Live Your
Story
CESA 7
September 2, 2009

Your brand is a story.
Live it inside.
Tell it well outside.
And people will pull up their chairs for a listen.

Much more than an ad
campaign, web site or
tagline could ever be, the
brand story is the core
truth of who you are,
agreed to by all inside,
and used to open
conversations with those
outside who need your
services.
What’s your story?

Telling Your Story
Telling Your Story
Rethink—a fresh take on connecting with your customers

Our Story
Imaginasium guides organization leaders through measurable change
and wins followers inside and out by aligning their brands through
strategic communications.
We concentrate our efforts on uncovering each client’s authentic and
unique brand narrative and bringing it to life. Then, we help them inspire
and align every storyteller charged with delivering on it, from board room
to switchboard, and build the tools — the Form — that help Story.

Branson on Branding
Audiences
How do you feel?
A
“The idea that business is
strictly a numbers affair has
always struck me as B
E
preposterous. For one thing,
I’ve never been particularly
good at numbers, but I think
Brand
I’ve done a reasonable job with
feelings. And I’m convinced
that it is feelings — and
feelings alone — that account
for the success of the Virgin D
brand in all of its myriad C
forms.”

Fluid Brand Audiences
How do you feel?
A
It’s outside the old traditional
thinking of consistency in B
E
building a brand.
Instead… Brand
It drives for consistency of
response with a wide variety
of audiences. D
C

Telling Your Story
Who are you?
Why are you here?
How are you unique?
Who cares?
Why do I care?
What’ll keep me engaged?
Fire up the custodian as well as the superstar.

Assignment For Imaginasium
Provide brand and communication tools to achieve:
Greater name recognition with a wider audience
Deeper connection with current audiences
Align staff, board and internal team with a brand promise
Key in RFP: Raise name recognition, especially about work services

Uncover Your Story
Core Findings from Discovery and Materials Audit
ASPIRO is a family, and an outlet for fun, support and feeling
comfortable. ASPIRO is not a place.
With many levels of support and opportunities for the target
population and families, ASPIRO has a unique role in the
community.
The greater community does not know about ASPIRO or
make the association between name and brand attributes.

Uncover Your Story
Core findings from Discovery and Materials Audit
The organization’s mission, vision, and core values are lived
passionately by board members and employees.
ASPIRO, like many organizations, has a strong internal voice,
but is hit or miss when targeting external audiences.
Outsiders current perceptions make it harder for us to reach
target audiences with reasons they should care and motivating
them to take the desired action.

What Did We Uncover?
ASPIRO is much more than a place. But it’s also more than the
services provided or work done. It’s more than the people who
work, volunteer and visit.
ASPIRO thinks differently, focusing on abilities or strengths and
giving each person an opportunity to succeed.

ASPIRO Is A Movement
It’s important to reframe the way we, as internal audiences, think
about ASPIRO. And then we will create the way external audiences
see ASPIRO.
You should speak passionately, and be always relevant so the
target audiences are inspired to join this cause, actively participate
in propelling the mission onward, and become emotionally tied to
a common success.

Define Your Story
Steps toward your unique Brand Position
Identify Key Strengths
Translate Key Strengths into “Unique Selling Propositions”
Find the flip side: What is your audience “buying?”
Boil all of that down to the ONE THING that will make
ASPIRO’s brand unique to the marketplace

Defining the Story
Opportunities
to build
A sense of family
confidence and
independence
Unconditional Self-
Support sufficiency
When given the
Progressive tools, opportunity and
USPs adaptive A Future
support, every Commitment to
(Unique Selling Propositions) solutions to
individual–no matter Confidence exceeding
the challenge he/she expectations
challenges faces–will find
success in life.
UBPs
(Unique Buying Propositions) Happiness Opportunity
Position
Actions that
Complete/whole
dispel myths
life focus

Brand Positioning Statement
When we work together, erasing preconceived notions of what’s
possible, and have the tools, support and opportunities, then no
matter what challenges a person faces, he/she will find success.

Brand Promise

External Internal
How it should be used:
 Replaces the use of the mission statement (currently used to explain the logo)
 Used with the logo as a sign off or separate as a statement of purpose
 Does replace “Reach. Connect. Achieve.” as part of logo for external audiences
 Doesn’t replace “Reach. Connect. Achieve.” within ASPIRO. It will remain as a
internal rally cry that is based off of the mission statement

Telling Your Story
Develop the story…tell the impact you want to achieve.
“This is what we want to change…the difference I want to
make…and here’s how we’re going to do it.”
Tell it to real people.
Personal relationships, engaging…two versions.
Make sure you can live it.
Strengths, USPs, UBPs, Position.

Telling Your Story – Exercise
Who are we? (2-page short story with a scintillating plot line)
Then, boil it down…25 words…10…5…or just a verb).
THREE WAYS in which we are unique to our “clients.”
DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE.
State the ONE great & dramatic thing that distinguishes us from the others. 25 words or less.
Who are “They?” Explain competitors (25 words). List 3 distinct “us vs. them” differences.
Try it on the team. Fight it out.
Try it on a target. Friendly & skeptical
Try it on everyone else. (A starter cross section).

The
Experience

Design the
Experience
Involve all departments
Chart the touchpoints
Avoid Kmart
Pursue Disney, Starbucks, SuperBowl
Think like John Deere

It’s All in the
Packaging
Sight
Hearing
Touching
Smelling
Tasting

Start asking a few
questions around your
organization.
And then listen.
You’ll identify potential
trouble spots…and
opportunities.
Are you aligned?

Establishing Reality & Desire
Boardroom to the Switchboard involvement
Explore…organization, geography, competition, audience
segments, brand emotional & rational perceptions of
employees/families/ industry/community.
Identify what winning looks like (Goalposts)
Wish/Granted…impact the operations
Basic Tenets…Start at the top, every opinion counts, show how
they fit, win hearts & minds, train for change, tell the world (long
term), stay brand focused.

1.] What’s the challenge?
(The assignment)
2.] Whose perceptions m
(Target audience) atter?
Getting buy-in 3.] What’s going on?
(Research)
The 11 Questions 4.] What do people thin
(Current perceptionsk?
)
5.] What are you really?
(Facts)
6.] What should people
th
(Desired perceptions) ink?
7.] What will you tell th
(Value propositions)em?
8.] How will you speak?
(Tone, brand, delivery)
9.] What’s the rally cry?
(The one thing)
10.] How does it look to th
(Creative direction) e world?
11.] How’d it do?
(Measurement of succes
s)

Your brand is a story.
Live it inside.
Tell it well outside.
And people will pull up their chairs for a listen.

Live Your
Story
CESA 7
September 2, 2009