Welcome to Day 3 of our back to school week special focus on Corante contributor Tom Asacker's Ten Truths. Today, the countdown brings us to truths #6 and #5:

Truth Six - From Fact Telling to Storytelling

"Facts don’t persuade, feelings do. And stories are the best way to get at those feelings."

"We’re up to our eyeballs in information and sick and tired of 'Buy . . . Buy . . . Buy!' Give us an engaging and meaningful story. Something we can connect with and - heaven forbid - believe in."

"Storytelling was the original form of influence, and all through the ages great communicators have stirred people’s emotions and influenced their behavior through story. I know you know this. So why haven’t more business people embraced this powerful, persuasive form of communication? Think back to your last encounter with a salesperson. What was it like? Can you recall a recent advertisement? Describe it. Or how about your last meeting at work? My guess is that they were all fact-filled and uninspiring. What my friend Dick Orkin describes as "announcements." Which means that, by and large, they were ineffective means of influence. No engagement, no visualization. No visualization, no personal, emotional impact. No emotional significance, no change in behavior.

"(...) We believe what we internalize, what we decide for ourselves, not what we’re told. A story allows us to experience the knowledge in our minds eye and make the meaning for ourselves."

"Stories are the quickest way to communicate. They instantly transmit complex ideas; they’re a kind of cognitive shorthand. Stories are the most memorable, because they are laced with emotion. Want to be remembered? Tell a good story. Stories also put people at ease and help build relationships. And believe it or not, stories are the most believable form of communication. We are more deeply influenced by one person’s story, than we are by mounds of data. And by the way, don’t we love stories? Of course we do! Stories are embedded in our livesbusiness and personal. We love stories in song, in books, on TV, in film, and around the proverbial campfire and water cooler. We love to hear them, we love to tell them, and we love to participate in them. Stories are how we make sense of the world. We are storytelling creatures by nature. It’s in our DNA.

"So, tell me a story. Tell me a true story of someone you’ve recently helped with your products or services. That’s the first request I typically make to an executive team, prior to working with them to develop their brand. It may sound like a simple request, but I rarely hear a story. Instead, I hear all about the facts - when they started, the number of employees, their products and services, etc. But a brand is not about facts. A brand is a story. An engaging, authentic story that everyone in a company lives and tells. So, stop and ask yourself: What story does my audience conjure up in its imagination about itself when purchasing or experiencing my company or products? Do we complement and enhance that story in every single thing that we say and do? Do we even know what that story is?

"(...) Tell brand stories so people can live the experience in their own minds. So it becomes real to them, stimulates their emotions and helps them understand the ideas and behavior required to live the brand. Stop trying to change people’s minds with information or coercion. It doesn’t work. They feel manipulated. Instead, capture their imaginations with heartfelt stories so they can make their own meaning. And never - never! - stop telling those stories with conviction and passion."

Truth Five - From Branding to Bonding

"A brand is not a logo, and branding is not a communication strategy. A strong brand is a strong bond, and branding is your business."

"For the past 250 years, companies have leveraged their power to influence and - in many situations - control commerce. They’ve used various barriers to entry to curtail competition and grow significant mindshare and marketshare. The most common marketing related barrier employed was brand preference, created with mega spending on advertising and control of distribution channels. Building a strong brand was all about "top of mind awareness." I say "beer!" and you shout . . . "Budweiser!" And it's still that way in the case of habitual buying, which occurs when involvement is low and differences between brands is small. But for considered purchases - like choosing a new car or home - and ones involving a strong emotional connection - like deciding where to invest or donate hard earned money - building a brand requires much more than that. Today you’re competing for heartshare, not marketshare. Top of mind without goose bumps is a waste of money.

"Of course to those with a dated, mass-market mentality, branding is still all about image and awareness. It's about tag lines, logos, cute little animal mascots or clever jingles. It's about spending megabucks on Super Bowl commercials, hiring celebrities to sing your corporate praises, and covering cars with advertising banners. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that awareness is unimportant. (...) But, does well-known equal strong? Not any longer. The rise of the global economy, the rapid adoption of the Internet, and unprecedented access to capital, have all ignited commercial innovation, and put an end to those days forever.

"And please, don’t get hung-up on the word "brand." Schools, nonprofit groups, high-tech firms, and small businesses tend to fall into a camp that believes that branding is either too commercial, too expensive, or otherwise not appropriate or applicable to them. And that may have been true in the heydays of mass marketing, when branding conjured up ideas of spin, manipulation, and "in your face" corporate propaganda. But not any more.

Today, the word "brand" is shorthand for the gut feeling people have about something, some group, or someone. It’s a kind of Platonic Ideal, which stands for the essence of a business, school, organization, person, or even place. If you add up the tangible and intangible qualities of something - the gestalt - and wish to represent the meaning and distinctive character this greater whole conveys to its audience, today we call it . . . "brand."

"Think of your brand as a "file folder" in your audiences' minds (not a perfect metaphor, since memory is malleable, but stick with me anyway.). When they’re exposed to you (e.g., through advertising, design, a salesperson, word-of-mouth, etc.), a feeling is immediately filed away in that "brand file folder." As time passes, much of what your audience has filed away - the details - will become inaccessible. However, they will remember where they stored the folder: in the front (positive feelings) or pushed to the back (negative feelings). Given the sheer volume of brands trying to find a place in your audiences' overloaded "brand file cabinets," you must not only get their attention and be relevant (a file folder labeled with your brand name), but you must also get it placed in the front of their file cabinet (elicit strong, positive feelings of intense personal significance).

"(...) Despite what the Madison Avenue folks may tell you, the strength of your brand lies not in the fact that you own a folder with your name prominently displayed on it. Repetition does not create memories, relevance does. The strength lies in your folder's position in your audience's file cabinet (the emotions that linger in their memory). The strength lies in the bond! So make your brand about feeling, not just familiarity. Make it about shared values and trust. About honesty, vulnerability and presence. Because a brand is not simply a promise. How can it be, with everything changing at breakneck speed? A brand is a living, breathing relationship. Revel in the messy world of emotions and create a brand that’s about leadership and differentiation; about customer insight and radical innovation; and about clarity of purpose, passion and a sense of humor."

I'd love to comment on all of this, but... what's the point? I don't think I could put it any better myself.

Tomorrow, we will look at Truths #4 and #3: Reaching your audience, and (at long last) the crucial role that metaphors play in all of this marketing and business stuff we keep talking about.

Until then, have a great Wednesday, everyone. :)

Have a great Tuesday, everyone. :)

Technorati Tags: Tom Asacker, marketing, storytelling back to school, business lessons, customer service, marketing 101, corante, branding

Yesterday, I almost forgot the anniversary of the Normandy landing of 1944. I didn't remember until about 11:00pm. That's kind of sad. I went about my day, too busy to watch or read the news, completing task after task, without giving it one little bit of thought... and I feel kind of bad about it... because I'm French, and a whole lot of good men, many of them boys, died to kick the Nazi forces out of my country. Truth be told, had the Allied invasion not succeeded, I might not have been born at all... and I certainly wouldn't be living in the US today. Without getting too deep into this, let's just say that I am very aware of the immense sacrifice that was made back in 1944, and it has played a big role in shaping my perception of the world... so I make a point of remembering anniversaries like this one. It's the least I can do.

What does this have to do with Marketing and Branding?

Nothing.

Everything.

People are driven by emotions. By needs. By fear and courage. By love and hatred. By hope and despair. By a need to change things, or belong to something greater than themselves. At their core, drive and motivation come from the same inner place, whether you're a G.I. storming a beach under a hail of bullets and mortar fire, an entrepreneur, a designer, an athlete, an artist, an emergency worker, or whatever it is you happen to be in your mind when you are considering certain types of purchases.

Many of the things we do, we are driven to do because they define us. They help us articulate our identity: Soldier. Photographer. Designer. Triathlete. Chief Marketing Officer. Soccer mom. Surfer. Intellectual. Devout believer.

I've watched people drop $7,000 on a bicycle. $65,000 on a camera. $160,000 on a car. Their lives in exchange for one moment of glory or terror or pleasure.

At its core, the trigger that makes a soldier or fireman run into danger isn't so different from what makes us buy things that we are so passionate about that we can't do without them. However unimportant... like a pink iPod, or a Birkin bag, or a vintage Jaguar. It isn't so different from what leads some people to invest all of their life savings into an idea. It isn't so different from what drives people to never compromise, to never cut corners, to never take the easy way out.

Courage is one of humanity's greatest gifts. I've seen it in the military. I've seen it in sport. I've seen it during elections. I've seen it in art and design studios. In marriage, even. (Okay, especially in marriage!) And believe it or not, I've seen a whole lot more of it in the business world than you would think. That makes me feel good.

Courage didn't die with "The Great Generation." Courage is alive and well in this somewhat bloated, disjointed, self-centered and dysfunctional little society we live in. Courage is all over the front page of your newspaper. It's in the gay marriage ban debate. In the Iraq war debate. In the war on global warming. In the fight against AIDS, disease and famine. It is alive and well in every word spoken against domestic violence, child abuse, prejudice, and corporate fraud. To a much lesser extent, at least seemingly, it is also alive and well in the worlds of marketing, product design, advertising and business in general.

Sure, there's a whole lot of noise out there. A whole lot of boring, "also-in," vanilla stuff. But the heroes, the innovators, the enlightened souls on a mission, the courageous renegades, they're out there as well. I seem to keep meeting them. (I'm lucky as hell for it too.) Seek them out. Make them part of your lives. Make their brands and products part of your purchasing habits. Support them. Protect them. Encourage them. Endorse them.

Make a choice to support something great, whether it's a cause, a product, a design or even something as vague as an idea.

Align yourself with the fearless visionaries whose work will make your world better. Cleaner. More interesting. More beautiful. More enjoyable. Their circumstances aren't the same as those of those thousands of guys who charged German positions on June 6th, 1944, but they share a similar spirit. Honor it. Cherish it. Embrace it. Make it your own.

I swear to you that you won't be sorry. ;)

And don't forget: Tomorrow is the start of Corante's Innovative Marketing Conference in New York. If you're close enough to grab a cab and attend, do it.