🍣 Your brand is too much of a perfectionist
Hey friend – Rob here. Welcome to Salmon Theory, a strategy newsletter and community dedicated to compassion, clarity and creativity. A couple of housekeeping things. AI and marketing madness Have you signed up to my CMO Circle webinar on how to use AI to manage marketing madness? 80+ folks are already in, which i am told is about 60% above the usual registration rate. 🤯 November 1st, so plenty of time to protect your diary like the busy bee you are. Join the Salmon Crew Our private community is one of the perks of being a Salmon Theory+ member. Over the last 7 days, we discussed all sorts of useful things:
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Let's frickin' go. 👇 💁 Your brand is too much of a perfectionistI often introduce myself as a recovering perfectionist. It's part nature (born this way), part nurture (early life conditioned me to use it as a safety mechanism). As a result, i've been reading a lot about perfectionism, people pleasing, and adjacent topics around our psyche. And increasingly what i notice is that a lot of modern brand behaviour might fall into the traps of perfectionism. There's a cohort of brands who, precisely because they reject perfection, are winning in their own way too. Let's explore some ideas around this. "You do not have to be perfect to be alive, and that is what makes life absolutely perfect." Corey Taylor Yes, this is the lead singer of Slipknot, who seems to be a surprisingly thoughtful person on all things human psyche. I find this reminder – "you don't have to be perfect to be alive" – powerful when it comes to matters of perception. And brands are all about perception. "We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence. We should find perfection in imperfection." Shunryu Suzuki In fact, some brands might owe their value precisely by how they project imperfection. And by imperfection i don't mean flaws, though some like the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel do it spectacularly. I mean in things that aren't straight, or expected, because perfection doesn't seem to like unexpected things. SURREAL doesn't have the perfect tone of a cereal brand, and that's precisely why they stand out. On which note... "Everyone in Oxford was bored with perfect kids from perfect schools. Being a bit northern and weird was my greatest strength. It could make me interesting. I could beat the perfect people by doing things they couldn’t do." James Rebanks The greatest competitive advantage you may have is to embrace your imperfections to an extreme. Cue Liquid Death, the definition of extreme, imperfect codes for a water brand that in time might beat others. (And yes, i am aware of the Tracksuit research, but i find the comparisons faulty due to LD's limited distribution.) "As nothing in the world we perceive is perfect, the idea of perfection is an unattainable concept that can only be approximated." Andrew Juniper And this is a worthwhile caveat, as some brands in higher end categories definitely should play more in this space. But even there, Gucci under Alessandro Michelle famously embraced imperfection, quirks, weirdness even. Diesel are another good example of how you sell high end through imperfectly and oddly shaped communications. "Perfectionism rarely begets perfection—only disappointment." Ryan Holiday The true psychological damage of aiming for a perfect brand is that this assumes brands are static things. It's impossible to be perfect all the time when the market, as markets do, keeps changing its dynamics around you. Even Apple, a good example of a brand who aspires to perfection, has had disappointing products and comms. "My younger brother and I were raised to be perfectionists, which meant that if you somehow, against all odds, managed to finally do something perfectly, you beat yourself up for not having been able to do it years before." Anne Lamott The previous idea taken to a greater extreme, which is that 'perfect' brands will never be satisfied with themselves. And by brands, i mean people behind brands, which begs the question of what type of work culture they operate in. If you aspire to perfection, how do you respond to the inevitability of things going wrong? "When you’re a child looking at your father, you don’t know what he’s supposed to be, because you want your dad to be perfect, and you want to be a perfect child." Gabor Maté And this, i wonder, is where leadership has a role in not cultivating perfection at the expense of proper humanity. After all, you can't have perfection and vulnerability or creativity because those require you to go to strange places. "It has been said that wabi sabi pots are not perfection, but in fact, they have gone a step further, for they have relinquished the desire for perfection to reveal a truer and more beautiful view of life." Andrew Juniper Which takes us back to cultures and brands who consciously let go of their need to look perfect in order to stand out. And yes, i'm now thinking of the nightmare fuel that is Nutter Butter, a phenomenon i'm still trying to unpack. Because after all... "Imperfect strategies today beat perfect planning sometime in the future." Margaret Heffernan And this is the essence of why you can't really write a 3-year social strategy, as many people still expect to happen. All you can do is find something that works well enough today, experiment with it, and keep adapting to the market. "‘Normal,’ as Carl Jung said, ‘is the perfect aspiration of the unsuccessful.’" Grayson Perry Which is another fancy way of saying that perfection is one of the most boring things you can aspire to in life. Instead, aspire to learn from how the nurses from a Dutch healthcare organisation execute their decision making: "Buurtzorg nurses aren’t aiming for perfection. They know too much of life to expect that. Nor do they seek consensus, because that may be impossible; there may simply not be a perfect solution. So if no one has a principled objection to a proposal, it can be supported." Margaret Heffernan "If no one has a principled objection, it can be supported" is how great brands decide on their social content. It's instinctive and decisive, not design by committee. It's more like a marriage, speak now or forever hold their peace. Well, maybe not forever, but it's the idea that things go live, may or may not work out, and then you course correct. The cost of failure in social is so low that this is really the sanest thing you can do in that space. "Anyone who has ever held a perfectly designed hand tool knows that it can lift your soul." Kevin Kelly And this is where perhaps where a high end product meets the expectations of high end communications. But there's something in the air about how luxury codes are changing that makes this feel a bit less true today. Now, no question those ethereal TV ads about perfume still sell a sense of allure and mystique that many aspire to. But in a world more driven by joyful nihilism, earned media and cultural dadaism, we also need new frameworks. Perfectly designed products still need to entertain for commercial gain, and entertainment is not known to be perfect. (Or perfectly accepted by most people!) "It’s important for us to remember in our own journey to self-improvement: one never arrives. The sage—the perfect Stoic who behaves perfectly in every situation—is an ideal, not an end." Ryan Holiday Which takes us back to a previous caveat, which is there is nothing wrong with aspiring to perfection if you must. But there is a difference between this and only being satisfied when perfection is achieved, which rarely happens. (Sorry, automotive lead designers in conceptual films about a revolutionary new design direction inspired by nature!) In short, i conclude this imperfect series of reflections on perfection with a simple thought: "Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity." Robert Greene Perfection sounds great until you realise it's another word for things without soul. And brands without soul are not brands, they are commodities. Imperfect souls sell. 👇 After the jump, more exclusive goodies for Salmon Theory+ members:
Thank you for supporting my work and keeping Salmon Theory afloat. 🎭 Ingrid Sierra, CMO of Finfare, on obsolescence, being cool at 80, improv theatre, active listening, the unsung heroes of marketing and the value of being data literateThe third edition of Salmon Theory Talks, featuring Ingrid Sierra, is now live. I'm experimenting with the format of these interviews though. So i didn't release the full 27-minute chat in the hope people watch it all. Instead, i'm releasing various clips, on specific topics, for much easier consumption on LinkedIn. If you want to get the clips as they drop next few days, that's the place to follow. But if you want some plain and simple written highlights, we got plenty of those too, word-lovah. Here are the highlights of our conversation. What many marketers are afraid of "As marketers, we also have a lot of that kind of fear of obsolescence when you become more senior. Because obviously we're not necessarily the generation we are selling to with the channels they use, right? It's a big thing that's been driving me, and pushed me later in my career to go for a job in a startup and enter the FinTech world, because I have that deep fear of becoming obsolete. But I also think it's healthy to think that way as well. It doesn't have to take over your life, but it forces us to kind of stay up to speed and keep pushing and challenge ourselves. And that's the essence of a growth mindset." How to be a cool 80 year old "I strongly believe in being a little bit more focused the fundamentals of your health in your forties, like your sleep, your exercise, lifting weights, or eating well. It's going to make me the coolest person in the room when I'm 80, and I'm running around and like all my joints are perfect and I still have some muscles to carry around and stuff like that. While everyone will be more tired and have less energy. I don't know if I'll be able to prove it if I get there, but I've seen that in my family and I believe in it. I recently lost a 98-year-old grandmother who, who actually was living on her own at home. That's amazing. And everyone is asking me, 'what's her secret'? And actually it's bloody simple when you think about it and you realise we've complicated things very, very much. She ate little sugar, didn't really drink, cooked all her meals and kept moving. That's it." What marketers can learn from improv "I do quite a bit of improvised theatre, and the foundation of improv is 'yes, and'. I use "yes, and" as part of improv, but also i'm very much "yes, and" a person all around. Obviously with certain limits, the idea is not to say yes to everything, but being open to things that come to you. Thinking 'yes' before thinking 'no' or 'maybe' is actually opening up a lot more opportunities and is making you way more happy. Saying 'yes' triggers something in your brain that is way more positive than starting by thinking 'no', even if you say 'yes' afterwards." How marketers can learn to listen better "Improv makes you a much better listener. An improv scene doesn't work if you go there with your own agenda and you try to do something for yourself. If you don't listen and don't accept the offer of the other person, it just fails. It's why often actors hate improv. They want things to be about themselves. Where you only succeed in improv if you really work to make the other people around you shine and look great. You have to take a lot of your ego out of it to really contribute to what you build as a group." The unsung heroes of the marketing industry "From the point of view of the teams I've led, I would say the customer experience teams. Customer experience is obvious, but that doesn't make it simple. It's even more true with an app or a digital experience where, yes it works, but to get every single type of customer to agree it works, without issues, is a very hard job." Why data literacy can be a career changer "When I started, we had a lot less data. At one of my internships, we had one email address for the entire agency. That tells you how old I am. So we could choose between above and below the line work, and I chose below the line. So I started working with direct mail, consumer magazines and all of that stuff. And funny enough, as we started having more and more and more and more data, it's actually allowed me to navigate every single area of marketing because I had that foundation of performance data, metrics, KPIs and stuff like that. So it feels like the world today is a bit of like the revenge of below the line." Thank you Ingrid for such a wonderful conversation. Look out for more clips on LinkedIn. 📊 Killer stats for building more effective B2B brandsLook, you know the drill, i know the drill, this is for everyone else who doesn't yet know the drill. B2B and B2C ain't that different, as far as the fundamentals go. Sure, buying journeys are longer and more complex, but that's all the more reason why strong brands matter. But rather than taking my word, i've researched this for a project recently which i am now sharing with you. Think of it as a 101 blueprint for having more grown up conversations with your boss. There are three foundational principles for building strong and profitable B2B brands. Fame, trust, follow up. Simple, not easy. Let's start with fame. 1. Fame It’s crucial to be famous among prospects before they even consider investing. Why?
Plus, emotion is a powerful buying motivator in B2B – surprise! Of course, we’re dealing with different types of emotions (e.g. pride, status, achievement). But the evidence is clear:
Now, all that said, we face a problem. There’s a gap between what B2B marketers say they want to do, and what they are actually able to do:
So the bar for standing out in B2B is low. While the upside of doing this creatively, consistently and effectively is enormous. In summary, to build B2B brand fame you need:
Good examples of brands who've done this well:
Now, let's talk about trust. 2. Trust There's a gap between what B2B marketers think they’re offering, and what their buyers take out. Why?
George Bernard Shaw was right: "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." Oops. However:
So the most effective B2B brands grow by offering a clear, specific and distinct promise that people can buy into. And to be trusted, this promise needs to be grounded in actual proof, because talk is cheap. But, how we express that promise is also a powerful way to build trust. Why?
So winning in B2B is more than just having the right language. It’s about adopting the right body language across all communications. In summary, to build B2B brand trust you need:
Examples of brands who've done this well:
Now, let's talk about follow up, cos someone's gotta get those contracts signed! 3. Follow up Business people are taking longer to make decisions. As a result, there’s a lot of money being left on the table:
And news flash: most business leaders have highly fragmented attention. Plus B2B sales cycles are complex as hell. So it's very easy for things to fall through the crack. This is where Account Based Marketing (ABM) comes in. It sounds hella boring, but turns out it's highly impactful:
But to do this, you need to beyond B2B decision makers. You need to think about who influences them as well. So you better map how these two audiences relate to each other across the buying journey. As per: The core thought here is simple, though. A strong brand that is trusted is a powerful first step to create B2B demand. But a smart lead nurturing process is what actually closes deals. In summary, to follow up and close B2B deals you need:
Examples of brands who seem to do this well (hard to verify!):
In summary If you take one thing away from all this, it's this. Emotional communications are as important in B2B as in B2C. And without them, everything else needs to work twice as hard to perform. Of course, i appreciate the economic climate makes selling brand building work much harder. But better to go in with evidence of commercial success, vs just saying "trust me i'm a marketer". Being a proper marketer is showing up with proof not just personal views. (Something that LinkedIn reply guys could take note of, btw.)
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