BELIEF - a simple and powerful premise to build your brand resiliently through the RESET.
“We don’t have a story. We just started. Look! (Product name). We are a (sub-category label) app./service/product. You can do this and that (functions).”
Sounds familiar? If it does, it is a sign that you’re up to do some real work. Carefully consider your brand’s belief system to carve out your brand actions and brand narrative beyond a cute name, a colorful logo, a comparable interface and utility features, like-able social posts - for the consumer’s eyes; mission(ing) and vision(ing) for the internal or corporate eyes hooked on to a short slick TG definition.
While you are at it, if you hit the crossroad with questions like, “We have a product-market fit. What the heck is a cultural fit?” – you are on the right path. It will help you un-herd from those following PRESETS in place of pursuing their own beliefs. Only belief can build resiliently through this RESET. Only belief can tell you which sentiment/social wave is not for you. There is a lot to learn from history, if you are not trying to latch on to history.
2020 has given enough examples of brands being discovered or being dropped on their beliefs. Take a deep breath and dive in! Your brand narrative is a close friend of your Brand’s belief/s.
Some DIY questions to get you started are here:
i. What does this AD/POST/PROMOTION say about your brand’s belief/s?
ii. Where is this action/suggestion/initiative coming from?
iii. What else could we think of doing to get our BELIEVERS closer?
iv. Are we addressing our BELIEVER or NON-BELIEVER or a NAYSAYER by doing/saying this?
v. What are your typical BELIEVER stories behind the regular slice of demographic, socio-economic classification?
Parting ways with PRESETS could be painful but empowering
“I am in so-and-so category (label) and I don’t compare to or compete with them (XYZ player under another category label)”. Challenging PRESETS is how cultures evolve and products of culture are born.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the “Amazon Effect” running into Logistics or disruption prepared to push SpaceX’s Telecom designs. RESETS are penetrating through presets and precedents. To Be or Not To Be – is perhaps a question of BELIEF/s. And the Unknown-Unknowns are nothing but questions which were never asked or thoughts believed to be weird or uninformed or even impossible.
How many times have you checked your Brand’s Health against your BELIEFS? Or is it enough to check your brand’s health against the standards by which the category identifies itself? Have you begun to view your BELIEVERS through their individual stories or are they pixels and a pre-determined definition or label which does not talk back? If the latter is true, it serves only for targeting your media reach. It does nothing to bring you closer to their life – not even with a periodic ethnographic study you commission or the copious amounts of data you’ve gathered on their actions/screen-habits.
Belief is the cornerstone of any brand, right from the word ‘go’. Putting some thought to begin with, is real work. It is not the usual brand bickering.
Believe it or not!
© 2020 Narrativ.Design. All rights reserved.The author is the founder of Narrativ.Design. He has worked in various strategic roles across Asia, on local and global brands for over 15 years. He is fluent in Bengali, Hindi and English. You can reach him at authors@narrativ.design.Image: ©Pathfinderabhi