Baked In

Your Product’s Story

Products’ brand stories make promises to customers. But, too often, marketers don’t dig deeply enough to discover their products’ true stories, the telling narratives that should be at the heart of their branding and advertising. Instead, ad agencies use focus groups and other such tools to elicit narratives that represent only the wishful thinking of their test subjects. These illusions become the foundation of marketing plans that create product stories which turn out to be lies.

Instead of this flawed approach, marketers should “bake” consumers’ wishes and insights – and, thus, a marketing narrative – “right into a new product.” Such a product, one that is truly congruent with its story and its audience, can sell itself. In fact, the product and its marketing will be one and the same. This is not the traditional business approach. Since the Industrial Revolution, design and marketing have been “largely disconnected ideas.” Companies put everything into separate silos. Marketing and advertising are “strategic efforts,” the realm of CEOs and sales executives. Product development, which takes place at a much lower organizational level, is the ...