It is becoming more and more difficult to find something a person can really trust anymore. We have become a cynical society whose first thought is "What's in it for them?" We have been lied to, deceived, and suckered into buying products, voting for candidates, and supporting organizations. Knowing this is the culture you, as an organization, are trying to reach, how can you get anyone to trust you? How can you stand out from all the other competitors who are saying the same things but making liars of themselves? It all boils down to consistency. And as simple as that may seem, the truth is that consistency is anything but simple. Consistency takes intentionality. Quite often, it is the more difficult path to forge simply because it is the path least taken.
In past articles, we have discussed the fact that a brand is in the mind of the people. First, your brand is not what you say it is, it's what they think it is. 1 Second, a great brand is formed around who you are and not what you do. It is your unique culture, not necessarily what you do or sell that makes you elevate above your competition. 2 Honesty is at the heart of these two truths. You must begin by being honest about who you are. When you are honest about who you are, what you are capable of, and why you exist then you will begin to see the things you communicate match the experiences people have with you. Even though we cannot control our brand due to the fact that our brand is a collection of perceptions, we do have control over creating a consistent experience that will eventually influence the perceptions. After all, no matter what you are selling, ultimately you are selling an experience.
Know Your Audience
It is easy to sit in a conference room filled with managers and stakeholders dreaming about who you want to be, how you are going to communicate that, and how your product is going to change the world. It is equally as easy to stare an enormous problem you are encountering in the face and begin to analyze all the ways you are going to find a solution to that problem. We have an abundance of dreamers and analyzers. What we often neglect in those two scenarios is a true understanding of our audience. We need the relational leaders in our discussions as well. It is easier to speculate who your audience is and what they want, but to actually research into one's audience takes time. It is the more difficult route to discover who your audience is at their core. What are they passionate about? What do they hate? How do they accomplish the simple and complex tasks in their life? These are only a few of the questions an organization should know intimately before beginning any development of products or marketing.
One of the traps I often see companies fall into is a broad, unspecified audience. You might think that the more broad your audience, the more people you will impact. What actually happens when you have a broad undefined audience is that your message gets spread so thin no one ends up having the experience you were trying to create. You send mixed messages when you are trying to reach too many audiences, and mixed messages are a detriment to your brand. An experience that makes a lasting impression is one that hits so close to home that a person in your audience thinks, That product was created just for me. If your message is too broad, if your goals are unspecified, your audience will never take full ownership of your brand. Experiences that lead to audience ownership is how movements are started.
Be Honest, Not Idealistic
As you are in the process of discovering who your audience is and what perceptions they have of your organization, it is imperative that you do not focus on who you wish you were. You need to be honest with yourselves about who you are as an organization and what you are capable of doing. If you build messages around who you wish you were, when people experience your product or organization they will quickly see through your idealism.
Volvo is an example of a brand who has spent years building their messages to emphasize the safety of their vehicles. I still remember a commercial several years ago with a young talkative girl getting into the back of a Volvo with her dad driving. The tagline was "Who would you give a Volvo to?" They have spent years developing the safety of their vehicles too. Each car has a roll bar built into the entire frame. The engine is built to drop down in a head on collision so as to not impact the driver. Consumer reports marvel about their high level of safety. Their messages were not simply empty promises though; it wasn't just a sales gimmick to lure young families away from minivans. They built a vehicle that produces an experience of honesty from their messaging. Recently, Volkswagen has started an add campaign focusing on the safety of their vehicles. Unfortunately, Volkswagen has not had the same track record of safety as Volvo. If you want to become something you are not, you better make sure you build the experiences first. Let people experience the ways you have made your vehicle more safe before you tout how safe your vehicles are.
If your organization cannot produce the experiences to back up your messaging, the first place to start is the systems that create the experiences. If you begin with your messaging and don't offer the experience to back it up, people will never trust your organization.
Find Solutions Through Experience
I think every organization has the same ultimate goal. You want people to trust who you are and what you produce. Instead of trying to solve problems on an intellectual level, you must consider the experience you are producing for the people. By creating a consistent message to your specific audience and being honest about what you have to offer them, the experiences the public has with your organization will be consistent. And consistency builds trust.
In the book Insanely Great by Steven Levy, the author quotes Steve Jobs saying,
"When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple, you don't really understand the complexity of the problem. Then you get into the problem, and you see that it's really complicated, and you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That's sort of the middle, and that's where most people stop.... But the really great person will keep on going and find the key, the underlying principle of the problem—and come up with an elegant, really beautiful solution that works. That's what we wanted to do with Mac."
Don't just build solutions to problems in the confines of your corporate office; discover the type of experience your audience desires to have from an organization like you, be honest about what you are capable of providing them and then build a consistent message the people will experience over and over again. You will be amazed at the movement that begins.
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