is all
businesses are brands that are either cultivated so they
blossom, or let go-to-seed like a garden full of weeds.

Marketing neophytes often think of branding only in terms of
some physical manifestation, like a logo, but a brand is the
full complement of residual impressions resulting from all the
experiences associated with a product, service or company. And
today, the online experience is a vital venue for creating those
experiences.

By using video, the marketer has the opportunity to tap into the
audiences' subconscious mind, the buried remnants of both
remembered and forgotten experiences; the kind of experiences
that form attitudes, prejudices, and preferences that inform our
decisions, most importantly our buying decisions.

Where Businesses Go Wrong

Where businesses go wrong is settling for only the obvious, the
logical, and the rational. Brands are formed in the
subconscious, so if your marketing communication doesn't reach
the subconscious mind then it is not establishing or enhancing
the brand in any meaningful, effective long-term way.

What video does, when done right, is communicate on both the
obvious and subconscious levels, making it the ideal
Web-communication vehicle for creating a powerful brand
experience, but only if you understand how to use the
presentation and performance elements available.

Considering how powerful a tool Web-video can be, it amazes me
how so many normally intelligent business people can opt for
second-rate presentations. The do-it-yourself and user-generated
efforts compete for the booby prize with the mindless corporate
drivel - they all miss the point: a persuasive motivating
presentation must communicate on multiple levels.

How To Deliver A Brand Story

We like to refer to developing, delivering, enhancing, and
managing a Web-based brand, as The Brand Story Process.
By thinking of your brand in terms of a story rather than just
some graphical image, or nebulous mission statement, you avoid
many of the pitfalls associated with ineffective branding.

A story, any story, has certain fundamental elements:

1. A storyline, plot or arc that moves the audience from
skeptical Web-surfers to loyal customers.

2. A hero, who vicariously represents the audience and
their dilemma in satisfying their subconscious needs or desires.

3. A villain, who represents the problems, obstacles, or
challenges that confront the audience in satisfying those
subconscious needs.

4. An agent of change that represents your company's
ability to resolve the dilemma by providing a solution to
satisfying those needs.

5. And a format that structures the presentation in a
series of procedural or serial video episodes, that establishes
and enhances the brand image, all while delivering literal and
subliminal benefits.

Storyline - The Arc of Transformation

At the heart of your brand story is your marketing message and
that message must invoke change: a transformation from
dissatisfaction to satisfaction, and not just a presentation of
features and benefits.

Your brand storyline puts what you offer into context, and
illustrates the achievable results through onscreen surrogates
acting out the audience's hidden agendas. A competitor can
always cut your price or add new features, but neither tactic
can overcome brand loyalty based on satisfying subconscious
emotional needs.

Hero As Brand Messenger

It's not just the message; it's the messenger. There is no
substitute for the human being. No avatar, cartoon character, or
computer-generated equivalent will provide the subtlety and
nuance required to communicate on the verbal, visible, and
subconscious levels.

The one caveat is that real people can be 'too real' for their
own good. We rarely recommend using company executives in front
of the camera because the camera picks up all kinds of signals
that the unpracticed performer is not aware of, resulting in an
impression often contrary to the intended message. An uptight
senior executive, no matter how well meaning, delivering a
reassuring message to the public over some product liability
problem can actually hurt the company's rehabilitation efforts
if that onscreen presenter is deemed untrustworthy or deceptive.

He'll Always Be Tricky Dick

There are many examples of this sort of marketing faux pas, with
Richard Nixon's 1960 television debate with John Kennedy being
one of the most famous. On the radio many people thought Nixon,
the veteran campaigner, won the debate, but under the
penetrating scrutiny of the television camera, Nixon's true self
came through. It was not just the five o'clock shadow; it was
his buried true-self delivering a negative impression to the
audience's subconscious mind. The negative Nixon brand was
established forever, one that never fully recovered.

A Brand Should Never Get Old, Ill, or Fat

Even positive reaction to a real personality can turn out to be
negative. Take the example of Steve Jobs. His keynote addresses
are treated like rock star performances, but when not available
to perform for whatever reason, rumors start, and even major
corporations like Apple feel the effect.

What you really want to create is a brand character, a
spokesperson that can be managed, cultivated, and grown into a
long-term brand representative, one who can deliver your
marketing message and brand story in consistent, effective, and
controlled campaigns.

Every Brand Story Needs A Villain

When we speak of the brand villain we are not necessarily
referring to another character although that can certainly be
one way of illustrating the issue at hand. As an alternative,
situations or scenarios can be used to represent the problem or
dilemma.

Psychological issues are most often not so cut-and-dried as to
be presented by the black-hat villain and white-hat hero.
Engaging heroes are often tainted or damaged in a way the
audience can relate to, and effective villains are not so much
evil as they are representative of an alternative agenda.

Take for example the recent commercial campaign for 'Oatmeal
Crisps' that is currently running in the Canadian market. The
series of spots features a father who is trying to protect his
favorite cereal from being consumed by his teenage son in one
commercial, and by his elderly father in another. This extremely
clever campaign digs deep into the emotional resentments and
psychological issues involved in the family dynamic, but it does
it in a humorous, lighthearted manner, where the audience can
relate to the situation, and accept the underlying message.
Here's a case of protagonist and antagonist, a more
sophisticated approach to the hero-villain relationship.

You Are The Agent of Change

By adopting the Brand Story approach to marketing, you need to
accept the notion that your brand is an agent of change. All
stories are about change: transformation from one state
(dissatisfaction) to another (satisfaction). You construct your
brand story based on the idea that your brand will transform the
audience somehow.

Take the 'Multi Grain Cheerios' commercial featuring a husband
and wife discussing the ingredients listed on the cereal box:
while the overt message is buy this product because it tastes
good, the underlying message is that it helps control your
weight thus making you more attractive to your spouse, not a
subject that any sensitive spouse would suggest. The cereal is
presented as the agent of change: overweight and unattractive,
to slim and beautiful, while at the same time removing the
stigma of dieting by providing the taste excuse to justify the
purchase.

This commercial like the previously mentioned 'Oatmeal Crisps'
commercial creates a conflict that delivers multiple messages
through the familiar husband-wife scenario; one that is familiar
to anyone who has ever dared suggest their significant other
should lose some weight.

Are You "Law and Order" or "Prison Break"?
Format: Procedural or Serial

The two most commonly used presentation formats are Procedural,
think "Law and Order", or Serial, think "Prison Break".
Procedurals follow a strict formula that continuously replays
the basic story arc with the context of each episode emphasizing
the consistent attitudes, perspective, and point-of-view of the
franchise or brand. On the other hand, Serials move the plot
along from episode to episode keeping the audience in suspense
as to what is going to happen next and whether the brand hero
will win the day.

One of the best Serial advertising campaigns every implemented
was the Nescafe Gold Blend coffee campaign that ran from
1987-1992. You can watch the whole campaign from beginning to
end on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igi9u6X4y-s).

One of my favorite Procedural style campaigns is the recent
Kleenex (Let It Out) campaign that was brilliantly executed. It
played upon the audience's emotions, memories, and experiences,
while associating those deep-seated feelings with their brand of
facial tissue that is normally regarded and sold as a strictly
commoditized product.

Doing Something, Isn't Necessarily Doing It Well

Far from being restrictive, these formats provide familiar
structure within which the company can establish and enhance
their brand, but failure to grasp the underlying emotional
element inherent in your offering will lead to failure. A
current Canadian advertiser tried to copy the Kleenex format
without understanding what made the Kleenex campaign effective;
they copied the physical presentation but without any emotional
subtext, relying totally on a cost-to-performance benefit, and
the result is a second rate effort rather than an effectively
clever slipstreamed homage.

It's About People, By People, For People

Unlike television advertising that is restricted to only those
that can afford it, the Web is available to all. The problem is
easy and affordable access to the tools and venues to deliver
your brand story does not mean that you are telling it
effectively. Marketing communication is not about research,
technology, or statistics; it's about people and the underlying
emotional needs your brand satisfies - therein lies the basis
upon which you build your brand story.
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Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design
firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Ask about our
Summer Video Website Campaign Special. Visit
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and
http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com
or telephone (905) 764-1246.
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