What Dan Pink and Oprah have to do with you is this: Pink offers a whole new way to consider gender in marketing, while Oprah has raised it up for the masses – who will likely take her up on reading the book, raising their experience and expectations of the world around them. These people, of course, are also those who buy your products.

What I find fascinating is that, with a simple change in word choice, polar opposites (men vs women) become two collaborating elements (men and women, left with right brain thinking – with the right side, in fact, doing the “guiding”).  While that is the way he and Oprah discuss the topic, Pink actually neutralizes the language a bit more in his book by calling these L and R-directed thinking (which I think is helpful).

In the just past information age, L-directed thinking (logical, linear) was rewarded in business and life, but now, in our “conceptual age,” R-directed thinking (emotional and relational) is more emphasized in personal and business realms.  The observations and predictions of Pink’s 2005 book have become more evident these four years later.  We DO live in a world where things like design and story matter MUCH more to humanity and that is seen in what today’s consumers expect from brands and marketing.

This could well be what goes through many a buyer’s mind these days:

“If you want my brand love or my hard-earned dollars, make your pitch a much richer proposition than facts and price. If your corporate values aren’t a fit, I can tell.  If your design pales in comparison to the level that, say, Apple, is delivering, I’ll ignore your products.  If you can’t match up some element in your or your customers’ stories with some element in mine, I’ll see if your competitors can.”

In fact, as I type, I’m also preparing for a storytelling panel at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference (PCBC) in mid-June.  End users, such as home purchasers or retail/commercial building shoppers or tenants, may well have previously been a demographic marketers treated as L-directed thinkers.  I doubt that that has ever really been the case, but wow – the world has significantly changed and most industries have to serve an R-directed decision-maker.  The “senses” that include design and story are top of mind to most consumers today (whether they realize it or not).  Yet, brands are ploddingly slow to develop their more R-directed efforts.

So, yes, let’s revisit the ideas in Pink’s book – as per Oprah’s recent nudge. Start to think of the consumer not in terms of gender, polarizing one from the other, so much as how he or she is a perhaps more R-directed thinker today.  When you make that assessment, it is easier to serve the way women may have been more likely to buy in the past without making it about only women.

R-directed equals being guided by women (as per the definition of transparent marketing in Don’t Think Pink – which is not a comment on the author of A Whole New Mind by any means).  Pursuing this idea and changing your marketing to better serve today’s consumers may well be easier when gender is left out of the conversation.  Right brain thinkers are already uniting and calling us to task.

I got to thinking about it, yet again, as I delivered a presentation to the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility conference recently and had a planning call for a building industry storytelling panel.  Because it was so on my mind, an interesting idea floated up:  Should brands hire “storytelling auditors?”

I think so – and here are two reasons:

One – terminology and imagery: While I know the “brand manager” should serve as the storytelling auditor, it is never quite written into the job description or committed to seriously.  Furthermore, the imagery of “storytelling” seems to humanize that responsibility a bit, which could be a very good thing.  Where “brand” seems corporate, “story” seems like something neighbors might tell each other.  And, isn’t THAT ideally what marketers are now striving for in all their efforts?  To get consumers to pass the tale around – one email, voice or Twitter at a time.

Two – walking the talk: The creation and development of story, chapter by chapter, reflects the long term investment marketers should be putting into better serving their customers – especially if women are a focus.  Story is what can link ad campaigns over the years and give marketers something visual and creative in which to “hold” their work.  It is an easy question to keep asking: Does this promotion, ad, cause, or business practice really fit into our story?  For example, is it a natural for a residential developer to support the breast cancer cause, or would a families-in-need effort be more resonant within a community creation story line?

Things to consider:

Externally: What makes your brand and product incredibly unique,and much more inviting to consumers?  What makes them see you as an information or solution provider, rather than a hard sell?  Story.

Internally: What gives employees and management an easy reference point and some structure to build upon? What helps a corporation interact more naturally with its consumer base at every level?  Story.

Boiling a process down to its essence is often the key.  A storytelling auditor should maintain an overall awareness of all output or customer-brand interaction, so he or she can filter out the unimportant characters and plot lines.  I don’t see this as a complex new task so much as a finer tuning of that which exists and a raised engagement with what may “happen” next.

All of which makes me think that a brand or business mind is perhaps not the best suited for this role, while a fiction writer may be.  (And, I’m guessing there are many underemployed fiction writers out there about now).  That talented, objective someone will have an eye and an ear for catching inconsistent tone/irrelevant elements, and he/she will know how to identify and develop those pieces that will really matter throughout the brand tale.

Transforming brand management into storytelling, or adding storytelling in to the brand management mix, may not be a huge change.  But, such a shift could be the edge your brand needs in this new, more conceptual, story-expecting age.

LC: These consumers were digging for every last shred of information I could give them on sustainably sourced materials used in furniture production. They were VERY particular about the authenticity of the story. Greenwashing is on their radar and they are DEMANDING verification. My point: Women are the original beyond price and facts, information-seeking, authenticity-testing, demanding consumers.

LC: Consumers took a LOT OF TIME with me talking about what constituted sustainable furnishings. They sat down, asked questions, listened and asked more questions. My point: Women are known to take their time and dig for more/want to be educated with significant purchases.

You also must be AUTHENTIC and PROVE your green message to the CONSUMER’s SATISFACTION (not yours) BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT. My point: Women have always looked under the radar of a brand’s messaging and been suspicious of “glowing” claims, even when the price/features were right.

One very effective way Carothers mentions to deliver your entire green/sustainable approach is a long-held key to effectively reaching women, as well: storytelling.  My favorite definition of its power comes from Robert McKee’s book Story wherein he discusses how “Big T Truth is located behind, beyond, inside, below the surface of things, holding reality together or tearing it apart, and cannot be directly observed.“  Storytelling is what makes facts into Big T Truth – and it is all those things, more information, authenticity, lots of time pondering, that are above and beyond the brand/product basics.  And, those are what hold the reality of any brand’s “green story” together.

I’ve been thinking on the sustainably-oriented/values-based buyer for a presentation I’ll be giving next month at Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility’s Spring Conference.  So, Carothers piece simply added more vim to my existing vigor on the topic.  Women may or may not be the wholly visible or significantly measurable consumers interested in your green message, BUT their ways of buying are evidenced throughout.  Marketing to women, with no need to mention that women part (just do it), IS how you reach the new sustainably-oriented buyer.

Satire isn’t only for Jon Stewart and politics (though he surely reigns eternal).  It is also a great mechanism for consumers or the pop-culture media to raise up the disconnections in a brand’s understanding of their markets.  One (with its many sub-segments) that can be so misunderstood – and, thus, its related marketing efforts so well satirized – is the women’s market.   But, don’t be afraid for your brand!  Rather, realize that the easy access today to the video, audio and written words of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook is actually a huge, modern technological gift.  How else could we so quickly tap into the consciousness of the consuming masses?

And, for good and bad, what gems we do find therein…

I recently spent some time watching Sarah Haskin’s Current TV Target: Women clips, and they were incredibly telling.  Her storytelling work – not unlike Stewart’s – in collecting snippets from history and various forms of media to make a broader point, should be considered a major learning tool for any brand marketing to women.  If you can take the heat, step into her kitchen and observe:

• “science-y” terms may not be helpful for selling skincare.
• “women who murder” may not be the most relevant theme for a women’s cable channel.
• most women don’t find eating yogurt the answer to all life’s problems.

By reviewing Haskins work and monitoring other online or social network conversations, a brand can really get a feel for whether or not a particular angle will resonate or be ridiculed.  Perhaps the simple wrinkle-smoothing skincream message, without the technical discussion and bizarre imagery of epidermal layers, IS enough?  Read the comments on any of the Target: Women snippets and see for yourself.

And, yes.  It is certainly very hard for a human being (this means you) to take on even the most constructive of criticism.  But, those that learn how to take it in, evaluate and possibly make changes in their lives because of such input, can really grow into themselves.  There’s a level of maturity apparent in those people and brands that are clearly comfortable with self-examination and known for taking responsibility when issues arise.

To be sure – Haskins’ work is particularly appealing for the Gen Y and younger set.   However, don’t automatically discount the lessons in her sarcastic and humorous take if your target isn’t exactly that particular woman! However you do your research and whichever segment of the women’s market you seek, the idea is to look for the elements of your messages or delivery that scream for satirization.  And, they do exist.

The discovery process may hurt a bit at first.  But, where there is the space for open discussion and constructive criticism, like Target: Women, much wisdom can be gained (in work and life).  If you laugh and learn along with it – the hotseat shouldn’t burn so much.

Rob Walker’s “Consumed” column this past weekend in the Sunday New York Times Magazine presents a good values-based appeal example in one of the ways that Preserve, a product line of more environmentally sound Tupperware-style containers, gets its message across to consumers.  Of “Gimme 5″ a Preserve/Whole Foods combined effort to promote Poly-5 plastics recycling, he writes:

“…stations set up in some locations of the grocery chain invite shoppers to dump their No. 5 polypropylene plastics, which are then collected by Preserve and converted into products.  This theoretically gives people another reason to visit Whole Foods (especially in areas where this particular type of plastic isn’t accepted in municipal recycling programs).  It also promotes Organic Valley, Stonyfield Farm and Brita (all of which sell products packaged in or made from this sort of plastic and sold at Whole Foods).”

The story Preserve tells therein wraps the do-good of recycling and/or re-using #5 plastics around the facts/features of the product to become a “we” value tale (for the benefit of the community, store and a few other brands).  This is as opposed to the “just us” value brand narrative, which might sound more like this:  “Buy our product, help us gather a commodity to benefit our own bottom line, and we’ll be really glad you did – so we can keep making money.”

Another brand that wraps “we” around its products/service is Zipcar, which was coincidentally covered in the same, March 5th, New York Times Magazine by Mark Levine.  That brand delivers quality and convenience at a fair price (the facts), but today’s consumers are likely giving them extra consideration because of the shared values (using less gas, a commitment to walking) that wrap around the basic Zipcar transaction.

As Walker mentions in his closing paragraph on Preserve, these days people are scaling back to buy five products per store visit versus their usual 25, and they’d like to feel really good about those choices. The question is, can your brand do the same – identify and wrap  a great “we” value story “above, beyond and around” a product’s facts and figures – to make the values-based buyer’s cut?

Now, it seems, the automobile industry was already too entrenched in its traditional ways in the late 1980s/early 1990s, and may not have committed to the core Saturn message for long enough. As Micheline Maynard writes for the New York Times:

True believers in Saturn insist the concept behind the division, which stressed respect, teamwork and communication from the factory floor to the auto showroom, could have kept G.M. from losing nearly half the market share it held when the first Saturns went on sale 18 years ago.

“I’m absolutely convinced that the Saturn way could have worked,” said Michael Bennett, the original U.A.W. leader at Saturn. “But what we had was never embraced or adopted.”

***

Saturn’s story was a good one, and, in fact, their marketing efforts were great at leveraging story altogether (remember the ads showing how the owners and employees had reunion picnics together in Tennessee?). They also attempted, if not committed, to a management style that was more inclusive/lateral/participatory. Saturn, at first, delighted and surprised consumers, and made its buyers feel like part of something bigger… even a “movement.” And, all those things reflected a more holistic way of thinking and looking at the world, and a deeper understanding of how and why people buy.

Business just couldn’t quite get there, back then. There was no emergency situation or catastrophe compelling them to explore such innovations. The car industry was doing fine, no huge worries about gas availability or prices, and upgrading models every few years was the abundant society way. So, GM executives must have considered the Saturn approach an interesting little aside and nothing more. Too bad.

If just one auto manufacturer were to perhaps have explored a very similar path more recently, and taken the risk to commit fully to such a “crazy” way of doing business, the industry would be on its solid way to a new game rather than back-peddling.

Initially, the Saturn brand could have been mapped as doing most everything right to transparently serve the more connective/storytelling/community-oriented side of their customers’ buying processes. It was a “woman’s way” business model that served everyone better, but it arrived just a decade or so before auto executives could come close to harnessing its power.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Let’s get one thing straight: There is nothing “typical” or easy about defining your core customer.

If you really want to tap the power of consumer common ground – you’ve got to sever from your emotional attachment to the same-old demographics orientation and instead seek out the similarities among the humans you serve – men and women. One way is using stories, which I’ll go into below, and another is considering your market from a psychographic perspective, which I will cover in a Part II post to follow.

Storytelling: In both a recent web-radio interview and a private corporate presentation last week, I brought up storytelling as an incredible method of making linear bullet points into rich, resonant brand messages. In those discussions, my point was that it wasn’t about marketing to women per se, so much as it was about marketing to humans leveraging what has traditionally been considered a “woman’s way.” Stuart Elliott just wrote about Epoch Films, partner Kirt Gunn, and their new approach to brand storytelling under the company name of Dandelion (seeds that spread.. get it?). Here’s an excerpt:

Selling by telling also has benefits in an economic downturn, to hear the executives of Dandelion tell it.

“We’re in a time when brands have to be more efficient with money,” Mr. Gunn said, “and more considerate of people’s time.”

That means marketers telling sponsored stories must be more careful not to breach the fine line between content and commercialism, he added, because “if we just stick products into content, that has the same feeling to consumers as driving down the road and seeing a billboard.”

Brand or product messages made into stories, or integrated into existing story lines, appeal to a mindset, not a specific, traditional demographic. Stories get to the universally human Truth (with a capital “T”") in life, as famed screenwriter/storyteller Robert McKee might put it, much beyond what is visible or factual.

Humans see more benefit to identifyng and sharing such common ground than marketers may have previously given them credit for – and it goes beyond regions, age ranges, gender, income, education and the like. Even a bit before things reached such an economic low, consumers were already starting a movement toward cozy, comfortable and home-like. I see storytelling – picture a family around the fire – as an obvious way to align your marketing efforts with that sensibility.

***

Part II of Finding Consumer Common Ground – Psychographics is to come…

In the meantime, here are two must-have resources on storytelling: Robert McKee’s Story and Annette Simmons’, The Story Factor.

2) I’m a sucker for an emotional Olympics ad, but what Visa was able to pull off the other night, just after Michael Phelps won yet another gold, was incredible. While their Go World sponsorship commercial may have been a risk (what if Michael had not gotten the gold? As if…), the powerful story and the way Visa integrated it with their product/experience will surely end up being worth it. Even a credit card can surprise and delight, wrapped around an incredible personal story. Here’s Stephanie Kang’s Wall Street Journal piece on Visa’s global sponsorship success, and you may also want to check out Visa’s Go World microsite to watch the ad and see more athlete stories. (This ad gets an A from me.)

This storytelling, once removed, is a great approach. It opens up so many more chapters (as it were), and can give amazingly effective extra depth to Walmart’s corporate green narrative. Here’s an excerpt about their strategy (from the AP piece):

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is telling its suppliers that it’s not enough to simply provide eco-friendly products. The world’s largest retailer wants to be able to tell its customers the stories behind the products, of how they came to be and how sustainable they are.

Rand Waddoups, senior director of corporate strategy and sustainable development, said the company has a strategy with four points of emphasis for its sustainability marketing. Wal-Mart wants to promote waste reduction and recycling, natural resources, energy and social or community impact.

“We need to fill the pipeline with products,” Waddoups said. “Not only do we need more innovative products, but we need to be able to tell a story around that product.”

In a world, or store, of so much abundance, how will consumers increasingly make their decisions? In this particular case, consumers are telling Walmart that they need to see a deep commitment to the environment, including the whys and hows behind each decision. That could cover everything from the retailer’s mission to build stores in a more sustainable way to its selection process for the apparel, tool and garden supply (and so much more) products it sells.

Will the average shopper read a bullet pointed list about those things? No. That’s where story comes in.

2) Dating sites that connect people based on common interests (dog lovers, sailing, etc.) are nothing new, but there’s a new kid on the block that might really interest marketers, in particular: Brand-Mates.  It’s all about putting Barnes and Noble, Banana Republic or Starbucks lovers together to see what bubbles up.  Steve Hall at AdRants was one of the first to cover the launch of this new site.  Its founder, Jay Jacobs, is a marketing/idea guy who happens to be a stellar story-inspirer and teller.  I intend to watch this latest venture of his closely – as I’m already a big fan – and I’ll keep you posted.