Written by Canon Wing

I teach entrepreneurs and organizations the proven action steps to stand out within their market, improve the perceived value of their business, and better connect with their audience through naming, branding, storytelling, and communication platforms.

October 6, 2020

How to Transform Your Brand into an Inspiration

How to Transform Your Brand into an Inspiration

There’s a whole lot of difference between being informed and being inspired. Information simply informs. Inspiration drives action, drives loyalty, drives commitment. Let’s deep dive into how you can take your brand message from purely informational to profoundly inspirational.

Today, we are answering the question on every entrepreneur’s mind, “How To Come Out Of Nowhere?” And today we’ll talk about how you can do this by making a subtle shift in your brand message from being informational to inspirational. How you can, in five simple steps, raise your brand’s value, your brand’s perception, your brand’s acceptance, your brand’s impression, with a slight shift in your message from purely informational to profoundly inspirational. Because information simply informs. Inspiration drives action.

As far as marketing pyramids go, Informational Marketing is right at the bottom, with Inspirational Marketing right at the top. Information could get you short term sales, inspiration gets you sales and brand loyalty… No matter what business you are in, brand loyalty is your business plan.

Brands that personify themselves as good neighbors, sharing and contributing to the community, show their care and concern for the greater good.Brands that work to inspire, not just inform, become true inspirations. Inspirations who the ideal individuals turn to again and again. Inspirations who help their ideal individuals become the heroes of their lives. Inspirations that are followed. Inspirations that create a safe environment to grow. Inspirations that take on new challenges. And most importantly, inspirations that rise to the occasion.

A subtle shift in your brand message in just 5 simple steps will transform your brand from just one among the crowd, to being an Inspiration to Millions!

Your business, your product, your service, your brand will become an inspiration! It will come out of nowhere and take your market by storm. Are you ready to transform your brand into an inspiration? Let’s get right to it!

Mr. Rogers: Everyone’s favorite neighbor. An inspiration to all.

Did you watch Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood while growing up? My parents were teenagers when they had me, and Mr. Rogers was kind of like my third, much older parent who really understood what it was like being a kid… who really showed me how to be kind to others… who really, well he was my favorite neighbor. He connected with kids like few others ever did. I remember his words that ring true even today. He said, “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say “It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.” Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.” That thought struck a chord and has stayed with me over the years.

And it got me wondering, what exactly made him connect so well with millions of children? What inspired a US Senate Subcommittee to grant him 20 million dollars in federal funding to redefine television for children. What inspired them to fund his project in a time where cartoons featuring swords and guns were all the rage? What I discovered was how profoundly simple and clear his message was. All timeless messages are crafted on a single principal – ‘clarity outperforms clever every time’.

I remember American billionaire Tom Steyer say these words: “Clarity of vision is the key to achieving your objectives.” And likewise, clarity in your message is the key to creating the right impact.

Mr Rogers’ message was this: s parents, teachers, caregivers, guardians of children, we’re not here just to inform kids; we’re here to inspire them!

Inspiration, not just information, can transform a person. And you know what? It can transform how people feel about your brand too.

Mr. Rogers stood for humanity’s most vital values. Respect, kindness, integrity, compassion, humility, inspiration. He scrutinized every word that was spoken on his show because he knew that children hear things literally, and nothing should confuse or mislead them. He structured his show around his young audience, his Ideal Individuals. Mr Rogers was simply outstanding at imagining where the children’s minds might go.

Here’s a question for you: How adept are you at imagining where your Ideal Individual’s mind might go? Remember the brand that understands their ideal individuals the best, always wins.

Mr Rogers is famously known for going through multiple steps before finalizing his words. He diligently rephrased his sentences, step by step, word by word, until they were just right. Until they were easy to understand, positive, trustworthy, non-exclusive, motivational, developmental, and most importantly, inspirational.

I reworked his steps. I adapted them to work for brand transformation, and transform brand messaging into something motivating and inspiring. Something that commands attention, provokes action and inspires awe. Just like Mr Rogers himself.

So are you ready to transform your brand message using Mr Rogers’ 5 steps of progression? Let’s craft your brand message with the utmost care and neighborly compassion for your ideal individuals. You show your ideal individuals care and compassion and respect, and they are sure to turn to you again and again.

5 Steps to take your brand message from informational to inspirational.

Here’s what I want you to do: I want you to think of your brand message. What does it stand for? What does it highlight? What does it say? Why should anyone buy your product? How do you want them to feel, like really, really feel, about your product? If you had to choose just one, what’s the one thing you want to tell your ideal individuals about your brand?

Did something pop in your mind? Yes? Great. Now let’s deconstruct and reconstruct that brand message and transform it from purely informational to profoundly inspirational. Because information simply informs. Inspiration drives action. Let’s get started.

Step One: Here we state  what our brand stands for clearly, simply, in a manner that’s easy to understand. Let’s say the quality of your product is its highlight. Maybe this is what popped into your mind. “Our products are of the very highest quality.” That’s your ground floor, let’s build up from here.

Step Two: Here we add an element of trust and positivity. You want your ideal individuals to feel confident about buying your product. So from “Our products are of the very highest quality”, we clarify it to “This is the best thing for you.”

Step Three: And this one’s crucial, so pay attention. We need to do away with the prescriptive language. It’s essential to make the ideal individual feel that he or she wants it, not that it’s being sold to them. No one likes being told what to do. It takes away their power. A brand message that takes away power from the consumers, isn’t likely to win Brand Loyalty. Remember, an inspiration always empowers people to be the hero of their own lives. So let’s tweak the message to show your ideal individuals that their true selves are their ideal selves. They will love you for it. We all want to be seen, validated and nudged towards our best. Let’s turn “This is the best thing for you” to “You need not settle for less than the best.”

Step Four: Now here’s where we add our inspirational and developmental thought. Here’s where we hint towards a greater future. Here’s where we help the ideal individual to begin seeing themselves stepping into their greater future. A future where their lives are immensely better than before they bought your product. A future where they feel better about themselves after using your product. How do we do that? We transform “You need not settle for less than the best” to “You deserve the best because you always give your best.”

Step Five: Now here’s where it gets beautiful. Here’s where the message really, truly sings. Add an element of aspiration. An element of greatness. An element of emotion. You see inspiration is an emotion. Inspiration drives action. And we want them to feel inspired to buy your product. We want them to get emotionally invested in your brand. We want to really help them take that last step into their greater future as the hero of your brand story. Can you put our branding message into their voice? “You deserve the best because you always give your best.” Can you say out loud a secret in their heart? Can you name an identity that they aspire to? A name like Ironman, or Covergirl, or a tagline like… wait for it… “Because I’m Worth It.”  Because I’m worth it, is the sound of a woman who knows she deserves the best because she always gives her best.

Transform your brand message into an Inspiration to Millions, today. Let’s all take a lesson from Mr. Rogers, the world’s best neighbor, on how a brand can inspire transformation in our own neighborhoods by seeing the best in our ideal individuals, empowering them to step into their best selves, supporting them on their journey, and celebrating their greater future. That’s how you move from purely informational to profoundly inspirational. Because information simply informs. Inspiration drives action.

Let’s make your Ideal Individuals the hero of your brand story.

Brainstorm about how you can elevate your brand’s message to inspirational heights rather than staying at the informational plane. What is the greater future your brand promises?

I just remembered this quote by Mr Rogers. I may not be able to remember it exactly, but it goes something like this: “Whether we’re a preschooler or a young teen, a graduating college senior or a retired person, we human beings all want to know that we’re acceptable, that our being alive somehow makes a difference in the lives of others.” The healthiest brands, the ones that continue to make a huge cultural impact year after year, generation after generation, do so by actually making a positive difference in the lives of their ideal individuals. They are the brands that are with us in all our milestones, be it professional, personal, or even purely pleasurable.

Here’s what I want you to do right away: Right after you’re done watching this video, take a paper and pen, and jot down your brand message. If you think of more than one, jot them all down. Now consider it. Does your brand message only provide information? Work through the steps we just talked about, move diligently from one level to the next, and transform your brand message from purely informational to profoundly inspirational.

Know this, your brand need not get lost in a crowd. Every brand has the potential to be a good neighbor, everyone’s favorite neighbor. Every brand has the potential to transform into an Inspiration to Millions. And inspiration drives action. Believe in your brand. Elevate your brand. Redefine your brand. That’s how you will come out of nowhere.

Thank you all for joining me for this episode. I hope I’ve inspired you to take positive, definitive action. Remember, just as Mr. Rogers did for 34 years, every week in every episode – to Love What You Do, And Love How You Do It.