Brand Less Ordinary: StephenKenn.com – Revealing The Process

The toughest convention to break is the convention of how we (as consumers) buy. We can change the way we do business, the challenge for creators is to change the way the consumer considers their purchase.

When you last bought a sofa, what were you looking for? What inspired you to make the decision you made? Colour? Size? Texture? Price? Many sofa retailers sell on price. We like a deal. Price can work.

HOW WE BUY WHAT WE BUY

Our decision making pattern is based upon conventional thinking. What we’ve witnessed through the years of post-Christmas TV advertising. The ‘great one-time only sale’. A conventional sales process for a conventional purchase.

Take a moment and consider how you would introduce a sofa into the marketplace. What would you do differently? I’m struggling. Quirky has been done to death.

You experience a similar thought process with your own marketing and product creation. You want your product to appeal at first glance. You also want your product to appeal to your consumer’s conventional wisdom. Does this look right? Will I get enjoyment out of it? Is it value for money? Will it impress my friends? Will it help me achieve what I want to achieve?

REVEALING THE PROCESS

I talk about our natural differentiators. The aspects of our business that nobody can replicate. Our people. Our perspective. Our process. Sometimes we struggle with the idea of ‘differentiation’ that we force our ‘difference’ through our marketing. You’ve seen it happen. Statements of intent delivered under a ‘why we are different’ headline. It’s meant to persuade people that we are ‘the right business’ for the job. Oftentimes, it makes us appear more generic than without.

Your process is a very powerful marketing tool. For any creator. It’s the background that makes our product stand out and be remembered. There’s a reason why the deluxe DVD is often accompanied by a ‘the making of…’ bonus feature. Our instinct is to know what’s happened behind the scenes.

Take a few minutes and watch the following video. I think it will change the way you think about your own products. It’s the introduction of a new collection of sofas by Los Angeles designer Stephen Kenn.

 

The collection was the result of an exploration of how furniture is constructed, and then a desire to distill the process down to the barest bones. Likening the process of furniture construction to the way the human body is constructed, the frame, belts, and cushions became the bones, muscles, and skin of each piece.

What do you think? I very much doubt you’re in a position to add recycled WWII fabrics to your product. However. Is there a passion for the process behind what your business provides? Is there that desire to create something unique and meaningful that’s somehow hidden behind the existing conventional approach to lead with benefits and features?

This is the power of story at it’s finest.

Not just another furniture brand. Stephen’s intention is to ‘create an environment that welcomes rich, meaningful conversation.’ That intention is reflected, not in the materials, but the story that the product allows you to tell. It would appear alien to offer the sofa in a variety of fabrics, colours and size. The product is what it is. Stephen’s selling the story.

PROCESS MATTERS

Austin Kleon shares the following idea “Audiences long to be creative and part of the creative process. Document what you do. Share your process. Turn the invisible into something other people can see. Start a work journal. Keep a scrapbook. Shoot video of you working. Take photographs of your work at different stages.”

Things don’t just materialise. The course you created. The menu you amended. The software you launched. The book you wrote. The service you now offer. There’s a process that took place to get to where you are right now. You may not believe it, but that process matters. It’s what defines what you do. It’s what differentiates you from the rest. It’s what I consider when I’m deciding whether to work with you or your competitor.

This applies to both creators and resellers. Resellers – why have you choose the products you sell?

I started a guitar shop earlier in my career. I chose the guitars we stocked. I purposefully chose guitars that I believed represented something a little different. Great playing guitars that I could create a story around. I didn’t just choose the guitars that I could sell easily. That’s what my competitors did. How would I differentiate one red guitar hanging on my wall with that at my competitors? Price? Anything else? Convenience (you’re here, you wouldn’t want to travel all that way, would you?). It would have been a struggle.

SELLING THE STORY

So I sold guitars where the story resonated (no guitar pun intended).

I chose Garrison guitars because the founder, Chris Griffiths, created a unique fiber mold which sat inside the guitar that gave it a unique sound. Guitars from Canada that had a unique story to share. Something that you wouldn’t find in any other local shop. I could sell the story that the guitarist would share. The design of the product drew interest. The story of the product sold the product.

I used the same philosophy with most of the products we sold. Combined, it provided a unique experience to the website or shop visitor. Not just something different. Something meaningful. Something that ‘creates conversation’.

Product design attracts attention. The story is what draws a customer in. It creates intrigue. It creates desire. It’s what creates demand. Emotions that often override sensibility. Like price.

NEXT STEP

As creators we don’t just build things for the sake of building. Marketers are creators. We create environments to sell our products within. Use the example of Stephen Kenn to consider your own products. If you’re struggling to differentiate in a crowded market take a look at your process. Share it. Get creative in how you retell that story, that process.

You have the tools at your disposal to shape that story to the desires of your own audience. Once in a while we just need to take that step back and consider what we do, how we do it and what that means to our own audience. Reveal your process.


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Ian Rhodes

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First employee of an ecommerce startup back in 1998. I've been using building and growing ecommerce brands ever since (including my own). Get weekly growth lessons from my own work delivered to your inbox below.

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