Show me the moon
When I trained to be an actor I heard a brilliant phrase, attributed sometimes to Stanislavski, the founder of the Stanislavski Technique or method: ‘A good actor points at the moon and we see the moon. With a poor actor, we merely admire his arm’.
B2B (and much other) marketing and advertising are replete with poor actors. Let me explain.
Companies these days spend a lot of time and effort on Mission, Vision, Values, and Purpose, seduced by practitioners like Simon Sinek.
It is good to understand who you are and why you exist. It helps you hire the right people, create the right culture, and develop the right products.
However, the above brand definitions are inwardly focused. An acting coach may call these the ‘inner-directed’ facets of a character. Stanislavski would say that the actor in question is only focusing on the first of his ‘circles of attention’ – himself.
Yet this navel-gazing is often used as the basis of ‘design’ and ‘messaging’. (Can you imagine Richard Burton being thrilled to be told by John Gielgud to go out there and deliver ‘messaging’?) If the audience or customer is considered, it is through the creation of ‘personas’: dry if exhaustively ‘researched’ descriptions based on job roles and ‘needs’, sometimes augmented with cringeworthy clichés about the lives of ‘Ambitious Anna’ or ‘Entrepreneurial Eric’.
It betrays a vain hope in company owners that they can build business by issuing clear logical directions about their supposedly superior services to entirely predictable and consistently motivated audiences. ‘If metrics be the food of love, play on’, they sigh.
By contrast, every actor or performer knows the glory is only reflected on them (or their lovely limbs). They serve the play. The audience comes to laugh, cry, think. I believe that eminent theatre director Sir Richard Eyre (apologies if I’m mis-quoting) once hailed Opera as the most complete art form because ‘When we see a play we think thoughts, ballet we feel feelings but in opera, we feel thoughts’.
When a brand advertises or creates content it is on stage before an audience. It needs to provoke thought and feeling, and if possible, get people to feel thoughts. We are giving them a glimpse of the ‘moon’ – a better (working) life, a feeling of security or triumph, even being liked (God forbid!) As the great advertising planner Paul Feldwick has written, there is a reason the pedlar sings: to seduce people into buying his wares. It is because music triggers emotions we can’t escape or control. Otherwise, the sales message itself is one we could all too easily ignore (after all, most of what brands have to say are among the least interesting things anyone will hear in their daily lives, especially if expressed in a dull ‘cost-effective’ digital ad, post or email).
B2B brands need to perform
To give the most convincing, moving performance, like the pedlar, the B2B brand needs to perform. To understand that people really are not going to respond with enthusiasm to our logical presentation of the ‘value proposition’ or be moved by our zealous presentation of our own story. Even if your audience is trapped in a sales presentation, they’re probably thinking about lunch. The brand needs to learn how to move people which means INVESTING in creative ideas that contain rich associative ideas that people want to share. That way, we create a predisposition to buy or enquire.
Many books and case studies prove the effectiveness of this, but we don’t need to read them. We all know that we love (and pay more for) people and things that go the extra mile, that ‘perform’ and make us feel good: the beautiful flower creating swarms of waggling bees around it, the waiter who treats you like the most special and romantic couple they’ve ever come across, the rakish Jaguar car that makes you feel more like an old school gangster than a VP of sales and marketing (‘shooters’ in the boot, not golf clubs).
Noel Coward once wrote:
Don’t put your daughter on the stage Mrs. Worthington.
For her to hope
Dear Mrs. Worthington
Is, on the face of it, absurd
Her personality
Is not, in reality
Exciting enough
Inviting enough
For this particular sphere
It is not enough to have a keenly held mission, vision, and values and express these in a smart font, a scrolling website and SEO-tailored copy. Without personality, star quality, or the talent and generosity of spirit to move people, your brand will never ‘make it’.
Don’t be drab. Don’t be solely and dryly ‘logical’. Don’t wilfully ignore human behaviour. Don’t dismiss the ‘fluffy stuff’ even if you don’t really get it (that’s what agencies are for). And don’t be so scared of communicating that you hide your light under a bushel.
Don’t let your brand be poor Mrs. Worthington’s daughter. Let us see the moon.
