There’s an old marketing adage that we come back to time and again: “People don’t buy from brands, they buy from people.” It doesn’t matter how slick your branded content videos are if they focus only on selling the brand itself. At the end of the day, audiences need to feel a human connection to a product before they purchase it.
This is especially true of startups, when a totally new idea is fighting to get off the ground. No matter how good the idea itself is, cold corporate branding won’t make a case as successfully as a compelling story, populated with compelling characters. We’ve already illustrated how valuable it can be to feature company leaders in your video, and to show off their core philosophy to potential customers. But another great method for your brand to try is interviewing its early adopters, which is what we did for this client.
Here, Lemonlight interviewed both the founder and customers of Casper Boards to find a balance of their intersecting perspectives. Take a look at what we created:
What makes early adopters unique is the specificity and clarity of their pain points. For someone to take a risk on a brand new brand, they need to have an extremely urgent need that requires fulfilling, and which isn’t being met anywhere else on the market. Through their eyes, potential customers can better appreciate a new brand’s products and/or services by witnessing the very real impact it has made on peoples’ lives. Then, with that fresh in mind, they can make a more empathetic evaluation of whether or not they need it in their own.
Think about when your company was first starting out – or if you’re a young company, the way that it still is. How did your mission help connect you to your earliest adopters? What were they looking for that they found in your brand, and how did you develop those first purchases into successful, long-term relationships?
As you break down your past, you can begin to look towards your future. By interviewing the first customers you ever had, you will not only persuade new customers that they should invest in your brand too, but also build a stronger connection for the base that you already have. Look at how grateful Casper’s earliest customers were for the chance to stay active at the office and keep their blood–and ideas–flowing. If you can capture that sincerity about your own product, you will be able to create a video that feels equally sincere and real.