This morning, my husband sent me an amazing article that inspired me to write to all of you who are longing to be heard, hoping your brand, your business and your ideas will somehow impact millions. This amazing article reveals how one brand story turns $300 into MILLIONS. As I work with thousands of entrepreneurs, I simply had to share this in its original form as it fits perfectly with my vision to help ordinary people achieve extraordinary success by thinking outside the box . Check this out!
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The Power of Your Brand Story
By Graham Brown
Stories don’t just increase the value of the product, stories are the value of a product. So, rather than think about making a better mousetrap, think about a better way people can talk about your mousetrap because that’s the value you create. People don’t buy stuff, they buy what stuff does for them. People don’t buy the mousetrap, but what that mousetrap does for them.
CASE #1
A man sits at a metro station in Washington DC and starts to play the violin; it’s a cold January morning. He plays six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, and since it was rush hour, 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. In the 45 minutes he plays, only 6 people stop to listen. About 20 give him money, but continue to walk their normal pace. He collects $32. When he finishes playing, he slips off unceremoniously. No one notices. No one applauds.
CASE #2
An artist sells his paintings on a stall in New York’s Central Park. A few passersby express interest but business is light. A young lady buys a couple of his pieces for a friend, an elderly gentleman haggles for another. In all, the artist make less than $300.
What both of these case studies demonstrate is that in marketing – whether that be artwork, music or technology – the story about the product is far more important than the product itself.
How Your Brand Story Changes Everything
Two unknown artists bagged a total of only $332 between them for a day’s work. Not a lot of money. But consider again, who those artists really were.
Both artists were operating incognito.
The violinist was Joshua Bell, a Grammy-award winning musician playing some of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing the subway in disguise, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 a piece.
The artist in Central Park, was none other than Banksy, the same artist serenaded by celebrities like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. His originals can sell for MILLIONS. But, without the story, art is reduced to pure content. When your art is pure content, you are forced to compete with the next guy in a race to bottom on price. How many brands are stuck in this mode of thinking? Undercutting rivals because they just don’t know what their art is.
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Think about your brand, your “offering” and your business. Are you pitching your “wares” like the millions of other sales people, struggling to be heard. Or are you using the passion behind your story, your WHY and your vision to inspire others to follow your brand? Everyone has a story to tell and yours very well could change the world! Remember….facts tell but stories SELL.
