By Bryan Mann-Entzel, Greater Thought Creative Lead, Strategist, and Brand Storyteller
Lately, I have found myself having a similar conversation with multiple clients. How do we get people more engaged with us?
One is a church, with the question “will people return to community gathering points when the COVID protocol all finally clears away?” Another is a retailer, wondering “how can we make a more meaningful connection with our guests?” Based on personal reflection and the observation from peers, family, and things in the marketplace; what we need as a society is some positivity.
For over two years, we have endured the crush of a contentious political race, the brutality of a global pandemic, and its disruptions to our ways of life. Add to that, the news circuits have not lightened the mood at all. I have found myself turning the TV on less and less, and been searching new corners of my tech world to find things that have less gloom and doom.
1. Choose your approach
If we were to suggest one thing to anyone looking for a new direction for their marketing, it would be to focus on POSITIVITY. Look inside your organization and find ways to tell uplifting stories. Conduct a food drive and promote it. Talk about things your brand can share as a point of inspiration. Perhaps you even go as far as telling stories of folks your brand, company, or team has helped.
The purpose is to mindfully change the vibe or mood around you by putting good energy out into the world, daily pointing out good things or by creating good through your own actions.
2. Brainstorm!
This is a good exercise for any organization and when you stop to think hard about what it is you have to offer, you might find you need to try harder, or could use some inspiration yourself. That isn’t bad, it just is a product of where the past 2 years have left us all. You will be remembered for the good that you do. There are entire brands built from this premise. This gives your individual audience something they can grab on to and believe in. Something that might align with their own interest, morals, and purpose. In a sense, it is a tune-up for your WHY. Why do you do what you do?
Make it fun! Great things happen when we put our minds together. Build off of other people’s ideas, share the effort and in a brainstorming, there are no bad ideas! (No Shaming)
3. Create action out of ideas
Coming out of that sort of brainstorming exercise, we challenge every organization to use this to tell their stories. Who are you as a company? Why do you sell, produce, serve X-Y-Z beyond making money? Once you can get to the core of your story and tell some uplifting news, then you have the start of something that may draw people back in from the dark clouds they’ve been mired in.
Make a plan! Progress requires a plan and it does not happen alone. You will find that it is easier to stick to the plan if you have group buy-in and others to support the effort.
Put some positivity out into your corner of the world!
Need help? We are happy to lend a hand.
We realize that this sort of exercise is not everyone’s cup of tea. Your leadership might simply be too busy to devote time and resources to this or to see it through and stay on-task with a positivity campaign. We are happy to help if that enables your company to start this type of work.
What Does Positivity Look Like?
Greater Thought had the unique opportunity and pleasure of helping Vanessens Salons launch their brand redesign, which we wrapped in a new positivity campaign. Here are a few examples of that work. For more examples from this campaign, visit Vanessens’ Facebook pages or their website from the button below.
