This weekend I saw a comment a friend had posted on Facebook: “[Husband] and I went to the Edina Art Fair today, in hopes the photographer who inspired our Italy trip would be there again this year. When we first started dating, we went to the EAF and stopped in our tracks in front of a huge panoramic of Positano, Italy. We each said, “I want to go there,” and then joked {because we’d only been dating a couple of months} that if we got married, we’d go there for our honeymoon. 2.5 years later, we stood in the spot we remember seeing in Darren Olson’s photo, and had another couple take a photo of us. A little surreal to think that joke turned into reality. Today, we saw his booth and I immediately started crying. What an amazing, adventure-filled three years it has been. I could hardly hold it together when I told Darren the story! I can’t WAIT to have one of his canvases hanging on our wall.”
In marketing, we often talk about the power of story. While many brands have refined their brand story, it’s rare to find a brand that is truly listening and looking for their story through the lives and mouths of those who love them. Every time someone talks about your company, they’re writing a paragraph in the story of who you are. To think your story starts and stops with you (or ends at the point of transaction), is like only reading the prologue.
Your brand is the stories people tell about you. If you want to know who you really are…just listen. They’ll tell you.