How Yacht Rock Taught Me the Importance of Brand Stories

I’m not much of a marketing guy. For a long time, I’ve taken a Field of Dreams approach to marketing, which I’ve written about quite a bit. And while I know that you need to define an audience and solve a problem, I still struggle with packaging specific offerings.

But this morning, I was listening to Upgrade when host Jason Snell mentioned something that resonated with me. He said that his daughter has been enjoying Yacht Rock. And that when he was growing up, this brand of 70s soft rock used to be considered crappy music. But now it’s been rebranded as “yacht rock,” and people love it.

Yacht Rock invokes a feeling

If I said, “Hey do you want to listen to this playlist I made of 40-year-old soft rock,” you might say, “Nah, that music isn’t for me.”

But when I said, “Let’s grab a beer and listen to my Yacht Rock playlist,” that sounds like a pretty good hang out. It’s relaxing, care-free even.

Apple knows this

Now let’s look at a slightly less ridiculous (less contrived) example: Apple commercials. Back in December, I wrote about Apple’s 2021 holiday commercial, Saving Simon. That commercial, like many of their commercials, invokes a feeling. You don’t even see the iPhone in it. You’re just told it’s shot on an iPhone.

But now you feel that you could capture these beautiful moments, if only you had an iPhone.

Compare that with the latest Galaxy Ultra commercial. Sia’s “Unstoppable” blaring over flashy graphics. And then a feature list, including “4nm processor.” Most people don’t know, nor care, what that means.

But what if instead, they still had the unstoppable motif, but it was a story. The story’s protagonist is a young woman who’s starting a business. She’s taking stellar photos and video to put on her website, which she updates on that HUGE screen.

She’s typing some notes with a person she’s meeting at a coffee shop, showing some of those same photos. Then she brings up a contract, takes the pen out of the phone, and the person signs it right there and then. Maybe they pay by tapping the phone. The commercial still ends on “I’m unstoppable today.”

That probably makes you feel something more than seeing the words, “4nm processor,” right?

Make your audience feel something

There’s a lot of power behind stories. Michelle Knight talked about it on my podcast last year. Apple knows it. That’s why there’s a story behind everything they do.

But even with the trivial example of calling 70s soft rock Yacht Rock, you’re invoking summer feelings. Of hanging out with friends. Of relaxing.

So more people listen. Now That’s What I Can Music even has a Yacht Rock album.

As I write my copy, I’m going to keep this in mind a lot more. I challenge you to do the same thing.