Why logic isn’t enough to win at marketing.
As the Founder & CEO of the advertising and idea agency, The Weaponry, I get to work on a lot of great brands with a lot of great people. But as someone passionate about great creative work it may surprise you to hear that one of my favorite brands to work on is in a historically conservative category. Yet we have developed a brand personality and creative work for our client that is full of the type of personality and wit that is more common in categories like soda pop or men’s deodorant. #ImOnAHorse.
But like most brands, our fun client also has a lot of legitimate reasons to choose it the way choosey moms choose JIF. So a while back the marketing team decided to emphasize those legitimate reasons to choose the brand in a fairly straightforward way. The personality was downplayed. Features and benefits took center stage. And the brand started feeling, well, flat. Kinda like soda pop after someone left the cap off of the bottle for a few days, in Iowa.
I could tell that we were starting to drift slowly off course. The fun brand we had built was an honest reflection of the reason customers loved the organization. The people and culture of the place were great. We simply made sure that it shined bright like a diamond in the marketing too.
So we met with our client and shared our concerns. I told the client that we were getting too logical. We were focusing on rational reasons to choose our brand. And our endearing personality, the fun, cool, the funny, was fading into the background. As we focused on our features and benefits, things that many of our competitors could also promote, we were losing our differentiation. And we were in danger of losing our emotional magnetism.
As marketers, we must never forget this fundamental law:
To be wildly successful, you need your audience to love you, not logic you.
Our superstar clients understood the problem. And we made appropriate adjustments. Starting with our next creative campaign, we put our personality front and center as we promoted the great reasons to believe in the brand.
Today, when I see our work I love everything about the brand. The personality is fun, smart and clever. It provides a smile if not a laugh. There is a clear reason to choose the brand in every marketing morsel. People comment on the work all the time. And the brand is enjoying strong growth and success across the board. Which I love most of all, Scarecrow.
Key Takeaway
Resist the temptation to focus fully on your features and benefits. Brands should have personalities, just like people. Invest time and energy in developing a great personality that grabs attention and magnetizes your audience to the brand. Make your customers and prospects love you, not logic you. Because once you win their hearts, everything else will follow.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.
Originally published at http://adamalbrecht.blog on July 24, 2024.