Is the quest for search engine optimization making your brand “generic?”

By Steve Fodor

Is it more important for your brand to be found by search engines, or to portray your brand in a way that makes it stand out? The answer, of course, is both. But the quest for writing SEO-friendly headlines and content may be diminishing your brand’s unique position and point of view.

The foundation of successful marketing communications is telling a compelling story about your brand based on information about the consumer. It’s about understanding the emotional experience the consumer or end-user is seeking, and then crafting a story about how your brand delivers an experience that no other competing brand can match.

In today’s data-driven, online media environment, storytelling and consumer information is often interpreted as meaning “cookie data” rather than understanding and responding to the emotional experience a consumer is seeking. Copywriters and content creators are challenged with creating headlines and content comprised of SEO-powered words, often at the expense of creative storytelling.

No one knew how to tell a brand story based on emotional appeal better than advertising legend David Ogilvy, in my humble opinion. Consider some of his more exceptional brand storytelling efforts. “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.” With that headline, Rolls-Royce owned the experience of “uncompromising luxury and quality” without having to pound a list of SEO-powered benefit words into the readers’ heads. The readers reach the conclusion about the brand themselves. For SEO purposes, that ad for Rolls-Royce might need to say, “Luxury cars, exceptional quality from Rolls-Royce.” That might make the message more SEO-friendly, but the story loses a lot of its appeal. Or take Dove Soap. “Darling, I’m having the most extraordinary experience” was the headline of a Dove soap ad from Ogilvy. That tells an emotionally-driven, experiential brand story in a much more interesting way than, “Germ-free, moisturizing soap for sensitive skin,” which is probably how someone would do an online search.

Some in the business of marketing content creation believe the “art” of crafting a brand message has been lost because of today’s online, data-driven media environment. The quest for search engine optimization has forced developers of marketing messages to focus on keywords and cookie data rather than creative storytelling, often portraying brands in more “generic” ways. Perhaps. But the true art of branding and storytelling is balancing creativity and consumer-based content creation with the rules of being found online. A task that’s much easier said than done. After all, if it doesn’t sell, it ain’t creative.

Advertising Creative Credit:David Ogilvy