Macs, branding, and a content strategy experiment
February 23rd, 2007 by Allen Voivod
I’m a PC guy, but I’ll give Apple credit every day of the week for their marketing messages. Whoever they have doing their ads and website content, lemme give you folks a shout-out - you’re absolutely phenomenal these days!
The reason I’m thinking about Apple today is because their messaging is so dead-on, and recently we’ve been reviewing the sales and marketing materials for a company that shall remain nameless. And for everything that Apple does right, this other company isn’t there yet. But how do you explain that to a business in an easy-to-understand way?
Over bacon and something called “Wheatina” at the breakfast table, Lani likened content messaging to the brand messaging exercise our strategic partner Kevin Skarritt at Acorn Creative does. He’ll have you lay out all your marketing materials, ask you to glance at them all and absorb the impression in a moment, look away and see whether a clear emotional connection comes through. (Usually not, which is where your growth opportunity lies.)
Lani pointed out that you could do the same thing with your content. Here’s a fun little experiment you can try:
Pull out 5-10 of your marketing touchpoints that use words - your website, press releases, articles, brochures, you name it. Then grab a highlighter, and highlight the important points, like you used to do in your school textbooks.
Then review your highlights. Are they all about features, or benefits? Results, or specifications? You, or your potential customer?
This is what Apple gets sooo right. Customers don’t care about the details - they care about being able to showcase their talents and empower their lifestyle.
Whether your customers come to you for something personal, for business, or a well-blended mix, your job is to get your message through to them in the most powerful, focused way possible. That’s what brand stategy is about, and that’s what content strategy is about, too.
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