Hi Reader,

Customers who have an emotional connection to your brand are 4 times more likely to do business with it.

But you don’t emotionally connect with a list of burger ingredients on an Instagram post.

Emotional connection has levels. If you’re design minded you may emotionally connect with the bowl your food is served in. The food in your bowl will then trigger deeper emotions.

Unless you're a food hating Huel fan in which case you probably don't have emotions.

But where does real emotional connection happen? With other humans who are like us and on a dramatic journey. The vehicle for this connection is your story.

Or am I just throwing a load of brand jargon BS at you🙄

Social media is full of people dishing out generic advice on how to tell a story. Things like ‘Make it all about your customers’ or ‘Tell more stories’. People who have never been in the trenches building food brands post by post.

I spent 3 years going through the creative mindfuck of trying to find new ways to talk about fried chicken every day. Most advice out there is of zero help when you need to be consistently engaging.

Let's start with one of the most confusing myths around telling a great story:

The Donald Miller StoryBrand Gospel

For those not familiar with Donald Miller he is often held up as the guru of brand storytelling with his StoryBrand book. His big idea is that brands go on and on about themselves like they’re the hero of the story. But customers don't care and just want to know ‘what’s in it for me’?

The brand is the guide that solves the customers pain points and takes them into a brighter future where the customer is the hero. Not your brand. So you share lots of stories about how you have transformed your customers lives.

There are definitely things right with this approach. You HAVE to know every thing about your tribe. Especially their pain points and the transformation they desire after they visit your restaurant or eat your product.

Anyone who generically bangs on about their products (’Try our burger with the tangy house BBQ sauce’, ‘who’s up for brunch’ etc etc) could learn a lot from this.

BUT…

a) Do people really want to read these transformation stories every day?

b) People really, really love food stories. It’s why they’ll waste their lives watching TikTok videos of someone eating noodles. And if it’s a good story…

c) Sharing customer reviews does a decent job of showing the transformation and they’re on Google already for everyone to see.

So yes to taking a more customer centric approach and always put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself ‘Why would I care - what’s in it for me’?

But that should in no way stop you from talking about yourselves and EVERYTHING that goes into creating your food. One of the biggest assets of being a food business is that people are fascinated about every aspect of what you do.

No-one makes Netflix shows about us poor brand strategists. Oh but when they do...

The gold

Im not rubbishing Donald Miller as what he says has a lot of value and focussing on how I solve client’s pain points has improved my own communications. But it’s only half the story.

For the emotional gold combine your story with your customers. Go through their journey to using your product. Their pain points, their needs and desires, how their world is different after experiencing your product.

Then go through your own story and match it to your customers. How does everything you do make their lives better and help them become the people they want to be?

Before this sounds like more meaningless brand BS here’s what I mean:

Your customer story

Let’s say your #1 audience are creative millennials ie most restaurants in Hackney.

They’re stressed, overworked and have little time for quality cooked meals. In addition they’re under a lot of money pressure so they need to choose wisely where they spend their money.

Eating out is a big deal to them. It might be one of the only decent cooked meals they get that week.

It’s also their entertainment and how they express themselves. Not only through their choice of brand but sharing that choice on social media to show they’re cool, exciting people making the world a better place. I don't make the rules🤷

That’s why their choice of restaurant could make or break their week. It’s very far from just a meal.

Your story

Now let’s match your story to their journey...

You talk about your obsession with every detail of the customer experience from the food to the decor. This reassures these cash and time poor customers they are spending their money wisely.

You talk about what hospitality means to you. So the customer knows they are going to have an experience that transports them from their tough daily grind into something magical.

You talk about your journey into being more sustainable so they can show everyone they’re saving the world through their brand choices. Again, I don't make the rules.

You share your top 5 local cocktails as your customers love cocktails and so do you because you're a human who has similar interests and not a robotic brand.

You do regular collabs with exciting new and local partners. Your customers get to tick the entertainment/novelty box they crave. They also get to share how they go to cool, exclusive events (whilst still getting the warm comfort of the familiar).

So just a subtle flip lets you keep telling your story whilst answering that big customer question ‘What’s in it for me’? Dive into the emotions you’re triggering for the win.

The one thing

If there isn’t one thing you can take away from every mail then I’ve failed you. Make a 2 column table. On the left side list out your customers’:

• Challenges and pain points (in life, not only food)
• Their desires and dreams
• Their fears

Make sure you also think about the emotions these are triggering.

On the right side list out how your brand addresses those points and the new emotions that are being triggered. Ask yourself 'Why would they care?' a lot. Then talk about it.

Maybe you'll even find a pain point or desire you can solve that no-one else is🤯

This exercise only works if you have made the bold decision to focus on ONE audience (your tribe).

PS This is quite a deep subject and was meant to be 3 myths until I decided to edit it down to 1 in the last minute. I also have bronchitis and nearly went blind trying to write this😵‍💫 So forgive me if this isn't my usual Pulitzer winning quality and to my apostrophe/full stop haters yes Ive probably dropped a lot on this mail

PPS Are you already racing into 2022 trying to do ALL the things like you did last year? Maybe there is a better way. Im offering 3 FREE mini brand workshop slots in January for food brands who want to make 2022 the year they stop the overwhelm and start building the brand of their dreams💥

It’s a 30 minute call where we’ll discuss what the brand of your dreams look like and the biggest challenges stopping you getting there. You can book a slot here.