WELCOME TO

PRIMAL BRANDING
Mary Buckham
 Based on the book:

Primal Branding: Create Zealots for

your Brand, Your Company, and
Your Future
by
Patrick Hanlon
 What is
PRIMAL BRANDING?
We’ll explore:
What Nora Roberts, Sherrilyn Kenyon and
Stephen King have in common

What is meant by pagans or unbelievers

What a brand is
Why some authors and stories are so much more
memorable than others
Hint: it’s not about the writing.
Readers have zillions
of books to choose
from
142,010 books published in 2005

407,000 books published in 2007

1,052,803 books published in 2009

6 million + books
published in
2014
The average U.S. nonfiction
book is now selling less
than 250 copies per year
and less than 3,000 copies
over its lifetime.
For every available
bookstore shelf space,
there are 1,000 or more
titles competing for that
shelf space.
A book has far less than a
1% chance of being
stocked in an average
bookstore.
No other industry has so
many new product
introductions.
In a crowded market,
brands stand out.
So what is a brand?
A brand is the set of expectations,
memories, stories and relationships
that, taken together, account for a
consumer’s decision to choose one
product or service over another.
 Its value is the sum total of how
much extra people will pay, or how
often they choose, the
expectations, memories, stories and
relationships of one brand over the
alternatives.
–Seth Goodwin
A platform is a “stage” that gives
you and your message leverage and
visibility….
–Jeff Goins
It’s how you make your work matter.
How you change lives.

–Jeff Goins
#5 Jeff Kinney – Earnings Net
Worth: $25 Million USD
(2012)
# 8 ELEMENTS

PRIMAL CODES
To build your platform
—which expands your brand
CREATION STORY
CREED
ICONS
RITUALS
PAGANS
SACRED WORDS
LEADER
PRIMAL BRANDING
FOCUSES ON
#1
HUMAN NEED
HUMAN NEED
=
TO BELONG
WE ALL WANT TO
BELONG TO
SOMETHING LARGER
THAN OURSELVES
 BRANDING =

EMOTIONAL
CONNECTION WE’RE
TRYING TO MAKE
PRIMAL BRANDING =

STORY TELLING
 WHEN PIECES OF THE
STORY ARE MISSING THE
STORY BECOMES LESS
INTERESTING . . .
WE BECOME DISSATISFIED
AND TURN AWAY.
 1
CREATION
All belief systems
come with a story
attached.
The Creation Myth involves a
person who did something,
tried something, or felt the
same way about something.
How we originated is the
foundation of myth . . .
It fulfills an innate human
desire to understand how
we came to be.
 The CREATION story
is the first step in providing
answers as to why people should
care about you, or your books, or
the stories you have to tell.
EXAMPLE:

When her marriage ended, she and and

her infant daughter returned to live in
Edinburgh, where she survived on
unemployment and wrote in a coffee shop
while her daughter slept.
EXAMPLE:

A blizzard forced her hand to try another

creative outlet. She was snowed in with a
three and six-year-old with no kindergarten
respite in sight and a dwindling supply of
chocolate so she decided to write.
EXAMPLE:

One day, this lawyer overheard the

harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old
rape victim and was inspired to start a novel
exploring what would have happened if the
girl’s father had murdered her assailants.
EXAMPLE:

She wanted to write screenplays but

couldn’t break in, so she went to a
bookstore and discovered romances.
After doing some research she
came up with a group of heroic
males and started her first novels
based on . . .
NAVY SEALS
EXAMPLE:

He husband told her he’d support her and

their five children for at least a year so she
could write. At the end of that year things
were pretty tight and she decided to give up.
That’s when she went to the mailbox and
received a letter from a Harlequin editor.
 Now she is a #1 New York Times
bestselling author and one of today’s
most popular writers with more than
170 million copies of her books in
print worldwide.
J.K. Rowling
Nora Roberts
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Suzanne Brockman
Arthur Conan Doyle
Stephen King
 2
CREED
The Creed defines and
communicates to others what
you want others to believe.
The Creed is a simple and
concise statement that
embodies a hugely bold idea.
Good author creeds
create immediate feelings
(emotions) in your reader.
They make you
memorable.
They help focus potential
readers, site visitors, etc., to
immediately categorize you
(in a good way).
A creed helps publicists and
publishing professional know
exactly where you fit in and
what they can do for you.
Instant recognition.
Adapted from JeanOram.com
We are Darkness. We are Shadow.
We are the Rulers of the Night.
We, alone, stand between mankind and
those who would see mankind destroyed.
We are the Guardians.
The Soulless Keepers. . . .
Our souls were cast out so that we would
not forewarn the Daimons we pursue. By
the time they see us coming, it’s too late.
The Daimons and Apollites know us. They
fear us. We are death to all those who
prey upon the humans. . . .
Neither Human, nor Apollite, we exist
beyond the realm of the Living, beyond the
realm of the Dead.
We are the Dark-Hunters.
And we are eternal.

~ The Dark-Hunter Credo by Sherrilyn Kenyon

In space, no one can hear you scream.
Aliens

One ring to rule them all.

Lord of the Rings
To boldly go where no man has gone
before. Star Trek

If you’ve got a taste for terror, take

Carrie to the prom. Carrie
Clive Cussler is an American adventure
novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller
novels, many featuring the character Dirk
Pitt, have reached The New York Times
fiction best-seller list more than 20 times.
His tagline is:
The Grandmaster of Adventure
Brandilyn Collins is a best-selling novelist
well-known for her trademark "Seatbelt
Suspense" books. The majority of her books
cover harrowing though Christian crime
thrillers. Her tagline says it all:

Don't forget to breathe…

Heather Thurmeier writes "sweet, funny
romances that capture your heart!" (Review
by NYT and USA Today bestselling author
Jennifer Probst.) Her tagline is:

Heart, Humor, and a Happily Ever After.

Shelli Stevens writes erotic romance. Her
tagline says it all:

I’m the author your mother warned you

about…
 3
ICONS
Icons = quick studies
that hold meaning
Icons = images that instantly
resonate and are identifiable
with an author, a story or a
series.
 Icons = can be a shape, a
texture, a taste, a sound, a
smell or an image.
Icons = leather chairs in
Barnes and Noble.
 4
RITUALS
 Rituals involve a repeated
experience associated with
a brand.
 Rituals provide interaction
and a bond of togetherness
between author and reader.
Rituals = active engagements
that can have positive or
negative meaning.
FB interaction

Booksignings

When and how books

are released
Social Media
Anticipated Swag vs
Same ‘ol Same ‘ol

Email vs. Snail Mail

Does an author arrive or
are they sitting behind a
table?
How much time do they
spend talking with you?
Do they talk about
you? Or not?
 5
PAGANS, or
NON-BELIEVERS
Defining a brand’s opposite is
important.

Because...
Defines:
Who you are
What you believe
What resonates with you
 Beach Read
Vs.
Book Club Read
 Erotica
Vs.
Inspirational
 Romance
Vs.
Male Action-Adventure
Cozy Mystery
Vs.
Thriller
 6
SACRED WORDS
or PHRASES
“My name is Inigo Montoya.
You killed my father.
Prepare to die.”
—The Princess Bride
 All belief systems come
with specialized words that
must be learned in order to
belong.
“It is a truth universally
acknowledged, that a single man
in possession of a good fortune,
must be in want of a wife.”
“It was the best of times, it
was the worst of times.”
“Bah! Humbug!”
“May the odds be ever in
your favor.”
“My dear, I don’t give a damn.”
“Inconceivable!”
“All we have to decide is what to do
with the time that is given us.”
Muggles The Reaping
Hobbits Shiney
Three Pines
 7
LEADER
Before you think all you
have to do is show up to
be a leader think again.
 Why do some leaders
inspire, intrigue, resonate
and others don’t?
Can you answer this
question?
Why do you do what
you do?
Most of us can tell you
what we do.
Some of us can tell you
how we do it.
Great leaders share why
they do it.
A
B
C
What's your purpose?
Not your result, but
your purpose?
Why do you get out of
bed in the morning to
write what you write?
Most of us:
Say what we do...
We say how we're different or
better...
and we expect some sort of a
behavior, a purchase, a vote.
“Bleh!”
“Why should anyone
care?”
Inspired leaders – regardless of
their industry—all think, act and
communicate from the inside out.

~ Simon Sinek
 People don't buy what
you do; people buy how
you do it.
People Don't Buy Books.
They Buy Better Versions
of Themselves.
 The goal is not to do
business with everybody
who needs what you
have.
The goal is to do business
with people who believe
what you believe.
 Our newest brain, our
Homo sapiens brain, our
neocortex, corresponds
with the "what" level.
 The neocortex is
responsible for all of our
rational and analytical
thought and language.
The middle two sections
make up our limbic brains
 Limbic brains are
responsible for all of our
feelings, like trust and
loyalty.
Our limbic brains are also
responsible for all human
behavior, all decision-
making, and it has no
capacity for language.
 In layman’s terms:

Complicated information like

features and benefits and facts and
figures do not drive our behavior.
 The goal is not just to sell to
people who need what you
have; the goal is to sell to
people who believe what you
believe.
People don't buy what
you do; they buy why
you do it.
Law of diffusion of innovation:

The first 2.5% of our population are

our innovators.
The next 13.5% of our population are
our early adopters.
The next 34% are your early majority,
your late majority and your laggards
The early majority will not try
something until someone else
has tried it first.
And these readers, the innovators
and the early adopters, they're
comfortable making gut decisions
about a new to them author.
Law of diffusion of innovation:

If you want mass-market success or

mass-market acceptance of an idea,
you cannot have it until you achieve
this tipping point between 15 and 18
percent market penetration.
Because there are leaders and there are
those who lead.

Because you wrote the book doesn’t

mean you’re a leader...it’s a start
but that’s all it is.
 Leaders hold a position of
power or authority,

but those who lead inspire us

And it's those who start with
"why" that have the ability to
inspire those around them or
find others who inspire them.
Remember
CREATION STORY PAGANS
CREED SACRED WORDS
ICONS LEADER
RITUAL
The 8 th Element?
It’s YOU!
 Everyone in your potential
audience for a book already
knows of hundreds of
interesting and useful books
to read but has little time to
read any.
Therefore people are reading
only books that their
communities make important
or even mandatory to read.
 In a crowded
market, brands
stand out.
Coming up next:
NEWSLETTERS:
How to Power Yours Up

July 15th 5 PM Pacific

THANK YOU!