Compelling Storytelling - Emotion in Marketing

A good story doesn't need to be novel length. In fact, a compelling narrative can be just a few words. In marketing copy, it should be.

Good marketing communications should tell a story. It should evoke emotions. It should lend credibility to its source, and should compel a person to action. This is the biggest piece - we are talking business communications here. Without inspiring action of some sort, marketing communications is just noise.

Sales and marketing are often seen to be the same beast. This isn't true, but sales and marketing can't be viewed in isolation from each other either. We all have "something to sell". If you aren't successfully compelling someone to take action towards you, then you aren't successfully marketing yourself, and you aren't selling anything.

Tell a story. Involve people. Give them the opportunity to be a part of your story. Build a relationship. Sales is like the first date, or the consummation - but don't ignore additional opportunities to build trust, curiosity, enjoyment and passion.

The Central Idea of the Occasion: 272 Words

A short attention span isn’t necessarily a bad thing - distractibility is usually preferable to obsession. Quick decision-making is an admirable skill, as long as the decisions are rooted in some semblance of informed wisdom. Many people have little patience for the time it takes to understand complicated ideas. Many huge decisions - like signing a mortgage, buying a car, or casting a vote – are often made based on the most readily available information.

The essence of effective communication is sharing a complex idea in a concise manner, providing just enough information to convey your point quickly and persuasively.

Politics provides many examples of successful concision in communications. The Gettysburg Address – one of Abraham Lincoln’s most enduring, effective speeches - was just 272 words, lasting less than two minutes. Edward Everett made a two-hour speech on the same occasion, and he later wrote to Lincoln “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

It has been argued that the 2012 US Presidential election was won and lost on the centrality and resonance of each candidate’s message – their ability to communicate the true core of their positions. People seemed to know where Obama stood, for better or worse. Romney, with an electorate willing to listen, was unable to articulate the core of his platform in a manner that was satisfying enough to earn a majority of votes.

Understand your central idea, and reveal its core, in order to be successfully persuasive.

272 Words!

Intuition, Information, Incubation, Inspiration: The Reason You Pay a Creative Professional

There are lots of acronyms and clever concepts that go with marketing tips and tricks. Many appear in blogs just like this one. However, I recently stumbled upon a concept that is mentioned almost in passing by Howie Cohen, the copywriter behind Alka Seltzer’s “I Can’t Believe I Ate the Whole Thing” campaign from 1972. The concept of “The Four ‘I’s of Creativity” appears to be his own (it doesn’t show up anywhere else on Google), and it is worth examining in greater detail.

Cohen characterizes his process of intuition, information, incubation, and inspiration at 4:38 in this video:

This concept resonated with me immediately because it codifies the professionalism and process that validates what a creative professional is worth. People rarely question legal fees because they are supported by a lawyer’s education, experience and skill – but the work of a creative professional is equally skilled, and informed by ability, experience and insight.

Cohen’s process also resonated with me because it reflects how I work with creative problems – particularly when it comes to creatively solving and/or articulating a business challenge, whether it is defining the core essence of a brand, mapping out a strategic plan, or defining key messages, mission statements and copy. This is how the “Four ‘I’s” are employed when I work with clients:

1.     Intuition: We have a strong general idea of what a brand/business challenge represents and/or needs, and we have a strong sense of who the target audience is, but we need to unwrap it and study it in much greater detail.

2.     Information: We gather as much information and intelligence as possible that will support solutions to our business challenge. Decisions are easiest to make when you have the accurate information you need to guide your judgment.

3.     Incubation: This is the core of creative talent and expertise – the ability to season and simmer the “creative soup” to reveal the core elements, to get to what is most compelling and relevant.

4.     Inspiration: This is where “the idea” appears – the fully formed, resonant, and accurate idea that is the culmination of the art and science of creative communications. “The idea” tells the full and complete story in a manner that is simple, concise, accurate, and interesting.

Near the end of this video, Cohen also notes (with complete nonchalance), “an ounce of emotion is worth a pound of facts”. This is the core of concise communications: pounds of facts are great, but they can also be time-consuming and boring. A concise creative solution to a big business problem exists – but you may need to employ the skill and experience of a creative professional to pull your “idea” out of the ether.

Keep Calm, Join the Dark Side

Sometimes graphic designers are either lazy, stupid, or really, really devious.


Walmart redesigned their logo in 2008, and the shift was apparently pretty haphazard, if this report is correct. It is certainly a friendlier look. I remember when Wal-Mart stores (then hypenated) appeared in Canada, and its logo look barely less friendly than an outpost of the US Army:

The uppercase letters were monolithic, and the star was as American as... well, the US army:

The logo change in 2008 was softer.... the font was lowercase, rounder, and more "friendly". It's more "approachable", for sure. It was surely designed to embrace Walmart's (now un-hyphenated) growing global presence.

Nobody knew what the starburst was supposed to represent, but hey, it looked pretty. Like a flower, perhaps - or a flash from a far away galaxy.

Unfortunately, Walmart's global expansion has been viewed by many as a form of economic colonialism - taking over the world, one rollback at a time. This new logo was likely created in part to address this concern by appearing more friendly, and less American.

Which brings me to my point: was the designer lazy, or insidiously devious? Either way, you have to admit.... the new logo looks a hell of a lot like the logo of the Galactic Empire.

Party on, Darth.

Branding Beyond the Product Label - Managing for Success webinar

This video was presented on June 25th, 2012 as a part of Ontario's Managing for Success webinar series directed towards Ontario food and beverage processing companies.

While the audience was food & beverage processors, the general principles hold true for most small businesses.

The general point is this: as a leader in your company, you can spend hours building a convincing case for what sets your product apart from your competitors - but can you do it in 30 seconds?

A strong brand and concise message are the most successful marketing tools available to your business – but only if you build them well.

This is a long video, so you might want to top up your coffee first....

A Branding Evolution for Sociable

A brand is not a logo. It’s not a company name. These things contribute to a brand, as do every other element that make up a company or organization – including people, products or services, culture… the list could be endless, but there’s a lot that goes into it.

Still, it is a scary (and sometimes dangerous) thing to change a logo or a company name. It can be refreshing and effective, but it can kill any equity you have built over time.

My company has been running for three years, and I felt it was time to freshen things up a bit with my own forward-facing marketing. I took a huge shot of inspiration from my friends over at MacMillan Marketing Group, who just took a brave (and ridiculously effective) leap evolving into “The Letter M Marketing”. It was a major change, and they hit all the points it set out to do: they look like a new company, but they maintained all the history and personality behind the company that made them (and their brand) great in the first place.

So, after a bit of soul searching and strategic planning, I decided that my greatest business challenge is countering initial misperceptions about “what I do”. I can explain what I do easily enough, but I felt my actual logo was supporting misperceptions before anyone even met me.

I was subject to a weird convergence of timing when I established my company in January 2009. The name “Sociable” is itself an eastern-Canada term for “cheers”. The colour scheme I chose for the logo - shades of blue - was deemed “professional and welcoming” (there’s lots of studies about colour perceptions as they relate to business).

Sociable Communications Logo: January 2009
Designed by Annette ten Cate - Orange Door Design

The problem? February 2009 saw the sudden explosion of this “new thing” called “social media”. Social media has been around for years of course, but that season was when it blew up in the public consciousness. If you care to quibble with the timing, check out Twitter new user uptake in that period:

According to this data, there were about 2 million new Twitter users in February 2009, and almost 8 million only two months later. These were the heady days when Ashton Kucher broke a million followers, and Oprah wouldn’t shut up about social media. It was an interesting time to have a communications, marketing & media company called “Sociable”. It didn’t help that my carefully-chosen colours were also seen as “professional and welcoming” by a few other companies that were quickly growing in prominence….

This could have been a great boost to business if I wanted to be just a social media consultant - but as I have written and said often, social media is just one tactic in an overall communications strategy. I have no interest in helping people to communicate information if I feel they are not communicating helpful, relevant information… but most folks just wanted a Facebook page, not a strategic marketing & communications strategy. I did some really interesting work with a number of larger companies to integrate social media use into their overall communications, and that was great, but it isn’t where the future is going.

So, it’s time for a fresh coat of paint. I went so far as to completely strip my logo (and company name) apart, with redesigns and all sorts of stuff. However, I think there is a certain equity in my “inverted exclamation marks” (the word ‘Sociable’ in the Maritime context is always shouted), it is supportive of my business philosophy, and I like it.

The word ‘communications’ has a few challenges: a lot of people ask if I work with “cell phones”. So, I thought I’d add in the “& Marketing” to not only get that in there, but also to visually highlight the word “Sociable” better. If I have anything resembling a wordmark in my brand, that’s it.

So, deciding that I didn't need to reinvent the wheel dramatically, I was down to colours. The blues are not as relevant to me as they used to be, and have actually become potentially harmful against the ubiquity of the “Facebook” shades. After stripping apart a number of ideas, I landed on something that better represents me. If I practice what I preach, then I have to embrace the fact that “I am the brand” as much as anything, which brings me to my musical instruments. I have a lot – probably too many - but these are my favorites:

Notice a similarity? So, voila…. That’s where I landed on the new colours – a quiet emulation of the inner shading on my beloved vintage Gibson J-45 and my Fender Jazz basses, which leads to the new (and slightly evolved logo) for Sociable:

Thanks to Francesco Piccioni, Lisa Lawless and Marshal McLernon for the design assistance and insight, and to Annette ten Cate for the original design!

Your Website Redesign: Help us help you

A website designed only a few years ago may already be lacking when compared against the online activities of competitive organizations. Many elements are becoming increasingly critical for maintaining an effective, relevant online presence.

Consider some of the following options before you evolve your online efforts, and be sure that your marketing service providers understand what you are looking for before they quote the job for you.

Integrated communications: If your slightly-aged website looks or reads differently from your current advertising, sales activities, newsletters or key messages, then don’t do that. Your online presence should be the forefront of your outgoing communications, never an afterthought. Say the same thing, say it consistently, and say it everywhere: if you are saying different things in different places, you are harming your brand.

Content Management System (CMS): You should be able to update the content of your website as frequently as you wish – especially if your business or organization is evolving. If you have to email your website designer each time you want to change a few words, it is inefficient and expensive. Furthermore, it is generally acknowledged that search engines prioritize websites with frequently updated content as a mark of relevancy and engagement. In other words, a “digital brochure” website will actually hurt your ability to rise in search engine rankings. Content management systems are simply software interfaces, available either as purchased software, or software-as-a-service (SAAS) that your designer can set up. If a web developer is not willing to set you up with a CMS, find another developer.

Search engine optimization (SEO): SEO rules are always changing, and Google doesn’t share their specific search engine algorithm changes, but at least pay attention to the basics: good keywords, effective keyword use in titles, headings, body text, well-named images, relevant back links (if appropriate), etc.

Mobile integration: Research if your customers or potential customers may access your online presence with mobile interfaces, mobile apps, or if they will tend to find you through a traditional website. Mobile integration may be important – if so, ensure your developer addresses this – and make sure that your CMS works with the integration.

Content sharing: Establishing thought leadership with information provided through your online activities is increasingly important – be sure that viewers can share your content easily, without having to turn to outside channels like Facebook or Twitter. Integrate your own sharing tools onto pages where content may be relevant for others to share.

Communities: Forums and online communities demand a certain amount of attention, but if they are appropriate for your brand, they can be really valuable for maintaining dialogue with your customers. Framed another way, online communities aren’t very different from a physical store where repeat customers stop by to “talk shop” with your staff and each other, in order to answer questions and share their own interests.

E-Commerce: There are lots of really cool (and cheap) ways to integrate safe, secure online sales into your website, many through SAAS (www.shopify.ca is great). If you have a product that can be sold online, there are tools galore to do so – don’t miss out on sales opportunities for another minute.

Social media: If you are already generating communications content, then push it out everywhere – publish your newsletters on your website as a blog or a news page, and be sure that RSS feeds are in place, as well as automatic notification of updates that are populated to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (if appropriate), etc. Share existing messaging as broadly as possible, and ensure that all touch points are integrated in their look, message, personality and feel. Use tools to streamline your social efforts – I’m a huge fan of www.hootsuite.com.