Founders Should Sell Authenticity over Discounts
FORIJ Founder Parker Olsen (above) uses personal narrative to tell the story of his brand of functional granola.
Selling mainly price signals to would-be customers and investors that you don’t believe in your brand
In my work coaching and consulting with brands, I am offered free samples of many products. Sometimes I accept them, and, in addition, I almost always buy the product. First because it helps the brand and second because it gives me the chance to experience the brand in action — how it relates to its customers, what kind of story it tells.
I typically sign up to receive their email newsletter, which gives me a way to follow the brand and get to know the people who produce it. Newsletters also pop me over to Facebook or Instagram where I can find even more engagement with others who use the brand.
I’ve done this enough to notice two different kinds of engagement, one that I find disappointing and one I find rewarding.
The disappointing engagement activities occur when a brand peppers me with emails touting discount after discount. These brands offer practically no content other than stock photography to go along with their offers.
When I see this, all I can think is that the brand is lazy: lazy about the photography, lazy about working to tell the story of their brand and themselves, and lazy about doing the things they need to have a premium brand they can stand behind. Without a great story, they fall back on the unsustainable practice of underpricing. It suggests they’re really in it just to make a buck or they’ve succumbed to the Squarespace-ification of entrepreneurship and adopted its plug-and-play mentality.
I would invite such founders to think bigger and better.
Know your story and promote it
Customers and prospective investors don’t want to see the same photograph of someone shopping in a grocery store they saw at 10 other websites. And they may not be wooed by an endless stream of discount offers in their inboxes every day. They want to feel connected to you and your passion, whether in the form of a personal story or your brand’s story. That’s where your focus should be.
How do you show your passion? Simple, take pictures or videos of you and your team interacting with customers in different settings. Use storytelling to show your brand improving lives and spreading joy in your community. It’s not hard and is probably the most natural thing in the world for a founder to do.
Take a look at what founder Parker Olson has done with his FORIJ brand of “functional granola.” Whether or not you like granola or mushrooms, which Parker includes in his ingredients based on his life-changing experience with functional mushrooms. Do you want to learn more about mushrooms and brain function, check out his many blog posts on the topic. Parker’s not selling price; he’s selling well-being — and he is selling his personal passion.
Ditto for Justin Forsett and Wale Forrester who founded Hustle Clean, which sells personal hygiene products, to encourage people on the go to take care of themselves. They’re justifiably proud of having used their change-the-world company as a force for good by sending product to those in need around the world, or helping inner-city youth through their nonprofit Free Play. Their website and social media pages are full of original content showing them and their products interacting with customers in the real world.
You know they’re authentic, and you want to buy their product because you want to support them as founders. When they do discount, they do so mainly to thank customers for their loyalty.
And celebrating your passion for your brand doesn’t always have to be serious, as I invite you to witness at Bad Birdie, the golf apparel maker. Every inch of their website and social media pages bear testimony to their motto, “If you’re looking for a good game and a better time, we’ve got you covered.” I’m a very novice golfer, but visiting their website sure makes the sport look fun, as does their weekly e-newsletter, which I read word for word every Friday.
I encourage you to spend a few moments on these websites before coming back to your own. Give yourself an honest assessment. Ask where you are devoting your resources: are you trying to lure customers to your brand through discounted prices or are you building a compelling argument or story that makes people want to have a relationship with your brand?
Sincerely,
Rob Craven, scalepassion
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All credit to my ghostwriting partner, Dave Moore, who is instrumental in getting my thoughts out in a coherent manner & into these blogs. Thanks Dave!