A few years ago, I was lucky enough to spend some time with Seth Godin and one of the marketing tools we discussed was ‘stories that resonate with your customer. Seth explained in his book ‘All marketers are liars’ how we all tell ourselves stories about the things we buy and why we buy them. For example, a £70,000 Porsche Cayenne is essentially a £35,000 Volkswagen Touareg. So what makes people spend twice as much on what is the same car that does the same job? The brand story. The story the Porsche driver is telling the world about himself is different from the story the Volkswagen driver is telling. The Porsche driver is prepared to spend that extra cash on the ‘fact’ he is cooler, faster, flashier, richer and all the other stories he tells himself. (By the way I have had Porsches so I am not having a go at Porsche drivers but talking from experience). Porsche as an exclusive brand has built value into their story.
There are great opportunities for providing your customers with the right story. We all tell ourselves we have problems, that we need this and we need that and, of course when we find a brand that confirms to us that our story is right – we are sold! If your story can resonate with your customer, you can build a very strong and valuable relationship – Boeing use Rolls Royce engines only because they believe that gives them the most reliable airplanes on the planet. Rolls Royce work very hard to keep that story true. What story can you tell your customers and will it resonate with them?