How do we cope with it all? By enrolling in a brand culture that reflects who we are.
This is part 6 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
With that in mind, why does brand matter?
Marc Gutman 0:07
Yeah, another great question. Like I touched on this just a little bit, but our purchasing choices have multiplied dramatically. You know, like, back in the day, there was one TV, two types of computers like, like you when you wanted lettuce, you went and got lettuce, you know, looks like and I just thought of that right now like when you buy lettuce, you can buy like from Costco, you can buy organic, you can buy it delivery, I mean, even lattice has a million choices. I mean, think about when you go to buy toothpaste, or soap, like how do you know deodorant? Yeah, those are just some consumer packaging products. But like, it's limitless, right? water bottles, right?
Like, how do we pick the water bottle that we want to use? You know, like, and so we have too many choices. And we are time-starved, like I don't know about you. But the one thing I don't have enough of is time, you know, and so I have too many choices, too little time, everything kind of looks the same. You know, right now, like I'm shopping for a new car, like, I don't know, like, I'll get to this in a second. But like, what I'm going to choose on his brand, not features, not engine size, you know, it's gonna be like what I think makes me feel coolest, what fits into my own personal vision of who I am as a person here in Colorado. And so everything just kind of feels the same.
I mean, even look at Samsung, and Apple, their phones do the exact same thing. So really what we're buying is a brand based on our own how it you know, makes us see, you know, ourselves within that product, we're enrolling, as I mentioned before, ourselves, in their, their culture, their vision, their why. And so we also tend to buy our buying decisions based on trust. And we know that the data shows that people tend to judge companies 10% by what they say, so I can tell you, I'm awesome. I can tell you, I'm great, but they they judge a company 60% by how they appear. Now, I just want you to take a moment and think about like, you know, I'm looking around my office right now I'm looking at things I've purchased. I mean, I think that is 100% true, you know, like I buy things based on how they appear. Again, back to that car analogy, that's probably 90% of my decision as I'm shopping for a new car right now. And so in absence of like all the data and the info and how to slice and dice and really figure out what is right for us.
Customers, consumers asked we take cues from like symbolic attributes, logos, tribal allegiances, how does that product make me feel? Who will I be? If I join this brand? Will I be an athlete? Will I be an outdoorsman? Will I be a fashionista? Will I be like a super cool, like, style guy, right? Like, will I be, you know, all these different things. So will it show that I have good tastes will show that I'm a good chef, all these different things. And so we're not so much buying a brand, as I mentioned, or joining a tribe or joining a community a movement, we're enrolling in a brand. And so they form a gut feeling about what a brand will deliver. And and what that experience that they're expected is gonna is going to have. And so what does this all mean?
Look, we're time-starved. We rely heavily on trust. You know, if you don't believe me, I mean, we everything our whole economy is based on trust, right? The stock market, the trust, and the gold backed monetary system trust trusting crypto, I mean, we are like, it's just a big story that we're all trusting in buying into. And so our customers, they have expectations for things that they buy. And that's a form of trust. And really the formula for trust when it comes to brand. And it is quite easy. It's in simple. Trust equals reliability, plus delight.
Trust equals, do what you say you're going to do, deliver what you say you're going to deliver, right you have to do that. But then you need to delight customers, you need to stand out you need to do more for customers. And I think about experiences you might have had where as simple email, delighted you were a brand came and said, Hey, we're either going to refund you we're going to send you a new product, we're going to just own that we made mistake, like anytime that you're you know, you get that little bit of delight or that you're unexpected anytime a brand makes you feel like the best version of you. That's delight. So that's trust, we just, you know, now that's very easy to lay out there. That's a very easy formula for brand. not always easy to achieve. And so that's that's, that's the standard that we're, we're moving towards. And when you have trust, it quickens the buying decision. And as we all know, trust is very hard to earn, but easy to lose. So that's what we're trying to do with a brand.
