Building a Brand Story: The Narrative
This diagram represents my take on the idea of Laddering. The underlying idea of Laddering is to probe deeper into the nature of the potential relationship between the offering and the target to create stories that make the offering a meaningful and expressive part of the target's life.
I begin with the classic inventory of features of the offering and the benefits that accrue to the target. "The car gets good mileage, therefore I save money." But it also could be: "The car gets good mileage, therefore it pollutes less." Same feature or attribute can connect to more than one benefit. Both of these sentences represent what this car IS to the target. It is a money saver. It is better for the environment. The story could stop at one of these points.
But if we understand the target, if we understand their goals, motivations and values -- how they think about themselves and their place in the world -- we can make the car MEAN something to them. "It saves money" morphs into "See my car. It shows I am a financially responsible person." Or "See my car. It shows I really care about what's happening to this planet."
The features and attributes of products and services provide benefits to folks. Telling that story may be enough, especially if no other competitive offering can provide those benefits (to the same degree). If you own a unique, desirable and defensible position in the marketplace, your story can be a simple description, hopefully elegantly expressed. If, however, your position is not quite that impressive, my/our challenge is to elevate it beyond what it is to something that meaningfully connects with and expresses who your target is and how they think about themselves.
I begin with the classic inventory of features of the offering and the benefits that accrue to the target. "The car gets good mileage, therefore I save money." But it also could be: "The car gets good mileage, therefore it pollutes less." Same feature or attribute can connect to more than one benefit. Both of these sentences represent what this car IS to the target. It is a money saver. It is better for the environment. The story could stop at one of these points.
But if we understand the target, if we understand their goals, motivations and values -- how they think about themselves and their place in the world -- we can make the car MEAN something to them. "It saves money" morphs into "See my car. It shows I am a financially responsible person." Or "See my car. It shows I really care about what's happening to this planet."
The features and attributes of products and services provide benefits to folks. Telling that story may be enough, especially if no other competitive offering can provide those benefits (to the same degree). If you own a unique, desirable and defensible position in the marketplace, your story can be a simple description, hopefully elegantly expressed. If, however, your position is not quite that impressive, my/our challenge is to elevate it beyond what it is to something that meaningfully connects with and expresses who your target is and how they think about themselves.
