Can You Give Your Elevator Speech in 15 Seconds?

As brand strategists, we often put together complex systems for defining brands with all sorts of diagrams and process, but the truth is the most compelling brands are the ones that can articulate their business in just a few words. Certainly Steve Jobs was the master of this.

Here are a few other examples:

The USO lifts the spirits of America’s troops and their families.

Wal-Mart saves people money so they can live better.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Coca-Cola wants to refresh the world, inspire moments of optimism and happiness, and create value.

AT&T wants to to connect people with their world, everywhere they live and work, and do it better than anyone else.

Starbucks is out to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.

Tom’s says we’re transforming everyday purchases into a force for good around the world. One for One.®

So here are a few tips to being able to give your elevator speech in 15 seconds.

Step One. Create a Twitter-friendly headline that answers the question, “What is the single most important thing that I want my listener to know about my brand, product, service or idea?” Now this is excellent advice because if you can’t explain it in 140 characters, I probably can’t absorb it in 15 seconds. This exercise forces you to practice the art of sacrifice for the purpose of communication. A great headline will also give voice to differentiation and end benefits.

Step Two. Support the headline with three key benefits. Three is the perfect number. For some reason, our minds can remember three ideas, but struggles with more. The Power of Three. As a child, everything we learned seemed to be centered around three — A,B,C; 1,2,3; Three blind mice, Three musketeers, the Trinity, and the three wise men. Aristotle even knew the power of three and wrote about it in his book Rhetoric. So what are the three most compelling support ideas for your brand?

Step Three. Reinforce the three benefits with stories, statistics or examples. These are the bullet points that more fully explain your benefits. And yes, all of it should fit on a single page.

I use this type of process in getting to the core identity of brands for clients. When you look back at the examples I used in step one, you see that the USO doesn’t say it runs centers for troops, Wal-Mart doesn’t talk about physical stores, and Google doesn’t talk about search engines. Your business must be explained in such a consumer beneficial manner that it allows you the bandwidth to provide that benefit in a variety of ways. That’s why Starbucks doesn’t say it is a coffee shop; they have always explained themselves as the third place in your life – after home and work.

Try this exercise for your business. Let me know how it goes.