Your Customers Don't Care About Your Brand

Most businesses build their brand messaging around themselves. Their logo, their history, their awards. But what if the only place your marketing actually works is the tiny sliver where your story and your customer's story overlap?

Episode Summary

In this solo episode, Matt Edmundson introduces the Story Overlap — a simple Venn diagram concept that reveals why most eCommerce messaging misses the mark. Through a live homepage audit of an accountant's website (with a we-to-you ratio of 2.6 to 1), Apple's iconic '1,000 songs in your pocket' line, and the Netflix headline formula, Matt shows how established brands have learned to shrink their logo and grow the customer's story. He then shares the transformation of Jersey Beauty Company, where understanding that customers were buying a gift for themselves — not just moisturiser — changed everything from packaging to salon imagery. The episode wraps with a practical three-step process for finding your own Story Overlap, supported by a free downloadable workbook.

Key Point Timestamps:

02:30 - The Story Overlap Concept

06:15 - The Accountant Homepage Audit

11:00 - Apple, Netflix and the Verb Formula

15:30 - The Jersey Beauty Company Transformation

22:00 - Three Steps to Find Your Overlap

The Story Overlap Concept (02:30)

Matt introduces the Venn diagram at the heart of this episode: one circle is your brand story, the other is your customer's story, and the overlap is the only place your marketing actually works.

"Our customers care profoundly about their own story. But they care very little about your story," Matt explains. Company history, awards, founding year — that's all sitting in the brand's circle, not the customer's.

To illustrate the point, Matt walks through a live audit of an accountant's homepage, counting every instance of 'we', 'our' and 'us' versus 'you' and 'your'. The result? A ratio of 2.6 to 1 in favour of brand language. For every time the site mentioned the customer, it mentioned itself two and a half times. And Matt's challenge to listeners is simple: go and count the ratio on your own homepage.

The Netflix Headline Formula (11:00)

Matt breaks down a formula he's observed from studying Netflix's landing pages over the years: Verb + Object + Sexiness. For Netflix, that's Watch (verb) + Movies and TV Shows (object) + Unlimited, Anywhere, Anytime (sexiness). Not a single 'we' in sight.

The Apple iPod launch in 2001 follows the same principle. While competitors talked specs — 5GB hard drive, FireWire connectivity — Apple said '1,000 songs in your pocket.' Both statements describe the same product, but only one operates in the story overlap.

"The more established the brand, the smaller their logo gets," Matt observes, noting that Apple's website logo is tiny. Meanwhile, his own first website featured a spinning Flash logo animation that took up the entire screen. The lesson: as brands mature, they learn to shrink their logo and grow the customer's story.

The Jersey Beauty Company Transformation (15:30)

Matt shares the story of how Jersey Beauty Company went from shipping in jiffy bags to creating a remarkable unboxing experience — all driven by understanding the customer's story.

When customers complained about damaged outer packaging, Matt initially dismissed it. But the marketing psychology concept of 'sensation transference' — where people transfer their feelings about packaging onto the product itself — changed his thinking. Research shows customers with a positive unboxing experience are 50% more likely to make a repeat purchase.

The deeper insight came from understanding what customers were actually buying. They weren't purchasing 200ml of moisturiser. They were buying a gift for themselves, a treat. That shifted everything — tissue paper wrapping, biodegradable popcorn packaging, and 'Happy. Remarkable. You.' messaging inside every box. The company even replaced all digitally manipulated beauty images in their salon with Time's photo books showing real people — and customer feedback was immediate.

Three Steps to Find Your Overlap (22:00)

Matt outlines a practical process for finding the Story Overlap in any eCommerce business:

Step 1: Define your brand story in one paragraph. Not your history or awards — your why. Why does your company exist? What do you believe? If this feels hard, skip to Step 2 first. Your customer reviews will tell you more about your brand story than any brainstorming session.

Step 2: Map your customer's story through two exercises. Review mining — pulling a mix of five-star, three-star and one-star reviews to uncover why people buy, what words they use, and what emotions come through. And image buckets — gathering 15-20 images representing your ideal customer's world to reveal visual insights that demographics miss.

Step 3: Find and articulate the overlap. Draw the Venn diagram. Brand story on one side, customer story on the other. Where they intersect becomes the foundation of all your messaging. Write it in a single sentence.

A free Story Overlap Finder workbook accompanies this episode with templates, AI prompts for review mining, and worked examples from real businesses.

Episode link: https://www.ecommerce-podcast.com/your-customers-dont-care-about-your-brand