Power of Personification: Understand Your Brand and Your Buyer

In this episode of The Briefcase, Ric Tyler and Social Media/Digital Specialist Mark Parent recount a memorable branding exercise that reveals how employees and customers can perceive the same brand differently. The activity asks participants to personify their company using analogies like “What kind of car would your brand drive?” or “Which superhero would it be?” The goal is to shape a brand’s internal identity in fun, familiar terms and uncover mismatches in perception that can create tone-deaf messaging or missed opportunities in customer engagement. This tool is simple and eye-opening for any team trying to better connect with the people they serve.

You’ll learn:

– Brand Personification: Using metaphors to clarify internal understanding of your company’s identity.

– Audience Perception: Revealing how your customers may see your brand differently compared to your team.

– Internal Alignment: Why internal brand clarity is critical to external communication success.

Find more at https://sutherlandweston.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's the things that you hear theexact same stuff over and over
again, and it has just throughthe years, wasted people's time.
This is the briefcase from SutherlandWestern Marketing Communications.
Quick conversations from everydayobservations, delivering practical
marketing ideas you can carry with you.

(00:20):
I'm Mark parents.
Social media and digitalspecialist here at Southern,
and we And you have been writingcommercial copy for how many years?
Uh, we're coming up on 40.
Oh, and you have seen alot of copy that's worked.
You've probably seen a lotof copy that hasn't worked.
And is there a common denominatorin the copy that doesn't work?
One of those thingsthat, uh, does not work.

(00:42):
Are cliches.
It's the things that you hear theexact same stuff over and over
again, and it has just throughthe years, wasted people's time.
If you got a 32nd commercial thatyou're paid money for, you don't wanna
waste your time spending 5, 6, 7,having for bed 10 seconds with cliches.
Correct.
What is your third biggest cliche thathas, you wanna put the duct tape around

(01:05):
your head to stop it from exploding?
Mark?
Friendly, knowledgeable people.
If your business isn't alreadyfriendly, if your people aren't
already knowledgeable and youshouldn't be in business, it's a
given, friendly, knowledgeable people.
If we don't get that and we ex we expectthat and we don't get that, we're not
coming back anyway, so it's, that's bigsyllables that you've wasted in your 32nd

(01:27):
to 62nd commercial knowledgeable people.
What is your second biggest cliche?
We service what we sell.
And this goes back to my, my, the, mybig biggest example of, of service.
What we sell is, uh, furniture.
You know, when's the last time youhad your sofa put up on the lift on

(01:48):
and, and looked under for, you know,to check the, the, the, the ler check.
The catalytic converter.
Come on.
Seriously.
We service what we sell.
Here's the thing, what you'retrying to say is that you stand
behind the stuff that you sell.
You know what?
You can say it just like thator say it even a little better
as to what the benefit is of thefact that we are here for you.

(02:09):
Mark, what is your number one?
Wrap the duct tape around my head.
Stop it from exploding.
Every time I hear it come outof the radio or the television,
or out of the computer speakers.
For all your blank needs.
That one drives me absolutely insanebecause the time that you have to
say all of this stuff, you should betelling them what those needs are.

(02:30):
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
We don't need to just kind of throwit into a generic for all your tractor
needs, what does your tractor need?
Turn it around, turn it into abenefit that says, with this size
engine, it's got all the poweryou need to get your lawn done.
That's as simple as it needs to be, butfor all your tractor needs, banking needs,

(02:51):
tire needs, I'll give you one better.
Yeah.
There was a company that said, forall your fencing needs, we heard
from people saying, when they sayfencing, do they mean on guard or do
they mean keeping kids outta my yard?
For all your blank needs.
It's a cliche that's wasting your money.
It's wasting your customer's time.

(03:12):
It's just a waste.
It is completely.
You have been listening tothe briefcase from Sutherland
Western Marketing Communications.
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