This is part 11 of a 13 part series identifying who Wildstory is, what the intricacies of branding are, and how this can all benefit you.
Video Transcript
Keith Roberts 0:04
Yeah, I could definitely see how that would happen where you get into a room of type A's, and they could just go on one core value and tweaking that for a 12-hour session. I think another thing that would definitely be, I know is amazing, having done some work with you is, you know, your background in scriptwriting, you know, the work that you do, in words, I think makes it just but what you distill down really valuable.
But you mentioned something earlier about, I think it was like the 10 principles that made up a Wildstory brand, and you mentioned one of them. But could you can what are the 10 principles?
Marc Gutman 0:40
Yeah, I mean, I've done a ton of research we've worked with, you know, hundreds of companies, and over time have really distilled for us what is a Wildstory brand, and a Wildstory brand is one that is, you know, going to stand out above all the rest. It's one that's going to have loyal fans, it's one that's going to be a leader in their industry. And it's one that's going to be around for the long haul. So think about brands like Airstream and things like that. I mean, my goal is that every brand that we work with has a 100-year run rate. And, you know, and we'll get to actually the last principle, and that's not easy, you know, so I want you to hold that like Principle number 10, and how you get to 100 years. But yeah, so we have 10 principles.
The first one we've kind of talked a little bit about this today, is it must start with strategy, right? We have to start with strategy. So if someone comes to me and says, I just need a.dot.by, the way we that's our first red flag, we don't work with anyone that says I just need a dot that or believes that they just need a logo, or they just need a video, or they just need some color. Now, that's the way they might come to us. And we'll slow it down and say, well, what's the real problem you have? You know, you think you want a logo. But what they tell us is that they need to communicate better, that they're misunderstood that people they want to be seen as a premium brand. And right now they're not okay, well, that's a different conversation. So we kind of start, you know, hey, with this logo conversation, but has to come back strategy, we start with strategy, because while story brands understand that brand is their business strategy.
The second principle is you have to find your purpose or your why and and this is becoming less of an issue. I mean, right now, if you go to, you know, five years ago, like people were like, I don't want to spend time on my purpose of my why or how does that connect to my my business, but if you go to like Pepsi's latest annual report, they open all about with purpose, not about selling soda, if you go to SoftBank, you know, the largest, one of the largest investment companies in the world who used to be just about money, all about purpose, and what they're trying to do beyond making $1. So your purpose is this amazing thing that forces people to choose part of your story, right, and they either choose you or they don't choose you.
But it's this amazing, kind of, let's put our cards on the table right away, and either choose me or you don't choose me, that's great. We want to know, we want to know who's with us. And we want to know, who's not with us. So while story brands force people to choose, the third principle is culture equals brand, while sorry, brands know that their culture equals their brand, and that you can't have a great external brand, without a really strong culture. And so that they know that that inspiration comes from the inside out that our people are representative of our brand, that were our, you know, if you're solo person, you're the representative that that culture equals brand. The fourth wildstyle story principle is our prey.
We talked about this, the Wildstory brands believe in the power of our prey. It's our mission to help those brands that focus on the refreshment of strength and spirit after the work day so that you know, what are we doing after work to really, to really make moments that matter. And so a Wildstory brand typically believes in the importance of this as well. Principle number five manifestos a Wildstory brand has a manifesto and a manifesto is a simply put just a declaration of what you believe, you know, and it's putting it out there. And it's, you know, Raw Story brands declare what they stand for to the world. You can go read ours all about this idea of behind opera and what it means to us and, and what we what we're going to fight for and what we're going to fight against, which is so important. I did a webinar on this, we can link to it later in the video, you can you know, spend an hour learning all about how to build a manifesto.
But in that webinar, I there's there's a quote from Luke Sullivan, who wrote a really famous book called Hey, Whipple squeeze. This is a famous advertising book with a great title by the way, and his quote on a manifesto is a manifesto is your brand's Magna Carta, your Rosetta Stone, a declaration of independence all rolled into one. It's the halftime lockerroom speech given by the CEO. The words the founder heard on the mountaintop before bringing down the stone tables. Reading a great brand manifesto should make you want to run out and try the product. You should feel the brand fire in your bones right so that That's what we're trying to do with the manifesto. Once you're able to get clear and laser focus on a manifesto, you're well on your way to be in a Wildstory brand.
Number six. Number six, make the customer the hero. So how story brands make the customer the hero of their own story when using your product or service. And when you do this, right, you get this amazing effect, where a customer says I am a fill in the name, fill in the blank with your name, your brand person, right? So I am a Jeep person. I am a Harley Davidson person. I am a Whole Foods person. You know, I am an oak journal person. So like that's what we're trying to do. But make the customer the hero of the story. When using your product or service. That's number six.
Number seven. I'm really bad at fingers. Number seven here, ask what if you need to take chances. When we go through the process, you need to be open to the unknown, you need to be open to going to other kind of places that maybe you hadn't seen before we started the branding process where there might be opportunity where there we might unearth or uncover something, some real true essence that maybe you didn't know, existed. Dare to be different, great brand stand out. And in a great idea, you know, you know how you know an idea is like a really great idea. A lot of times it scares the hell out of you, you know, and so, venture into the unknown, you know, set a crazy goal set a crazy B hag, use that hope journal to get there. But you know, like venture into the unknown and also realize that the journey from not knowing to knowing that's the work. That's the magic. That's what's really exciting. The journey from not knowing to knowing is the work.
Number eight, be extraordinary. We don't need another copycat brand. We don't need another dot dot dot, you know, don't need another apple. We don't don't we don't need another Warby Parker, we don't need another just kind of looking around my office for inspiration here. We don't we don't need another Tesla. Like what we need to be extraordinary. Tesla is Tesla. They're extraordinary. Right? Don't be them. You know, don't be a copycat brand. That's boring and lame. Be be extraordinary be be your own brand. content. So kind of you know, in that hierarchy of returning brand branding, brand storytelling. Once you've got your brand strategy, your creative assets, the real work begins. And that's brand storytelling.
And there's something really magical about sharing your story in the story of your customer that builds that trust we talked about that builds communities, which is a secret to a long term, thriving business. No. Airstream, yes, they have an iconic design, a lot of people are out there saying I am an Airstream person, you know, and I'm in the airstream community. And wildstory brands know that by telling customers who we are. It tells them who they are. When you think about that for a second when when Nike tells the world we're all about athletes, when I enroll in Nikes brand, it tells me I'm an athlete. When Apple tells the world, we think different and we're the crazy ones, when I enroll in their brand. I'm thinking different. I'm a crazy one. And so that's really cool, right? Like we have this really cool opportunity to do that. And number 10 We're almost at the end here.
And the number 10 principle of being a Wildstory brand. Never stop branding. Right brands are like people we're always growing. We're always evolving. We're always entering a new phase of life, whether it's startup whether we need to refresh, like Airstream has gone through multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple iterations of their brand story they have to you have to adjust to the world around you. Now that doesn't mean that you change your core beliefs that doesn't maybe mean that you change like the vision you have for the world. But what it does mean is that you adapt you evolve just like as we do as people like what I wanted. When I was 16 certainly isn't what I want today and that doesn't make either version less wrong. Same thing with a brand so you know, that's why this is an ongoing process. This is not a set it and forget it. You don't go out, do the brand work, get a logo, set it, forget it. You're always brand new, you're always building the value of your brand.
