Following yesterday’s post I’ve been thinking a lot about narrative; both the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the stories we tell our (potential) customers about our products.
Some marketing or advertising seeks to fit their stories into existing narratives – innocent do well at marketing to those who already identify as “a healthy person”. The high fruit content of their drinks and the lack of additives are all selling points.
Whilst the company are increasingly building a brand image apart from the drinks (their Village Fetes would be an example), it’s still positioned as a product that will make you more like your own self image, rather than allowing you to change your current one.
Other marketing seeks to create new categories – people will describe themselves as a “Mac person”, for increasingly obvious reasons.
It’s not only about owning the product, it’s about the story you tell yourself about owning the product – what it means to you, how you interact with it, how (you think) others consider it.
Of course, there are more factors in the buying process than this; but it’s a useful model for thinking about your product. What stories do people tell themselves about it? What stories do you want them to tell themselves about it? How well equipped is your product to give them the ‘ending’ they want, after they’ve bought it?