Business-story ‘catalyst’ - engaging your audience w/out the hype

“Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos.”

- The Joker

An email from a meditation teacher. He’s tweaking his messaging to be a more story-driven biz-ness:

“…to reply to your previous [article] about RA MA. The ‘technology’ angle is one i'm taking seriously and something your article reaffirmed. I’ve been reframing my work around the concept of 'awakened intelligence' and opposing it to artificial intelligence and the dangers it poses… I believe this reframe solidifies my work and business, and gives it the context it needs to be successful.”

A big hurdle we face in service businesses is, “how do you help people take action?”

As buyers, often, it’s easier to do nothing, than it is to buy.

Marketers try to overcome this with claims. Claims about the problem we say the customer has. Claims about how great we are at solving it.

But with so much ‘claims’ noise, it’s hard to cut through to build trust.

So no matter how long you make that social media copy… how many emoji’s or how many client testimonial screen shots… in a saturated market, it can all get blocked, and…

The buyer stays emotionally unengaged.

Naturally, or course, we don’t pay attention to claims. 

But, we do notice ‘change’. Change in our bank balance. Change in the weather. Change in clothing trends. Change in politics. Change attracts attention, and in some cases, almost ‘forces’ us into action.

[This kind of ties back to my view on social media even. A lot of brand people will say you want the grid to all look the same. But I think of brand more like the story. So have your grid changing. Do different things. And trust that the story will make sense over time. Much less boring.]

Anyway, so we can think about a whole business ‘story’ as starting with change, or, a ‘catalyst’, that kicks the story off into action.

In another article I pounded out about RA MA Institute, we saw the ‘catalyst’ was the ‘Technology Age’:

And each business will have a different catalyst.

The raging dentist…

Now that I think about it, there’s also a dentist that my wife goes to, his name is Dr. Steven Lin. Now, a lot of people don’t like this guy. They ‘rage’ against him. But he’s got a horde of fans as well. And his whole business story is really built on this idea that there’s been a ‘catalyst’ in the food industry. The soil quality is down. We’ve lost a lot of nutrients. And people are short on calcium, and vitamin K2, and it’s hurting their health.

So some of his content is on tooth care.

But a big percentage is pointing to this change. And he’s constantly getting trolled. Because some people prefer the status quo. But then his fans defend him against the trolls. But he has a great business. In the end, he’s a dentist. But the story is built around this massive catalyst, that creates a movement. 

Deep down, most of us know that a catalyst is important for a story

And when we ain’t clear on an overarching catalyst in our business story, we try to make our own…

We can resort to what I call the five ‘dark horsemen’ of tactical marketing: claims heavy, hype heavy, false scarcity, false urgency and sudden discounts…

But as consumers, we catch this…

We can tell when there’s a lack of a narrative, and we sense claims based, self-serving marketers. It doesn’t mean we won’t buy, it just means we’re buying because we have to, rather than getting on board with a movement.

A story-driven business needs a change strong enough to be a ‘catalyst’, to drive the story forward, and help clients take action

What is a ‘catalyst’?

In chemistry class they talked about it as something that speeds up a reaction.

But what about a catalyst in a story?

Wiktionary.org defines it:

“an inciting incident that sets the successive conflict into motion”

The literary catalyst is one of the most important elements in a story. In fact, without one, there ain’t a story.

And in business, if there ain’t a story, all we have is claims and convincing.

OK so back to our meditation friend. This is what our friend is tapping into: 

Selling a meditation service on its own is difficult. It is broad, non-urgent, and is difficult to inspire someone to take action, now.

But rather than bringing in the five dark horsemen, he’s zooming out to clarify his business ‘story.’

And looking for a ‘catalyst’ in the culture, that we agree with, and that helps us take action, now.

Is this the right one for him?

Possibly. 

It’s worth looking at what we need for a catalyst anyway.

Step 1 - The ‘catalyst’ needs to be important

The other night Ruby got the first season of “Yellowstone”. (We’re behind the times, mostly because we were stuck on Seinfeld for another round…).

The first episode of a series is always interesting. They’ve gotta introduce characters, the world, and then, there needs to be one (or a few) catalysts, which kick off the story. So anyway, a bunch of stuff happens in that first one. But the major incident is one of John Dutton’s sons (he’s the main guy), gets shot. Straight away you know it’s on, and is the catalyst that will spark the story and major conflict.

And that’s the thing, there’s a lot of little incidents. But that was the inciting incident. It was big enough to force action.

And same in the biz-ness story. A little change ain’t going to do anything, Jimmy.

The change needs to be important enough to be a ‘catalyst’.

Around twenty years ago, Audi sensed that the market for diesel cars was shifting. 

But the problem was, they needed to prove that it would be important.

They were early. 

So what they did was, they redesigned their Audi R10 Le Mans 24 hour car. They build a whole new car. And they put a diesel engine into it. They realised that if they could be more efficient, they would stop less, have a higher top average speed, and could be competitive. 

They won a few years in a row. 

Instead of just yapping on that ‘people might like diesel more’ in a market where petrol cars were booming, they showed that winners were already using the new diesel technology. By winning with it.

This became a strong catalyst for diesel consumer cars.

Going back to our friend with the meditation service… 

A key step - whatever his catalyst ends up being - will be to see how he can ‘show’ that some people who are using meditation are thriving.

And how those who are ignoring meditation are struggling.

This makes the ‘catalyst’ strong enough that there are real stakes. That can impact their bottom line, identity, social status, or other important factor. Something that means his people need to pay attention.

I.e. 

** In the beauty industry, it could be that you are with the trend vs. being left behind. 

** In the fashion industry, it could be that you’re riding the wave of reinvention or renaissance, like Sézane.

** In business, it could be that your customers want to be a part of your story because of where you’re going and what you do, versus ignoring you and you go broke.

2 - The catalyst needs to be controversial (to some), but, a ‘head nod’ (to others)

This happens every few years in the diet industry.

The Keto diet called for living on ‘ketones’, by cutting out carbohydrates (‘carbs are useless’)

This was controversial.

But, when they present the ‘new information’ that led to this, it was also a head nod for some people.

CrossFit did this also. Weighted exercise for time was controversial.

But, when they presented the change in functional fitness, and studies they had done, it was also a head nod for some and became a catalyst.

If the catalyst or change has no controversy, then it isn’t a catalyst. Controversy happens when a change is proposed relative to a status quo.

Look for a head nod, but look for some haters.

3 - The ‘catalyst’ must be absolute (not your opinion)

“People are looking for something different” doesn’t cut it.

There should be some kind of evidence to the catalyst or change. 

Example:

There’s a physiotherapy business in Brisbane, FKB Physio.

Frances Brown helps mostly older women with rehabilitation and bone density, and strengthening. Rather than ‘avoiding incidents’, now they know it’s better to ‘build resilience’ in the body.

The catalyst that she can point to is new information around osteoporosis and osteopenia.

Which means the old path of avoidance is no longer helpful. And the new path of strength is much better.

As people are naturally aging as well, there’s a second level of urgency (or a second ‘catalyst’).

A strong starting point if she decides to double down on that position.

Note: In the most powerful cases, the catalyst is spoken about in content or on a site, which creates the old way of doing things. And highlights the new way. For example, Frances can point to the previous way of doing things, and bring this out in content and in presentations. Then point to it almost as the ‘enemy’, which creates conflict, and a more engaging story.

But this ain’t always the case.

With Sézane, we saw the catalyst is isn’t overtly pointed out. However, it’s pretty clear it’s in line with the technology age that really took off around 2012. The ‘old way’ is succumbing to the technology, with boring, flat colours, and lack of ‘experience’ in life. The new way, is the renaissance.

Conclusion

A lot of businesses want to say they are ‘carving a new path.’ 

But for this to be true, there had to be an ‘old path.’

One of the responsibilities that we have as marketers is to name that old path, and point to the change in context, or ‘catalyst’, that means it’s no longer working.

(Otherwise, why not just stay on the old path?).

When you do this, you tap into one of the deeper laws of human nature. That, we don’t want to be left behind…

We want to be current, and up to speed with the crowd. So, we pay attention, just like we pay attention to change in general.

And this also creates natural ‘conflict’ in your story (old vs. new), which is important.

Examples of catalysts could be a trend (this season people want ‘colour’) or this could be a seismic cultural shift (RA MA Institute). Or it could be new information, or an external event.

Either way, now, rather than buying your offer because you convinced us, we can buy into your story, because we believe in where you are going, and how you help us navigate and transform in this new world.

Now you are carving a new path together, as a movement, rather than trying to get them into your program or work as a short term solution.

Your offer is simply the best, or most obvious way for us to move forward in that story.