Level 1 Brand | Where do you start with brand storytelling?
What story should you be telling when you start your business? Should you “start with why”, or does that spell financial disaster?
Back when I published my concept of the 5 Levels of Brand Development, I received a lot of similar questions. It seemed everyone wanted to know:
“Is my company a level 1 brand?”
Here's the thing: if you're asking that question, you're probably a Level 1 Brand. I don’t say that to make you feel bad, rather I want to help you understand what you need to accomplish at this stage.
It's understandable to see the advertising that iconic brands like Apple, Nike and Red Bull publish and view that as a standard of excellence. It seems to be what works. The natural assumption is to copy what iconic brands do, because that will result in success. Right?
Wrong.
In fact that’s the quickest way to bankruptcy.
The point of the 5 levels is that it’s an observation of growth stages, very similar to childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. You can’t go from zero to iconic. Imagine you just learned to snowboard and immediately go on a halfpipe and attempt to pull off a triple cork. You’ll probably end up in the hospital or dead. The same principles apply to brand storytelling.
You can’t run out of the gate and emulate Apple if no one knows who you are.
5 Levels of Brand Development [Review]
I’ve observed that as a brand develops, it goes through 5 levels of development.
Awareness
Your brand is what you do. At this stage, your brand story is the marketplace story. It’s the value your product/service offers and the transformation it causes in your target customer.Lifestyle*
At this stage, the company has likely expanded their offerings and the story is no longer about a single product/service. Therefore, you must communicate a mission story, a lifestyle that you stand for, that acts as an umbrella to tie your offerings together.Product*
Your brand has become a product. This is when your marketing channels become additional revenue streams (e.g. events, books, monetized content platforms, etc.)Philanthropic
When you tell “net good” stories to advance your mission. This is when your brand has gained enough sway and influence that your marketing has the ability to impact society and shape culture.Iconic
At this level, your brand has become a cultural icon. And you can do whatever you want (within reason) because you have billions of dollars.
*Note: I am noticing that product happens before lifestyle. These two stages will switch in future writings.
To review, at level one, your brand story is what you do. Your company is the core product or service your provide. Therefore, the story you tell is the marketplace story.
Here's this customer, and they have these problems that they're facing. These problems are super frustrating and affect them on all different levels. They wish their life was different. They have these goals that they hope to fulfill. But because this problem is in their way, they can't move forward. They’re stuck and their dream is threatened. But this product/service arrives and removes that barrier. The customer experiences both massive relief along with excitement because of these added benefits and features that improve their life. And now, they’re a completely new person, fully transformed. That’s why you need this product/service, too.
That's a marketplace story. That is a customer testimonial. It’s also known as a sales story. It’s your brand’s value proposition in a story format.
Your “Why” at Level 1
You can and should be communicate your “why” at this stage. However, your “why” must be contextualized within your offer.
What I mean is what your customer wants to hear about at this stage is,
“Why did you create this for me?”
In a way, it’s kind of like an origin story. But what you’re explaining is how you identified this need in the marketplace. How did you realize this isn't being done properly? What made you believe there's a better way to solve this problem for this person?
You're always answering the question, “What's in it for me?” Because that's what’s in your customer's mind at all times. What's in this for me? Why should I trust you?
Your “why” is to prove why they should trust your brand. You do that by showing them your heart really is in the right place because it's focused on them.
Level 1 | Strategic Foundation
A brand has a lot of work to complete at level 1. The goal is to lay a strategic brand foundation that will allow the company to quickly build an effective layer of sales enablement content. Because that’s the ultimate goal at level 1: consistent revenue.
Money is the ultimate change agent. And you need money consistently coming in before you can ever hope to change the world. Sales first, then impact.
The entrepreneur’s or marketer’s goal is to clarify the brand’s
Positioning - making sure who you are and how you can help them is extremely obvious to your target customer.
Offer - a clear and compelling product or service package for sale
Value proposition - the promised value you will add to your target customer
Customer profile - the demograhpics and psychographics of who you want to serve/help.
Customer journey - your target customers journey to and through your company.
Customer learning path - the information a customer must learn about your brand and offer in order to purchase
Sales process - the steps you lead your customer through as you present your offer and close the sale
Frequently asked questions - common questions, concerns, or objections that customers have as they move through the sales process
SEO strategy - core keywords related to your product/service to capture organic search and raise your authority
Marketplace story - see above
What Content to Make?
If you lay your strategic foundation, what does that look like in terms of marketing deliverables/content?
1) Evergreen Content Funnel
In the last episode, I discussed the value of placing your brand film inside a sales funnel. Compared to a sales funnel, an evergreen content funnel is more passive. Rather than being a directed sequence, it’s purpose is to attract organic traffic and provide them with a self-guided tour of your brand. These are mainstay content pieces with a long shelf-life that provide information and insights to give people a sense of who you are and what you’re about.
In terms of video marketing, I wrote an article covering the 7 Videos Your Company Needs that basically provides an architecture for a video-based evergreen content funnel.
As another example, my podcast and this blog are part of my evergreen content funnel. My website is the foundation of this funnel. Each page of my site, and how they’re structured, is a necessary piece. The sales enablement videos on those pages are also pieces of my evergreen funnel.
It’s self-guided because you’re free to click around my website how you like. Unlike a sales funnel where you have a specific, single action.
2) Sales Funnel
Your sales funnel could be as simple as building your email list with a valuable lead magnet opt-in. Or you could drive customers to a specific offer. If you have different target segments, then make one per segment. If you already have different offers, build one per offer.
Once you have your evergreen and sales funnels in place, marketing your offer will start to be easier. You now have a foundation in place to begin to automate your sales process. You're really honed in on exactly who you're trying to target. You're really honed in on how you need to approach them, how you need to communicate with them. You're constantly framing the value you offer within a story. The message is really sticking with them.
With that foundation, you’ll have the strategy and materials in place to help your business convert potential leads into customers. Now you're capable of telling other (dare I say, more meaningful) stories that aren't so focused on making sales and driving revenue. Because if somebody sees those stories, you have a framework set in place to capture them as a potential lead and turn them into a customer.
That's the the risk in copying iconic brands. You risk pouring marketing dollars into entertaining, or mission-based storytelling before you’ve built a framework to catch them. Without your strategic framework and funnels, they don’t know what you offer them or what their next step should be to partner with you. They don’t know how to receive the value you provide.
You never want to become free entertainment.