Allison Maslan walks through a marketing exercise to find your brand's higher purpose. Identify what you love, who you serve, and what angers you, then build a message around it. Dove, Apple, and Burger King show how emotional resonance beats selling features.
Scrawny, chubby, short, queer, getting caught up in bullying. It's so easy because you're just glad that you're not being bullied. It's been hard for me to stand up for other people because I feel like I'm already a target. It's just easier to do not.
Please. Stop.
Dude.
Ow.
Stop.
Ow. Stop.
Do you have any friends? Yes. I heard you. What are you even doing here? It's almost too easy. Stop.
Come on.
Come on. I get it.
Maybe you are a little bit more.
Oh, you think you're special? One Wap Virginia meal. Dude, stop. I just opened it up and it's all smashed. Did you order bullied or unbullied? Bullied or unbullied? Yeah. Do you have a manager that I can speak to? Because that doesn't even make any sense.
How's it going?
I was given this. Did you bully this burger? Well, yeah. This is a defenseless Whopper Jr. He can't defend itself. You don't mean anything by it. It's just for laughs. Just for laughs? What are you. Is there something wrong with you? Cause that's clearly what happened.
You can't be serious.
Had you seen me bullying this burger, would you have stood up and said something?
Yeah.
That's good to know.
Are you okay?
Yeah, I'm okay.
Yeah. Okay.
What's your name?
Reef. Hi, Reese.
We're just having fun. You having fun? He's not having fun, so therefore, I think you guys should just leave him alone.
Later.
This feels better to me. Have you ever been, like, messed with before? Oh, my God. Like, the ideal world is where if somebody else sees, like, something weird happening, that they'll come over and be like, hey, this is not okay.
Yeah.
To feel defenseless, that's one of the worst things in the world.
Chelsea came, and she would just tell them that it's not okay, because it isn't.
Something I'll never forget is my friend signing up for me. I've been that kid. So if I see it, I'm going to. I'm going to do something about it. And I hope there's more people out there like that.
So, as you can see, that is an emotional video. And. And so we play something like that. And the point is that now, obviously, this was Burger King, but they didn't. It really wasn't about. It was selling Burger King, but it was really talking about something that was important to them. And, you know, this really moves the audience. Um, we've done. There are other ones, like Dove with Young Girls and self esteem. Um, and then we did one with Dove on what social media is doing to young girls and young boys. And it really just, you know, so then what we do is I take them through this, this exercise, the higher purpose. And I asked them, first of all, before they even do this, fill this out. I asked them what do they love, who are they a hero for and what makes them angry? What do they love? Who are you a hero for and what makes you angry? And, you know, not for them to get angry, but what is it that drives them? What do they believe in? What do they stand for? Because when you are selling something or you're, you're marketing something, when you can speak to that deeper level of what is important to you and what you're aligned with, there's going to be a whole group out there that is as well that will, you know, love you for that. And then there are those that will be the opposite. And, and that's okay. And, and when I bring this up, I literally. We have lines at the microphone of people coming up like, you know, let's say they started a home care agency, but then they tell the story of why they, because their parent was abused from, you know, the place that, you know, retirement home or whatever, where they were, you know, they share things that happened to them and what inspired them to start the business in the first place. And, and then we find out that they haven't been sharing this story when that really is what people are going to connect with, is that higher purpose of why they're doing what they're doing in the first place. Or maybe you go through this exercise and they realize, God, they're not even talking about that or that's the thing that they really wanted to do and they're not doing, or, you know, or they're just not talking about it or they're afraid to talk about it. You know, the, the common enemy is this is, you know, what is something that you truly believe in. Like, maybe it's, you know, I, you know, I'm, I'm so against, you know, I, I so believe in, you know, organic farming. And our common enemy is pesticides and the pesticide companies because, you know, there's so much cancer out there. And my, my, my mom died of cancer. I mean, there's just so, so much there. When you start unpacking this stuff with your clients, you're going to find a whole other level that they're not sharing. And I think that this, when I do this exercise, it's very Healing for people. And it's also like, oh, you mean that's important to other people. I should be talking about that. You know, when Dove has, if you just Google Dove self esteem, they literally have, they have tons of videos on it. They have started all kinds of campaigns, they have support groups, they've invested a lot of money in, you know, helping to build kids in their self esteem. Like they have whole foundations around it. And so the video will be all about, you know, I find it if we have the time. But it's just, they're like, they really are so powerful and if you have kids, they will really touch you. And then at the very end of the video, it just says the logo Dove. So they're not talking about the soap. They're not. You know, and that's, it's, it's just really, I think this is very relevant for where we are in the world today is talking about things that are more meaningful and why instead of getting up and talking about, you know, your product and service and all of the, you know, the, all the little details of what you offer. I mean, if you think about Apple, they never talk about their computers. And that one commercial, that, that was the most famous Apple commercial, I think it came out in the 80s, you know, where it was. They were like, it was all these people that were the same and then they were kind of fighting against the machine and because why? Because Apple's about being different. And that's what people love about Apple. Because it's like, oh, it's Apple, I'm cool. Well, that the whole point was they were fighting for, you know, the innovator, the creator, you know, that one whole thing where they have the picture of Einstein because they, it brings out that creative part of you. And it's like one of the most successful campaigns ever. So this is a great exercise for them for their marketing, but also it's a great exercise for them to just get fired up and aligned with their message and their why. And then, you know, what could their marketing message. So once you get all this, who they're a hero for, what they love, you know, who their common enemy is. What's their point of view then? What's the message from there? This is the message. And how will we, how will you market it? So this, Steve, this is something we should do, right? And, and so, yeah, that, that's really it for this one. But this is super powerful. I think both of these tools that I've shared with you today tap on a deeper emotional level and remind our pins. Why they're doing what they're doing.
