By Aimee Woodall
According to a recent Pew Report, one in ten American adults has used an online dating service and a full 42% know someone using an online dating service. If you’ve been with your loved one for fewer than ten years, there’s a good chance you met them on the Internet. At this point, it’s fair to say that online dating works, and there’s a lot that businesses can learn from these websites– but it’s probably not what you think.
Each time my team and I sign a new client, we hold a kick-off meeting. We use this time to get to know each other, talk about goals, and pose some fairly standard questions. Throughout the process, I start mentally pouring cement into the potholes of my new client’s current marketing efforts. Social media, events, and media outreach are just a few of my favorite pothole salves. But those are all tactics and they don’t represent a full-bodied strategy. We still need to figure out what we’re going to say, and to do that, we need an identity that will set the stage for every communication, event, and detail we put forward.
It’s at this point that I turn to my enthusiastic, unsuspecting client and ask, “What exactly distinguishes your business from its competition?”
Without skipping a beat, and almost without fail, my client will proudly reply, “Customer service. We have great customer service.”
“Customer service” is the “nice” of the dating profile. No wonder it’s commonly served with a smile. Of course you want your company to have good customer service; just like you want anyone you’re dating to be nice. But that’s not enough. It can’t be “your thing.” It’s too broad and too hard to see at a glance. Customer service may keep people coming back, but it doesn’t get them in the door the first time. That’s where your brand’s identity comes in.
If you are a successful online dater, it’s not because you’ve said you’re nice. People are attracted to each other because of their interests, ideals, senses of humor, and (we can safely admit it), their looks. In fact, if your online profile says nothing more than “I’m nice,” potential suitors probably assume you are boring (at best) and unattractive (at worst).
The same rules apply for your business. Your brand should be just as robust and interesting as a Match.com profile. Anyone who comes into contact with your brand should be able to tell at a glance if you’ve got a future together. There should be a reaction – Rapid pupil dilation. – Sweaty palms.
There should be chemistry.
The next time I meet with this client, we’ll pretend we’re on a first date. I’ll ask them to personify their business by telling me, if their business were a human, where they would go on vacation, what they would order at a bar, what song they would pick on the jukebox (or Spotify), and how they would spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.
These may seem like silly questions, but quality brand development merits this degree of detail. Our process informs every future brand decision.
My team will then help develop backstories that really flesh out the character. These decisions take some thought, but at the end of it all, our client will have a fully-formed identity. Brands aren’t just about logos and colors – good brands create a visceral connection for the people they’re trying to reach.
By becoming “human,” brands also become interesting. And that allows marketers like us to talk with customers instead of at them. Eventually, customers will start to see themselves in the brand and with the brand. They can decide if this company appeals to them, and the company can communicate to them with a genuine voice.
In your spare time, spend five minutes sketching an imaginary Match.com profile for your business. Is this someone you’d want to get to know better or a total turnoff? It might be time to step up your profile – and your brand.
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Aimee Woodall is the owner of The Black Sheep Agency, a Houston-based creative, non-traditional public relations and social media agency specializing in experiential marketing. You can contact Amy by phone at 832-971-7725 or by email at aimee@theblacksheepagency.com. Visit The Black Sheep Agency website at www.theblacksheepagency.com, follow them on Twitter @shearcreativity, and “like” them on Facebook at Facebook.com/theblacksheepagency.
