Ancient storytelling secret: characters are more interesting
Beg to Differ was reminded by this cartoon from the wise and funny Tom Fishbourne, that all great stories are driven by compelling characters - and that's as true in the branding world as it was around the ancestral campfire. So is your brand a hero, a helper, or a Jack of all Trades?
Read Tom's blog on the cartoon here.
Quick plug: if you're interested in branding at all, subscribe to Tom's blog. He not only packs amazing insights into the cartoons, but then blogs about the topic with wit and clarity. You will never be disappointed. A few thoughts on storytelling and metaphor in branding: - Archetypes - they're not just for English class anymore (although if you have an English degree like me, you may just feel a bit better about all that tuition money you spent): the idea of building your brand around one of the strong, powerful figures that recur throughout world literature might seem like a stretch, but as Tom points out, the greatest brands can be clearly identified with those figures - like Nike as the hero brand / Harley Davidson as the Outlaw / Patagonia as the Adventurer, etc.
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Better the wrong character than no character at all: in counseling companies on new directions for their brands, I always have to present tangible metaphors to help them "get" the direction I'm suggesting. And these almost always take the form of a character or creature. I've used a banker, a veteran soldier, a wise helper, a master craftsman, and a dangerous deep sea monster (see graphic at right), among others.
- It feels dangerous, but it works: when designer John Kaldeway presented the cartoon graphic of the angler-fish at right to our client as the symbol for their data recovery company - which I had named "DeepSpar" - we were all a bit shocked. But it turned out to be exactly the right approach to differentiate DeepSpar in a very small market dominated by very technical, geeky men, many of whom also happened to be hard-core gamers on the side. Suddenly, our client was the coolest vendor at the trade show.
- Branding is not about "messages"; it's about character. This point is driven home in this great blog post from 2008 by Olivier Blanchard (@TheBrandBuilder) - which Tom also links to. Olivier argues for using archetypes as a way of breaking out of the usual heady, analytical way of thinking about branding - which is most obvious in the "messaging" process - and instead using powerful metaphors to touch the customer in a deeper way I'll finish with a quote from him:
If the brand you create is powerful enough - inside and out - then messaging is barely frosting on the cake. Heck, it's little more than the colored sprinkles on the edges. The messaging is nice and it dresses things up a little, but... Using archetypes in your brand development process can help you tap into the raw nature and identity of a brand better than any brand pyramid, onion, pie chart or whatever cookie-cutter technique you are currently using.
Better the wrong character than no character at all: in counseling companies on new directions for their brands, I always have to present tangible metaphors to help them "get" the direction I'm suggesting. And these almost always take the form of a character or creature. I've used a banker, a veteran soldier, a wise helper, a master craftsman, and a dangerous deep sea monster (see graphic at right), among others.
If the brand you create is powerful enough - inside and out - then messaging is barely frosting on the cake. Heck, it's little more than the colored sprinkles on the edges. The messaging is nice and it dresses things up a little, but... Using archetypes in your brand development process can help you tap into the raw nature and identity of a brand better than any brand pyramid, onion, pie chart or whatever cookie-cutter technique you are currently using.