Finding your 'six pack abs' story
When I was young, my dad started going to the gym.
When I was about fifteen, I followed his lead, and went into gym not too far from where we lived.
While I signed up - I was looking at all these Men’s Health magazines they had lying around.
Piles of them. I guess so people could read them, and get excited to train or whatever.
I noticed on almost every issue, there was an article or a picture about ‘Getting Abs’ on the cover.
Anyway, a couple of weeks back, and over twenty years later, I was at the supermarket and saw another Men’s Health mag in the rack.
Well, guess what...? The same cover story about ‘Abs’ - Get this six pack abs routine.
Turns out, this is not just a common cover story. It’s basically the only cover story they run. There are a few variations. Build lean muscle. Get this body. Melt stubborn fat. Et cetera.
But the six pack abs is by far the most popular: Hi-def abs, Great Abs made Easy, Hard Abs on a plate,
Get smart get abs, Belly - drop two waist sizes, Flat belly foods…
And don’t forget: “Rock Hard Abs” - Jason Statham cover on that one.
Anyway, you would think that the audience would get fatigued, and burn out. But they don’t. In fact, they lap it up, one issue after another.
What’s your six pack abs story?
When you’re a service provider, it can be easy to get lost in the weeds with messaging.
What story do you tell?
Do you talk about your skills? Your point of difference? Or your backstory…?
One of the main parts of the business story we want to have clear, is the aspirational future state of your clients.
What does the world of your clients look like, after working with you? Once you get clear on this story, you want to repeat it over and over.
Let’s look at Red Bull again
(I pick on this company, because although they’re a product company, they’re really a
marketing company… making it applicable to any kind of business).
When you search Red Bull. The top hit will be for the Red Bull website, you’ll see Red Bull Gives You Wings.
When you go to the website, they show a bunch of images flashing across the top of fold.
Out of five out of seven images are someone doing a jump, flying, jumping, or leaping in the air (all extreme sports). The other photos are images of victory.
Again, the same story of energy, flying (wings), achievement and possibility. When you go to their instagram page?
Well, four of the last six posts all show someone or something flying, jumping, or launching into the air, or above the water. The same story once again.
In fact, everywhere you turn, you see the same story playing out, energy, wings, action and achievement.
Let’s look at some of the top titles of their ‘TV’ shows on the website:
● Red Bull King of the Air 2023
● The Last Ascent (climbing film)
● Wings for Life World Run
● Best of the kitesurfing action
● F1 Hovercraft showdown
And on…
Can you keep telling the same kind of story without people getting sick and tired of you?
Sure.
While it can feel repetitive for us, for your audience, you occupy just one small channel. They seek you out for that specific story…
When we owned a gym, we started off with a tagline of sorts, “Strength, Conditioning, Wellness.”
We ran this story alongside basic strength programming that we did in our classes. Quickly we built a pretty solid member base.
Then I (for some reason), decided to change the story. I started to teach movement classes, we put in meditation and yoga classes. And basically moved away from the clear strength emphasis.
Well, as soon as we did that, our member base dropped and they moved to other strength gyms.
It took me a few months to figure it out and course correct.
Every major institution, brand, clothing label speaks to one clear story, that doesn’t change over time.
Nobody complains to Red Bull that there’s too much excitement. Nobody writes into Sézane to say there’s too much colour in the clothing. And nobody complains to Men’s Health that there’s too much of an emphasis on abs.
And so it is…
Once you know the core story for your biz-ness, you can put it on repeat, and it’s going to help your core clients find you and you can become the go-to business in your market.