Name: The Fortune Cookie Principle
Rating: 4.1 (40 reviews)
Author: Bernadette Jiwa

What’s in it for me? Create an alluring story about your company.

Every year, hundreds of companies enter the market with amazing products. Many fail – and only a handful make it to the very top. So why do these happy few stand out from the competition? Did they get lucky? Did they start out with a whopping marketing budget? Neither.

These companies succeeded because they had a great story to tell, a story which resonated with potential customers. The good news is that you can create such a story for your own company, step by step. These blinks focus on the most important of the 20 keys to building an amazing brand story.

In these blinks, you’ll also find out

What connects Apple to a fortune cookie;
why the Lego brand was harmed by creating cool things like the Legoland parks; and
why the outdoor company Patagonia told its clients not to buy its gear.

Think of your brand as a fortune cookie.

Imagine you’ve invented a totally awesome product like a convenient online subscription service for razors. How can you get the attention of potential customers and sustain your fledgling business?

Well, marketing is no longer a simple matter of selling bigger and better commodities. You can bet that there will always be someone waiting to compete with you. This means that if you just aim to sell a product, like razors, your business is likely to fail. You need a whole lot more than a glitzy product to succeed.

After all, it’s extremely likely that someone else will come out with an even cooler razor the next day. If your business is entirely based on having the coolest product, you’ll be overtaken just like that.

That’s why you need something to set yourself apart from the pack, which means creating a brand based on a story. You can think of such a narrative as a fortune cookie that contains two parts: the cookie and the fortune.

In this metaphor, the cookie is your product or service. It’s a tangible thing with a constant value.

The fortune, on the other hand, is something intangible. It’s a story that captures your values, purpose and vision while touching customers in a way that makes them adopt your story as a part of themselves. Simply put, the fortune is a narrative that fosters a connection between your customers and your product.

Just take Apple, a successful fortune cookie company. Apple doesn’t only give its customers a device that lets them listen to music. It puts thousands of hits right in their pockets, just a click away.

But how can you make your company a fortune cookie business? By adhering to the key points necessary to forge a brand story that’ll create a bond between your customers and your products. Together, these points form the Fortune Cookie Principle, and you’ll learn all about them in the following blinks.

Define a clear purpose and stick to it.

Making loads of money is a pleasant side effect of running a successful business, but money alone is rarely the reason for a company’s existence. So, ask yourself, why are you in business?

For your company to thrive, you’ll need to define a clear purpose that’s central to all your operations. A purpose will guide you in everything from decisions about product design and hiring to the details of your overall business model. If you fail to set and follow a purpose, you’ll lose sight of why your company exists and start making poor decisions.

Define a clear vision but be open to growth and change.

Have you heard of the Californian non-profit, Room to Read? This organization helps communities in the developing world construct schools and libraries. Their purpose is guided by a compelling vision of helping build a world in which all children have access to a decent education that enables them to reach their full potential and contribute to their communities.

The purpose of any good company is backed up by a bigger vision that details the impact the company wants to have on the world. That’s why defining a strong vision is so important in successfully marketing your business. To find your vision, ask yourself these questions:

Make your values clear and stick with them to attract loyal customers.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your customers proudly showed themselves off on YouTube while featuring your product? You can take steps to make customers identify strongly – even showing-off-on-YouTube strongly – with your product. It all begins with demonstrating how you stand for something that your customers believe in.

In this way, your values are fundamental to building your brand story and, if you truly believe in something that shapes the way you do business, make sure people know it. After all, if your brand can stand for a value that consumers share, they’ll use your product to express these common beliefs.

Key ideas in The Fortune Cookie Principle