Telling Your Business Story with Emotional Impact
The news about Nike’s purpose-driven marketing and how successful it has been is everywhere. A recent feature the Newsday Long Island Business section goes into detail about Nike’s controversial ad with the former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Most brands steer clear of this kind of advertising for fear of customer alienation. What was the reaction to Nike? Their stock and sales are going up, up, up.
Why is Nike so successful?
What they do is purpose-driven marketing.
As Newsday points out, “While purpose-driven marketing can be a land mine for some companies, others like Nike have found it a useful way to appeal to their core demographic and differentiate themselves in an increasingly polarized political landscape.”
According to John Rampton, named #2 on Top 50 Online Influencers in the World by Entrepreneur Magazine, “Customers support and recommend brands that have a purpose. In fact, Deloitte’s research shows that 91% of Millennials would switch brands to one associated with a cause. Furthermore, 6 out of 10 Millennials said a sense of purpose is part of the reason they chose to work for their current employer,” says Cone Communications.
What about your business storytelling conveys to your customers that your brand has purpose?
Go to the vast majority of websites – maybe yours – and what do you see? Lots and lots of content, photos and links. Many sites are so overwhelming that after an initial glance you give up because you have information overload.
How do you make a difference?
We recommend the following:
Meet with your teams and ask them to define what your organization and your brand(s) represent – you may be surprised at the answers
Come to a consensus of the purpose of your company (how it was founded, how it has evolved and why it makes difference)
Gain an agreement from your team as to how your brand(s) meets the shared needs and interests of its customers
Hammer out what why this purpose makes a difference. Pinpoint the emotional connection, and start writing your business story. As noted in the Newsday article, “Nike is ‘the king of emotional marketing, so everything they do, they do it with emotion,’” says Antonio S. Williams, who teaches sports marketing at Indiana University.
Summarize your findings and share your business story with your organization. This can be very motivating, and being aware of the purpose can help connect employees to the organization, whether frontline staff or executives.
Create a 90-second video of how your organization makes a difference – remember the emotional part of it – and use it as an introduction to your website and for social media.
For more information about how to develop your purpose-driven business story, contact usat SMLR.net.