A Short Tale of Legendary Brownies

“People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you make them feel.”  Maya Angelou

Let me tell you a true story.

My friend Ben runs the best coffee shop in Stratford-upon-Avon.  He doesn’t sell many items beyond coffee, but every single solitary cake, flapjack, scone, whatever, he sells in that shop is unbe-*insert explicative here*-lievable.  The very best thing he sells, though, is his sugar-dusted brownies.  I’m serious.  One bite of these brownies will raise you to a higher plane of existence.  They literally make me want to be a better man. They are beyond delicious.  They are despicable.

In a tourist town like Stratford-upon-Avon, you’d think that these delectable treats, hand delivered by angels from the celestial realms, would sell out every weekend.  But they don’t.  How could something so delicious be overlooked by so many that pass through, when it is probably precisely what they want while meandering around on vacation? Simple Answer.  People don’t taste your brownies until they do.

In other words, hanging a stupid sign saying “brownies for sale” isn’t enough to make people aware that your brownies will change their lives forever.

You are Marketing an Idea not a Product

Ben tried something new.  He wrote “Legendary Brownies”on a small black note card, and placed it on top of the brownie case.  They sold out within a couple hours.  Some folks got such a kick out of it, they took pictures and tweeted out that they were eating the one and only “Legendary Brownies”.  However, the fact that they taste spectacular, and that the brownies are indeed legendary didn’t matter. At the point of sale, they weren’t purchasing a brownie.  They were purchasing the idea that they were about to spend 4 bucks on the best brownie in the history of mankind.

The Moral of the Tale

You are not selling brownies to customers.  You are not selling subscriptions to users. You are not selling direct debit programs to potential donors.  You are not selling your book to amazon.  You are not selling a new course to your community.  You are not selling tickets to visit your latest whatever.  You are not selling your latest project to your boss.

You are selling the idea of what that something will make them feel and the narrative of what that something will represent in their day or week or life.

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Important side note – Ben’s brownies are actually amazing.  If you are going to sell me an idea, if you are going to bring me into a larger narrative, you better back it up.  You better not be average.  If the brownies were terrible or even worse, were just “meh”, the extra cash Ben would’ve had in his pocket last Saturday, probably wouldn’t have outweighed the negative tweets and leers he would’ve received from customers being sold a load of shit.