May 22, 2018
The Unexpected Case of Marketing Nirvana
Learn more about what is easily the best template for promoting your brand in 100 Words.
I lost my favorite pair of sunglasses last summer. They were cool. My go-tos. I had had them for several years. To replace them was going to set me back at least $350. And that wasn’t even for polarized lenses! I was a little bummed. I went without sunglasses for awhile.
Then, I remembered someone at work telling me about getting glasses from a place called Warby Parker. Actually, I’m pretty sure I brought it up with something like, “hey man, new glasses?” “Nice!!” And then he said something like, “Got ’em at Warby Parker. You should check them out.”
So, I did some digging on the Warby Parker site. After some browsing, I headed to the Upper East Side storefront with my six-year-old son. I wanted to kick the tires on a couple of frames that looked good online. The first thing that struck me was the cool vibe of the building. It looked like a refurbished old drugstore, soda shop kind of place.
My son and I spent a good while trying on glasses. Yes, he tried them on, too. “What about this pair?” I’d ask. He’d take a moment to assess and then give me the thumbs up or the thumbs down.
We finally settled on a pair of shades. But wouldn’t you know it — they were out of stock and had to be shipped to me. Argh!! The glasses gods were against me and the journey would have to continue. But I reminded myself that for a total price tag of $90 for a cool pair of shades — polarized at that — it was worth the wait. Plus, my little man and I got to hang out in our favorite city.
A week or so went by and my sunglasses arrived. I opened them up. And wow, I was pleasantly surprised at the perfection I was seeing. The case that the glasses were in was simple, unadorned, with clean lines. This is the kind of introduction you want to a brand. I opened the case. Guess what happened next? I saw the following words — not Warby Parker, but this…
Nice to see you? I was stunned. As I’ve been saying in my storytelling workshops from New York to Morocco, the most important word is “YOU.” It was so refreshing and frankly inspiring to see a brand put its customer before itself!
Then I saw the shades. They looked great. Tortoise-color. I put them on and voila! Great fit. All good. But what happened next was like storytelling manna from heaven. Marketing Nirvana. I couldn’t believe my eyes. This is what I saw.
There it was: Warby Parker in 100 words. Someone had the presence of mind to use the cloth you clean your glasses with as a canvas for Warby Parker’s origin story. In 100 words no less!
And they even kicked things off with “Once upon a time…” They put their story on something I’ll actually use at least a couple times a week, if not more. Beautiful. Not only that, but one sentence into the story and I already felt a connection. Why? Because they were telling my story. I could relate.
In your business, whose story are you telling?
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