Frei von Schnauz Branding
Having participated in and won chili cookoffs with others from my church, I’m going to apply one simple lesson from those experiences to branding.
Canned chili doesn't win the chili cookoff any more than canned branding helps a business win in the marketplace.
I grew up with a love of cooking, which I can thank my mom for. Once I reached a certain point in cooking, I started relying less on recipes and more on the experience of cooking various meals. Because I learned how most ingredients and seasonings would work together or against each other, I gained a certain amount of freedom with meals.
And, when it comes to the chilis I’ve made, I can tell you not one has ever been the same. When I won the latest, someone asked me for a recipe that I could not provide them. I made the chili filling the 7-QT crockpot based entirely on how I felt as I was making it. My only constants are sausage (Jimmy Dean Regular ground sausage, to be exact) instead of beef, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Those are the foundation.
From there, it’s a bit of variety from my spice rack and all “Frei von Schauz”.
What is Frei von Schnauz?
While I’d already been cooking this way for years, this term is something I learned from a woman who often invited missionaries over for dinner with her family while I was on a mission in Germany. It translates to “Free from Mouth”, meaning that while you’re cooking, you don’t taste the food. You trust your experience as you cook.
Because I was used to cups and oz and had to rely on the grams and liters measurements, I mostly relied on approximations based on what I remembered putting in various foods at home. So, this concept was incredibly freeing for me and is something I’ve leaned into even more since getting home (over 26 years ago). What do I put on my steaks? Great question. Depends on the day. If cookies call for 2.5 cups, is that what I use? Not if I want them to be fluffier than the original recipe looks like it will make them.
How does this apply to branding?
If you want your dish (business) to deliver a different experience than all the other alternative dishes (businesses) people could be experiencing, you cannot use the same canned chili or the same recipe.
With the chili example, I go with ingredients that build toward the essence of the experience I feel those eating it will best enjoy. Do they want a sweet chili, a medium chili, or a spicy chili?
For your brand essence, that becomes a mixture of core aspects of your brand that you want to emphasize that you feel your right-fit audience will appreciate. The five core areas of your Brand Essence to consider are:
- Brand Personality
- User Values
- Emotional Rewards
- Functional Benefits
- Features
With each of these bases of a good brand, there are several potential ingredients and seasonings to choose from that all rely on your “taste” and the “taste” of those who make up your right-fit audience.
The “Schauz” you want to be free from when it comes to branding is the influence of other brands within your industry dictating your choices. Home care has foundational requirements, but those foundations are not the flavor, but rather like flour in pastries. Those unique things your company brings to the industry and those you serve are the flavor you feel is missing in other brands, so you cannot follow them and create something different for your right-fit clients and caregivers.
In Branded by Design, you can read more details about what those varieties of ingredients and seasonings are. Huge hint, though. Most have to do with the experience side of things, not the specifics of what you do and how you do it.
Letting the Chili Sell Itself
Now, most businesses seem to fall into a habit of telling everyone what it is that they do. Marketing material often reads more like a task list for caregivers, an instruction manual for plumbers, or a textbook for Dentists than something that appeals to the concerns and desired outcomes of their right-fit audience.
My chili hasn’t won by including a list of all of the ingredients in flyers I handed out at the cookoff or on a one-sheet in a plastic stand next to my crockpot. It won because people who tried it talked about it. I’d simply set my chili on the table and go try all the other chili and enjoy conversations with others. I’d watch from a distance as some would come and try it, then fill up their bowl. I’d watch as people would speculate what was in it as they had others come try it. Even the times I wasn’t the winner, I’d always feel satisfied that I returned home with an empty crockpot because of how much people still enjoyed it.
There’s a marketing/sales vs branding lesson I learned nearly a decade ago and have continued teaching:
Marketing and sales are telling everyone you're a good kisser. Branding is when others tell people for you.
When you create an out-of-the-box or uncanned experience for people with your brand, it gives people something more to talk about.
In your own marketing/sales efforts, shift the message from the recipe to leading with the experiences people have had with your home care agency, dental office, etc.
Whatever you do, though. Don’t use the same canned approach and messaging 80% of your industry uses.
Instead of “Compassionate Care”, what stories illustrate your compassion?
Instead of “Respite Care,” what’s an example of a time a family experienced life-altering relief by working with you?