Branded by Who?

In my last post I ended by the question that I will divide into two parts:  

WHO ARE YOU?        

                                    WHAT DO YOU DO?

I am not talking about an elevator speech here, though those questions are the ones always asked when you learn to put together an elevator speech.  Oh, an elevator speech is how you would answer those questions in a short period and in just a few concise sentences as your ride a couple floors up or down in an elevator.

I know, that happens so many times on elevators these days.  It is good to know how to answer those questions without making it obvious you are a storyteller who tells only epic stories and needs 15 minutes just for the intro to the story.

An important part of marketing is simply being able to define those questions.  They will help you gain focus on what you want to do as a storyteller or performer.  They help you define who you are in the storytelling world.  They are, in a sense your back story - that part of any story that the author knows but does not necessarily write into the story.  Your back story also sets boundaries for your storytelling. 

Take the "Who are you?" question;

In my case, I will answer that I am Appalachian, unashamedly Christian and a mountain boy at heart.  For those reasons I do not tell creation stories from other religions, sometimes include hunting and fishing in my stories because I grew up doing those things and they are a part of who I am.

I will not play the dumb hillbilly, as you might have heard me say at some point, "I am not Jethro or Lil Abner.  I come from a proud people.  They were not ignorant, stupid, lazy or dirty.  I will not dress as such and will not poke fun at my roots.  I will also be pretty offended if you do."

That begins to define who I am and helps me determine the types of stories that I will write or tell.  As I have mentioned before, I stopped calling myself an Appalachian Storyteller because it limited the types of stories others PERCEIVED that I told.

Asking "Who Am I?" can also help you to define your mission statement and begin to build your business and marketing plan.  How?  Simple actually because it can help you to identify groups and audiences that you have things in common with!

Define who you are and then start looking within a 30 mile radius around your home base for audiences!

Sort of makes sense, doesn't it?

Branded!

Branding is an interesting and important part of marketing for a storyteller.  Branding means many things and you need to understand what it is and is not in order to use it to your advantage.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as:  a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."

Some examples you will be familiar with are the Nike "swoosh", McDonald's golden arches or believe it or not - Coke's vision of Santa that has actually influenced the way children and adults envision Santa Claus... which really is not at all like historical drawings and descriptions of Santa or St. Nicholas!

I hear many folks that have a little experience with marketing talk about the importance of using the same colors, fonts and pictures in marketing as if those things alone are the key to getting business.  While it is important to have a consistent image, using Times New Roman instead of Arial in the body of a brochure really is not such a big deal.

For a storyteller, branding can start when you walk into your closet or have a photograph taken.

Take costuming, for example.  I don't mean wearing some sort of outlandish costume, I mean what you wear when you perform... your costume.  

Think about Donald Davis, Baba Jamal Koram, Bil Lepp or Doc McConnell and you might think of Davis' dapper appearance and bow tie, Baba Jamal Koram's amazing African clothing, Lepp's ball cap. jeans and tee shirt or Doc's checkered vest and old hat.  Those are all part of their individual branding. 

Mark Twain is identified with a white three piece suit, even though he wore a white suit for the last years of his life.  Captain Kangaroo wore that coat with huge pockets (in which he always had carrots for Bunny Rabbit). Mr. Rogers always changed into tennis shoes and a sweater.  I can still see Ray Hicks in a pair of overalls on stage.

However, that is not all branding is about.  For you it may not be about clothing at all.  There are plenty of amazing storytellers that come to my mind and I have no idea of what they wear on stage.  It is just not important - OR PART OF THEIR BRANDING!  

It may be the types of stories you tell, like the ghost stories that Kathryn Windham told, or Ray Hicks telling Jack Tales, Brer Rabbit Stories by Lynn Ford.

You may be identified as an ethnic or cultural teller, telling Appalachian, Asian, African American, Native American, Jewish or Hawaiian stories.  You may tell stories about your religious heritage or even stories based on your geographic location.  All these can identify you, separate your from the crowd, create a niche for you.

It is all the start of your personal branding.  

Yep, there is more, but it all should start with two simple questions:

Who are you and What do you do?