These Two Businesses Had the Same Branding Problem

This is where brands go to die, right in the middle. You're for everyone, you say nothing, there's no point.

Oftentimes in marketing, we pretend to be somebody we're not. And all we have to do is look inward and tell our story.

What inspired you to start a candle company of all things you could do?

I wanted to buy my own boat. Okay, this is amazing. All right, so let's not tell that story.

Here's the story. I'm a creative weirdo, okay? When I was... No, no, I'm going to tell you the story. Somebody take the mic from the child. All right, here we go.

Oftentimes, a client will tell you, I want it to be epic and I want it to be intimate. For me, that's a problem because in my mind, those are conflicting ideas.

Help me understand this a little bit better. So if we were to put this on a scale, on one side, it's epic. And let's define what epic sounds like.

Does that mean like we're getting big feature film production? Are you using like epic vistas, wide landscapes and a cast of a thousand people?

Are we talking about intimate, like it's a personal conversation in a very small room, single source slide? What are we talking about? Give me some examples.

So when we do that, we can do this thing. We'll call it an attribute slider. We can map one polarity versus the other.

So when somebody says, we want to do affordable luxury, by definition, luxury should not be affordable. So those are things that are conflicting.

So we can say, what is affordable and what is luxury? And then now they have to pick.

And the only answer I can tell them not to do is pick the one in the middle. Make a decision. Are we more this or are we more that?

So when it comes to you and you have your own conflict, when it comes to your own personal branding, I also encourage you to make your own slider and say, am I more of this or more of that?

And you start to pick. Now, here's the real test. And I'll draw this on the board over here. OK, here's the test. Here's how this works.

When we do these sliders and you can have a few and you can have attributes, right? Let's say you have four or five. That's a good. So it's A, B, A, B.

And you keep defining attributes that are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. And you're going to make a graph.

And what I would do is I would encourage your clients or you at least have one at one or one at 10, because this is where brands go to die right in the middle.

You're for everyone. You say nothing. There's no point. So I want at least on one of these things, it's all the way here or all the way here.

Now, if you're doing this for yourself on personal branding, then what you need to do is say, who are my two biggest competitors?

You make their graph. If their graph is no different than your graph, do it again. It should be different. What are the attributes that we should look at?

Okay, what space are you in? Scented candles. Where's the young man who's like seven? Right next to me. Oh, are you in the same business?

Yeah, we are competitors, it looks like. For real? Oh my God.

Boy, you guys, okay, oh my God. They put all the candle people together for some reason. Okay, let's talk about packaging.

Most of the candle market, I believe, is packaging. Two candle makers, very similar, the packaging will be separated.

So how do we determine if it's one versus the other? Like a powerful story, and I want to find a better word, but no story.

Sir, with a microphone, what's your name? Robert. Robert, what is your company called? Tellier. Are you affordable or expensive? I think we're in the middle.

Wait, wait, you're in the middle? Well, it's hard to define because you need to have a perspective to compare with.

I didn't agree with you. I disagree with you. They did. I'm still good. You only have to make one person happy. I have the marker and the microphone. Middle? Yeah.

All right. For reference, how much per candle? 10 to 20 bucks. All right. That's called 15 bucks. See, I'm good with math.

Synthetic versus natural? Natural. Handmade versus mass-produced? Handmade. Long-burning, short-burning? Must be long, right? Long-burning, yeah.

You tell your story or no story? I think we're in the middle right now. Of course you are.

Let's hand the mic over to the young man. What's the name of your company? Theo Gurish. Okay.

I feel like I'm on an episode of Game of Thrones. I do know. Vala Gurish? What did you say? Theo Gurish.

That did not help me. Okay. What's the first letter? T. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my God. Are you serious?

There's two candle makers that both start with the T. What's the next letter? Eight, eight. Price, where are you? Ten bucks, a little bit less then.

Natural or synthetic? Synthetic. Mom, mom's gonna... Natural, natural. Mom, is it natural?

Yes, natural. Oh, natural. Okay, so you're same here, yeah? Is it handmade or mass-produced? Handmade. Who makes them?

I make them. Okay, this is very good. I'm gonna show you how to beat him in a second, okay?

You'll see. Okay, long or short burning? Long. You tell your story or no story? Tell my story.

Have you done it? Yes. Where do you tell the story? On Instagram.

When I go to the store and I hold your candle, does it tell the story of a seven-year-old Hans using child labor making it? Yes.

True or not true? Do you tell the story on the package itself? No. And back to T, where do you tell your story? Hand him the mic back.