Want to wow your audience? Start with these three things
I once worked on a project with a client who really wanted to transform their organisation’s approach to engagement with a particular audience. Words like “disruption” and “pioneering” were thrown around. I read their business strategy and their brand strategy. More words popped out in a similar style: “innovation”, “leader”, “we don’t follow”, “bold”, “courageous”, “challenging”. It’s pretty clear what they’re going for and how they want to see themselves.
And then it landed: a “but” so big that celebrities would have been falling over themselves to get one just like it.
But the client wasn’t aware that they were operating in the land of big “buts”. They were just being how they know to be - and how I see many universities being. The “but” was something like this:
We want to be seen as bold and pioneering, but we want to follow other people already doing it and be extra cautious about what we do
Their “being” wasn’t courageous, bold and challenging at all. They wanted us to find examples of what other people were doing so they could borrow and copy from them. They wanted a low-cost solution. They wanted easy and iterative. They needed to prove and provide evidence of what had gone before in order to even persuade their colleagues to make a tiny step change. They said they were pioneers, but they only really wanted their big adventure to take them to the strategic equivalent of the corner shop.
In short, they weren’t behaving at all in line with the way in which their brand strategy and organisational vision sought to position them.
Introducing the BCE model
This story is true. But it isn’t unique. It’s an experience I’ve had again and again in my 20 years of working in and with the education sector.
I’ve tried tackling it through content strategy and experience design. I’ve tried tackling it through a more robust approach to brand strategy. I’ve tried to create brand strategies that can actually be used instead of just sounding great. But all of this will only ever allow us to take teeny and wobbly baby steps if we aren’t willing to take a look at what’s really getting in the way: organisational culture and being.
So, I put my thinking cap on. How can we create an approach to brand experience that addresses the real barriers, not just the perceived ones?
When I took a look at what was needed, I was able to synthesise it down into three things:
A clear articulation of the experience that we are trying to create for our audiences (and that they also want to have)
A blueprint for the content that is needed in order to generate that experience (and the operational requirements to create it)
Being and behaving in integrity with our brand values in every micro-moment of the ways in which we work.
And so the BCE model came to be:
Being
Content
Experience.
What’s this “being” fluff then, Tracy?
Now, I’m making a guess at your reaction right now…
“Yep, we get the need for a content strategy”
“Oh sure, that experience thing also makes sense”
But “being”? Huh.
“Experience” speaks to the outcome that we are aiming for. “Content” speaks to the things that we need to do in order to create the experience. And “being” speaks to how we are going to “be” about the ways in which we work, relate to, and create those experiences. It’s the secret ingredient that we often leave out because it can be confronting to look at it. But if we’re brave enough to look at it, therein will be the real transformations in our ability to create “wow” brand experiences.
They said they were courageous and pioneering, but they were being fearful, guarded and followers
This brings us right back to the story that we started with. It’s a well known, but rarely articulated story of how it typically goes in higher education institutions. We aspire to be bold and challenging, but our cultural contexts - our collective “being” as an organisation - tends to be afraid, reserved and hesitant.
I believe that we won’t ever achieve the brand experiences that we lovingly commit to in our brand strategies unless we’re also willing to take a long hard look at how we are being in the way in which we seek to bring them to life.
An activity for you and your team
Look at the list of “being” pair words below. Now look at your brand values. Ask yourself whether the way that you, your teams and your organisations are “being” and behaving is really truly in integrity with the brand vision…
In the way that you work, and the conversations that you have, are you being:
Courageous or fearful?
Bold or reserved?
Leading or following?
Proactive or waiting?
Harmony or disconnected?
Ease and flow, or overwhelmed?
Challenging or defending?
Complaining or “can-do”ing?
Past focused or future focused?
Possibility or impossibility?
Determined or distracted?
Fully responsible, or the victim of other people’s behaviours and requests?
I could go on…
Using the BCE model
The BCE model is completely new. As we bring on more and more clients through our consultancy work we’re now starting to use it as a framework for the projects that we lead. You can do the same. And we can help you. If you’d like to discuss how we can use it as the framework for a strategy project, contact Tracy to discuss this further (tracy@picklejarcommunications.com)
Book a 60 minute training session for your team
Tracy has also created a 60 minute training session (with a 30 minute follow-up later on) to help your team learn about the model, how to use it, see examples, and discuss how to implement it in your organisation. The session costs £799 + VAT and is open for up to 12 people (contact Tracy to discuss doing this for a larger group - the cost will be a little higher as the programme will need to be adapted for this, but we can make it cost effective for you).
Book your training session using a credit or debit card below, or email hello@picklejarcommunications.com to ask to pay by invoice/bank transfer and discuss a range of dates: