Your memories are not created through your experiences, rather they are created through the stories you tell yourself and others about those experiences.
Joshua Medcalf, Chop Wood Carry Water
Inherent in a brand is the promise to solve a need.
Customers try brands because they believe they have the potential to consistently solve a problem they face: they have the potential to make life easier.
When a customer attempts to make a purchase, their needs are either met or they’re not. You’ve either made it easier for them to solve their needs or made it more difficult by becoming another cog in the glut of businesses offering products that don’t always provide what the customers are looking for.
The story they’re going to tell is either that you live up to your promise or you don’t; you’re reliable or you’re not. That story is powerful because it is through stories that experiences carry emotional significance. It is through stories that attitudes are created and behaviors develop.
No amount of marketing can convince a customer that your story is more correct than theirs.
But, if your story consistently aligns with the stories they tell about their experiences with your brand—if they see you solving the problems you promise to—then they begin to not only trust you and identify with you but also retell your story for you.
And, that makes you hard to beat.