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On this week's Creator's Tip video we're going to talk to Patrick Hanlon about primal
branding. A lot of us really want people to attach themselves to the content and the
marketing that we're doing here on YouTube and other places. We're going to talk about
how you guys can do that well with a narrative about your brand that will really help
people emotionally attach and engage themselves with your stuff. That's coming up.
Hey guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer and this is Patrick Hanlon from Thinktopia and
we're going to talk with you guys about his book called Primal Branding and it's really
good. I read it, I love it. There's seven aspects of the primal code that we're going
to talk about here in a second and if you guys really
need to have all these seven pieces in line with your content and if you think that you
can use, because if you do it'll create a narrative around your brand, your content
and your strategies for marketing that really help tell a really well-formed story that
people can identify with, attach themselves to and
really engage with. I've seen it work, personally, for my own stuff, my own personal blog
channel in some huge ways we're going to talk about later. First of all, could you tell
us just what Primal Branding is at it's essence?
What is Primal Branding?
Sure. Primal Branding is all about building communities, basically. We look at brands
as consensual groups; people who want to get
together and just be doing the same thing. It's
about how you create that community. So, we look at brands as really a belief system,
and who knew that there was really a system behind a belief system? Basically, it's -
when you can tell someone where you're from and what you're about, here's what
signifies it, here's how you use this, or how we interact with one another, here's what
we're not and what we want to be, here's how we describe ourselves and here's the
leader. That's basically what primal branding is all about. It's like a creation story that
tells where you're from, this is the great thing, the mythos behind the family, the legend
that started us. And in incorporation, we all know that Google started in a dorm room,
so did Facebook and Apple started in a garage
and Coca-Cola started in a drug store down in
Atlanta, as so forth. So, we all have a great legend about where something's come from,
it could have been written on a back of an envelope. That's the beginning. And where
things come from today is incredibly important in the world of the internet and so forth
when you have false personalities going on out there. So, the essence is that we want
to know what you're about. You know, whether
you think different, or just do it. We want to know if you're a good egg. Then there are
icons. These are quick concentrations of meaning that show who you are. You see Nike
swish and you know automatically that it's Nike and you know what that means. See
the Mickey Mouse here, so you know what that means too.
Yeah, my 3-year-old loves those ears.
Exactly. Like McDonald's arches, right? My 3-year-old spots McDonald's arches and he
wants to drive the car. Then there are - speaking of McDonald's, I should mention that
icons involve all the senses, it's not just about sight. The taste of McDonald's french-fries
is iconic, the smell of Abercrombie and Fitch when you walk into the mall.
Bath & Body Works.
Bath & Body Works, etc, etc.
Not my favorite store, I just know that one.
Then, working very closely with icons are rituals. Rituals are the repeated - either
positive or negative - engagements that you have. It could be customer service, it could
be the person behind the counter, but these are kind of the expectations, the routines
in your - like your 10-thousand-mile tune-up
is a ritual. So, if you have a Saturn you have a
completely different set of expectations than someone who has a BMW or a Mercedes.
Either way, you're pissed if those expectations aren't met. If the donuts aren't there, if
the coffee's not hot, it's upsetting. It can ruin
your day.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, rituals are important. Then following rituals, it's how you talk about yourself
and the language that you use. Also, in addition to
these other pieces of primal code, they all help
to differentiate you. The words, we all have learned iced grande decaf latte, if you want
to order from Starbucks, or one of another 10 thousand permutations.
I still don't know that language.
You've got to learn it.
I'm not part of the community.
You're not part of the community, exactly. But at another level, look at the last time
you started a job - a new job - you spent the
first couple days or weeks learning all the words
that everyone else knew, right.
Yeah. That's true. I get that one, you're like the odd one, right?
Right. And all the jokes that everyone else knew the answer to and all the anecdotes
about the picnic and the party and all of that stuff. You were trying to fit in. And
if you don't learn all that stuff, you don't fit
into the community. So, it's the same if you're a
baseball fan or a soccer fan, you learn all the things, all the words, all the famous
plays, all the famous games, all the stadiums and
everything. And, how well you know all that stuff shows where you stand on the hierarchy
of baseball.
Alright. Yeah.
And if you don't know any of it, you're not a fan.
I'm not. I have no idea.
So, then there are the non-believers. The non-believers are the people who are basically
the other, you know, Mac versus PC, dumber than you though, Republicans versus
Democrats, and those are the people that really help show you who you don't want to
become, what you don't want to be, and so forth. So, that helps you to figure out who
you do want to be, what you do want to be about.
That's very important. That's them. Then, finally, there's the leader. The NFE, you
know, Time Magazine front cover level, it's the
Bill Gates, Oprahs, Steve Jobs, Ted Bransons and so forth. But on other levels it's the
team leader, it's the national sales manager, and so forth. And these people are all
responsible for pulling together all seven pieces of the primal code. Because when all
seven levels are together they snap people's heads around. And, people kind of fall into
it. There are a lot of products out there that may have one piece of code, they may
have the creation story or something like that.
Or they may have a couple different things. And
in some categories, that could be enough. But, when you have all seven working together
it's harmonious and people fill in the blanks. Especially in today's world with social
media and everything, it's important to have - there's a statistic out there that people
start to believe you are, or take notice of you
when they hear about you from five or six different sources. Okay. Five or six different
times. It could be from friends, it could be
from Facebook, someone could Google you through and found you, like that. In other
cultures, like in Asia, it could be ten or twelve different times. So, we have it a little
bit easier. Once you've gotten all these things
together then you have what we call primal branding. This is something that companies
like Starbucks, Apple, Coca-Cola and others have done. They've been able to do through
hiring smart people, having a lot of money, put it all together. And a lot of good luck
and good timing.
Each of these aspects are so important, I mean, we covered them at a really high level,
you know, just skimmed over them. His book, it's linked up below, you should definitely
go check it out and I've really found it valuable. Because just having like one of those
pieces missing, just kind of breaks the whole narrative in some regards. Especially, a lot
of us probably have certain aspects of it in place, maybe we have a creed - and although
I've noticed that most people's creeds are more like descriptions of what they do rather
than this is what we believe and why you should join us - which is a huge distinction
that, when I read that, that was like an epiphany for me, like a light bulb went off.
In a lot of companies that's why you come to work in the morning.
Yeah. Yeah. And getting people to subscribe to your channels, your YouTube channels,
because they really believe in what you're doing and what you stand for rather than just
the stuff that you make, because if it's the stuff that you make, assuming that someone
makes the stuff that you make better, then they leave and go somewhere else.
That's a great point. Because so many people do things in a parody world, all this -
hundreds of different types, tons of cars to choose from, for example, and burgers and
everything else.
But if they attach themselves to you because they support what you believe and they
believe that too, which sense that the pagans and non-believers and all that, because it's
all intertwined, guys, it's awesome. We're going to talk a little bit more about it in
next week's and kind of go into a little bit more
detail about what my personal experience has been with this primal code and how it's applied
to my personal YouTube channel and how I've seen engagement go up, use go up,
subscribers go up as a result of implementing this seven aspect of this primal
code. So, go check it out, it's linked up below. And, if you guys want to talk with
Patrick about your own branding, your company, whatever you guys are working on
and how you can implement this into your stuff, his website is thinktopia, it's down
below. Go check it out, you can contact him there. He works with Beth Spy, Levi, PayPal,
American Express, a lot of really high-level brands. Yes, many of them. Go check him out.
He'd love to help your company do the same thing that these other companies are
doing and if this is your first time hanging out
with us, we'd love to have you subscribe to our channel for our videos coming up next
week about diving into this a little bit deeper, specifically related to online video. So,
if you guys have any ideas and comments and thoughts
about how you've already implemented some of these, maybe without knowing
it, maybe intentionally, maybe not, comment below and let us know. We learn from
you guys every week. You guys are awesome and thanks for hanging out with us.
We'll see you guys again next week for another Creator's Tip video. Bye.