When you are talking to your audience through your advertising and marketing efforts, can your audience see what you are saying? Are they creating the visual of your words in your ads, blog, tweet or Facebook update? In Bill Maynard’s book, Incredible Ned, the other children see what Ned is saying. He is forced into silence as when he says anything, it appears next to his head. Imagine as a brand if what you say appears next to the person hearing it. A big win for the brand as you have captivated them and when their visual is positive, you have a new customer. A customer that has an emotional connection to your brand and if your product/service performs well, you have a created brand loyalty. We could look at this and say once a purchase has been made that customer themselves is now showing everyone what you are saying however, it is a bit deeper than this because you have to brand your brand to get them to buy first.
Seeing What You Say
Seeing what you say sounds almost ridiculous until you really think about it. In order to build brand loyalty you have to build trust and we build trust from what we are saying; when people believe it. Does your audience need to see what you say? If you want them to see your product or service fulfilling a need that they may or may not realize they have, you need them to. They are focusing and concentrating on your brand and eliminating all other messages that are coming their way, even if for a short while. The audience has connected with your message by seeing what you say which allows them to establish the need and, in purchasing, is satisfying that need.
I did not know that I needed Lysol wipes. I knew I needed a clean counter top and previously the need was satisfied with some 409 and paper towels. Lysol came in and showed me that I was using a spray that was not only spraying the surface area that I needed to clean but others that required some extra paper towels. Their disinfecting wet wipe cleans my counter, removes the additional time in wiping down areas that were not intended to be sprayed and decreased the need for additional paper towels. I was sold. I saw what they were saying and purchased. I still purchase and have yet to receive a message from the paper towel companies other that it dries up a spill where my my Lysol wipes cleans up the spill. Big difference!
Brand Challenges
In Incredible Ned, he has challenges as a brand does except his are that people do see what he says and they like it whereas with a brand the challenge is to get the audience to see what you are saying. His teacher sends him to the nurse. For a brand when someone pays attention and shares your name with someone that trusts them, they are hoping that they will have the same reaction. We want to be associated with a brand that others like as well. We need that common ground, that ability to talk with others and get their acceptance. With Ned he is bounced from his teacher to the nurse, who sends him to the music teacher, who sends him to the french teacher. He is being pushed around in the same way a message is within the audience and others that they want to introduce your message to. If this new audience is not seeing what you say, they are not paying close attention and have moved on to the next message that is coming their way.
Visual Thinkers
In every day life we deem people who see what you say as visual thinkers. When in conversation and someone says that were waiting in line at the grocery store, I draw a picture in my head of what I think the store looks like and the long line.Visual thinker? Maybe, I guess. Though, I actually thought that everyone did this. Little did I know, this not the norm. Neither is being bowlegged but that is a different story.
In the book, Ned gets a visit from the principal who tells him that he is to say nothing or go and stand in the hall alone. He opted to not speak. As a brand are you aware of who your brand is being introduced to? Are your listening stations created and being responded to or are you saying nothing? Nothing is allowing them to move on to the next message and be silent to your brand. A new message is being introduced to them which is diminishing the need for your offering and creating a need for a new one. This happens multiple times a day, even when we are paying attention.
The story ends with the art teacher who figures out that Ned is an artist. In marketing we are artists as those that are able to have their audience see what they say get noticed and those that do not standing alone in the hallway.
How we get them to see
We get them to see by telling the story … one story. If you have not had the pleasure of reading the words of Jim Mitchem, I highly recommend that you do. He tells a story in all of his writings that engrosses you to the point of not only seeing, but you feel. His articles about his daughter not being selected for the A team in soccer which she previously had been angered us. I felt for her as an athlete and also for him and his wife as parents. When the A team played the B team so many of us wanted so badly for them to crush them. We sat and waited for his updates from the game and when the A team prevailed we were upset as how bittersweet would it have been for his daughter to have the winning goal? Imagine as a brand how powerful this is and having people seeing and also feeling what you are saying.
Margie Clayman in her engagement series where she talks about needing a censor button and the people who through their own ignorance and insecurities have treated her in a manner that is almost unfathomable. Being under 4’11 she has been called a child, pointed at and even asked to stand up. Her words have us seeing this scenario and wanting her to have found something insulting to say back to them but yet we champion her for not allowing herself sacrifice her own integrity. We read, we lived and in both of these scenarios, we felt and became them.
These are only two examples but they pack the most powerful punch. When we see what the message is saying are we also feeling it? Do we need to feel it? Feel as in the emotion and not the physical feel. If we do not feel can we buy? This may be a different post that delves into the feeling after we see. If we are thinking of buying an extension cord are we feeling? Probably not until we actually have it and are able to see all the uses it has. If it is powering the Christmas lights and our house looks better than anyone on the block, that extension cord has more meaning than if it was powering the light that we have over there that is not close to the plug and we never see it.
Your time now, what do you think? Does your audience need be the Ned and see what you are saying?
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