No one should ignore your ads or misunderstand your actions.
The Full Story is how your brand expands to its potential.
OUTER STORY
Being widely known requires undeniable advertising.
Every owner-operator wants their advertising to demand undivided attention, pleasantly defy expectations, and create valuable encounters and conversations. This is how you become widely known, telling a powerful story over time. This is not the kind of advertising that most owner-operators end up with. More common are boring ads that make you out to be like everybody else. Isn’t it a little twisted to invest in ads folks will ignore? (What’s more twisted is investing in ads that remind people of a bad experience they had with you. But we’ll talk about inconsistently delivering delight later…)
Effective advertising isn’t the mystery it’s made out to be. It simply requires orchestration of a few critical elements wrapped in storytelling techniques. Which is something the owner-operator of every business that isn’t an advertising agency usually isn’t skilled in.
INNER STORY
Being admired requires going deeper than your advertising.
Everybody worth doing business with believes in a strong company culture. But for many owner-operators, it never materializes the way they see it in their mind. You have the right intentions and catch glimpses of what’s possible. Your team performs exceptional work and you have many customers who swear by you. Then there are the customers who swear at you. Consistency is difficult, isn’t it?
How about your employees? Some love you and demonstrate that in the way they serve customers. Others can’t get on the same page and pass back through the turnstile either willingly or with “encouragement.”
CORE STORY
At the center lies the truth of who you are as a brand and a leader.
The most powerful stories have a profound but simple truth at their core. Everything revolves around it. For a brand and a leader you might call this purpose, the thing bigger than yourself that calls you beyond your limitations. At the core you’ll also find values and the view of your world that they inspire. Let’s not forget personality, the recipe of traits that color how you relate to others and the feelings they elicit. Brands and leaders who own who they are wield a magnetism that attracts and endears great customers and employees.
FULL STORY
Fully align your inner and outer story and see how far you can go.
Do you have to align your company culture and your advertising? Turns out the answer is, “No.” You can do pretty well in spite of friction between the two. But we suppose it also depends on what’s important to you. We’re idealists and want to expand to our full potential. We want to live and play in the deep waters. Not because we have to. Because we can. Our very best clients feel the same call to venture beyond their limitations, into the unknown. Pursuing what’s possible is what connects our journeys.
We Believe
Boring brands finish last.
You shouldn’t wonder and wander your way to achieving your full potential.
An undeniable culture helps your company avoid forever wandering shallow waters.