KEEP IT SIMPLE

The idea behind the success module in the SB7 Framework is that we offer to close a story loop. Human beings are looking for resolutions to their external, internal, and philosophical problems, and they can achieve this through, among other things, status, self-realization, self-acceptance, and transcendence. If we can help people achieve these things, make this a core aspect of our brand promise.

Offering to close a story loop is much more simple than you think. Even the inclusion of smiley, happy people on your website is a strong way to offer the closing of a story loop. If you sell rugs, a successful resolution might be a beautiful floor or a room that finally feels finished.

The important idea is that we need to show repeatedly how our product or service can make somebody’s life better. If we don’t tell people where we’re taking them, they won’t follow. This is the human desire to transform. Everybody wants to change. Everybody wants to be somebody different, somebody better, or, perhaps, somebody who simply becomes more self-accepting. Brands that participate in the identity transformation of their customers create passionate brand evangelists.

You are helping them become wiser, more equipped, more physically fit, more accepted, and more at peace. Your brand participates in our customers’ transformation.

SMART BRANDS DEFINE AN ASPIRIATIONAL IDENTITY

The aspirational identity of a Gerber Knife customer is that they are tough, adventurous, fearless, action oriented, and competent to do a hard job. Epitomized in their advertising campaign “Hello Trouble,”. Gerber positioned their customer as the kind of person who sails boats into storms, rides bulls, rescues people from floods, and yes, cuts tangled ropes from boat propellers.

HOW DOES YOUR CUSTOMER WANT TO BE DESCRIBED BY OTHERS?

The best way to identify an aspirational identity that our customers may be attracted to is to consider how they want their friends to talk about them. If you offer executive coaching, your clients may want to be seen as competent, generous, and disciplined. Once we know who our customers want to be, we will have language to use in our marketing material.

A GUIDE OFFERS MORE THAN A PRODUCT AND A PLAN

Leaders who care more about changing lives than they do about selling products sell more.

Dave Ramsey and his team at Ramsey Solutions.

What he says on his radio show:

“Welcome back to The Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.” There they are, the elements of story, complete with an identity to step into and a new status symbol to go along with it.

Dave’s understanding of his listeners’ external problems (consumer debt and financial illiteracy), internal problems (confusion and a feeling of hopelessness), as well as their philosophical problem (accruing debt for things we don’t need posits moral questions) engages listeners in a living story.

GREAT BRANDS OBSESS ABOUT THE TRANSFORMATION OF THEIR CUSTOMERS

After a climactic scene, the guide comes back to affirm the transformation. In Star Wars, the ghost of Obi-Wan stands next to Luke Skywalker as he’s rewarded for bravery. A hero needs somebody else to step into the story to tell them they’re different, they’re better. That somebody is the guide. That somebody is you.

FINANCIAL ADVISOR

• From: Confused and ill-equipped
• To: Competent and smart