How to Handle The Brand Discovery Sequence

People process new brands in a certain order. Brand messages presented out-of-order get ignored. If you struggle with what you should tell customers about your business, and when you should tell them, use the Brand Discovery Sequence to develop your marketing message. The main mistake businesses make is trying to tell people too much, too soon: features and benefits. Business want to sell, before customers even understand what’s in front of them.

The Brand Discovery Sequence goes like this:

1. You gain the attention of potential customers.
2. They ask themselves: “What is it?”
3. When they understand what you are, they want to know: “Why should I care?”
4. Customers are now ready for you to give them more information to define and support your brand.

I. Get Attention

• Unexpectedness & Contrast – Our brains are trained to ignore the ordinary. To get attention, use unexpectedness and contrast through your…
• Visual identity – or another unexpected attention-getting device.

II. What is it?

• Your Name – Once you have people’s attention your brand name and product category come in to play..
• Your Space – People need a frame of reference to be able to fit you into their world.

III. Why should I care?

• Your Brand Promise – Start with the big picture, and that’s your brand promise. What do you promise the customer beyond the product or service you happen to sell?
• Your Tagline – The brand discovery sequence is a primary reason for having a good tagline. It gives people a quick, concise peek into your brand’s soul and let’s them know why they should care.

IV. Give Me More Information

• Define – Now you can further define what it is that you do. It’s where you give that one clarifying statement and people nod their head and say “Ahhh, ok. I understand.”
• Support – Finally, you give customers an idea how this works so they can form a mental picture of the process.

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Now,let’s look at how to develop a message for this sequence. We’re going to use a new brand, Life Designs Concepts as the example. Life Designs Concepts is owned by Cody Waldroup, who has recently written a book: Finding the Child Inside. (Disclosure: Life Designs Concepts is a client of The Marketing Spot)

GET ATTENTION

Cody has written a book; and that gets attention. He followed that up with a professionally designed logo and visual identity for his company.

Book	Logo

WHAT IS IT?

Life Designs Concepts is a leadership development company.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

Leaders get stuck. We help leaders get unstuck in life and leadership. We re-ignite your passion for life so you can reach Full Capacity Leadership (tagline).

GIVE ME MORE INFORMATION

We provide leadership coaching and consulting, based on finding your inner child. We find where in life you are stuck, discover why you are struggling, and help you get past it. To discover more, take the questionnaire on our website for a free initial 30 minute consultation.

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When customers first discover you, they simply want to know why they should care. If you lead with features and benefits, you are denying critical information to potentials customers. Let your brand message come through first.

Now that you know the sequence, how will you develop your message?

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