The ultimate goal of a brand is to have an intimate and ongoing conversation with the audience. The same applies to actors on a stage. The first rule for an actor on stage is not “always remember your lines,” although that helps. It’s to stay in the moment, to be present, and ready for whatever happens. It’s the very real exchange of energy between actors, and between the actors and the audience (breaking through the fourth wall), that brings a production to life. If the energy is introspective, it doesn’t reach the audience. If the energy is over the top, shouting at the audience, it’s superficial and turns them off. Brand and marketing professionals need to know what this heightened exchange of energy feels like so that they can achieve and sustain it in their work. We tell actors: Be present. Listen. Tell the truth. Shouldn’t we be telling that to ourselves and to our colleagues?
Note: “Tell the truth” simply means telling the truth of the character. In our case, telling the truth and staying true to the brand.
One of the best examples of this in the last five years was the Dove campaign, which leveraged smart insights and engaged the audience in a conversation about the definition, or redefinition, of beauty. It did this without losing site of the functional benefits of its product, and thus was believable and sustainable. Dove is now associated with inner, and therefore more authentic beauty.
The best place to carry on this intimate exchange? The Internet. Millions of people searched for Dove’s “Evolution” video and went to its “Campaign for Real Beauty” website. Viewers were intrigued by how far the beauty industry goes to sustain an unreal ideal, and the back-and-forth conversation was uplifting and energized. Seeds planted, that conversation continues.
Next: Telling the Story and Setting the Stage
This simple, copy-only video has a wonderful “ah-ha” moment and makes the point that if we think the book publishing industry is doomed we’ve got our audience wrong. It’s also a relevant comment about the value of research and the determination it takes to turn negative into positive, applicable to any industry these days, from mortgages to bricks-and-mortar education. Make sure to watch it all the way to the end. Enjoy…and stay positive.
Los Angeles Times’ sportwriter Chris Erskine suggests in this fantastic article doing for batting cages what Starbucks did for coffee beans and water: turn them into an experience. In this case, it’s an experience that every baseball fan, young or old, could love, with high-tech gadgetry, pro baseball fantasy, and high-end service. Highlight of the article? The suggestion that batters face off against holograms of their favorite pitchers, including Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale and Steve Carlton. Look out for the beanball!
The main subject is actually the therapeutic value of batting cages, but it’s a great article for marketers nonetheless, as it nicely describes the nostalgic, emotional underpinnings necessary for a successful reinvention. And, I hope someone takes him seriously enough to invest the money. I’m looking forward to facing Nolan Ryan’s fastball.
Not too long ago, I was asked by Brandweek to write a review of creative work done by a peer agency for Westwood College, an online university. It seemed like a lovely assignment, given my experience with marketing education. But, it actually led me to questions more troubling than, “Do I like the work?” and “Will it be effective?” In this case, the advertising was downright misleading. I don’t think this was the agency’s fault. My hunch is that the college was either clueless or disingenuous when it told the agency that getting a degree from Westwood College was easy. Statistics prove otherwise. You be the judge. Ultimately, I think marketing’s job includes verifying what we are told is more than just wishful thinking. A brand promise is a brand promise.
Jury duty is mind numbing, institutional, unloved and disrespected. But it’s essential to our judicial system. I wrote an article for Brandweek about the need to rebrand jury duty (beginning with its name) several years ago for BrandWeek, and recently noticed that it was subsequently linked all over the world by municipalities and legal commentators. A few cities even made some changes. But, they didn’t get the message in the City of Angels. It still sucks to do jury duty in Los Angeles.
There are tons of things, everyday things, that need rebranding. Often things that aren’t considered worthy of rebranding. Think about it. I bet you can name a few. Here’s an example of a successful rebranding: The first time I went to traffic school, they showed pictures of horrible, bloody accidents. My most recent trip was to comedy traffic school. Next time, I’m thinking of going to cooking traffic school.
Working with small- to mid-size entrepreneurial businesses to evolve their brands is fulfilling work. One such client is Banta Asset Management, a boutique wealth management firm in Newport Beach. Their brand is built around independence: independence from big investment firms and their proprietary products, and the freedom to always do what’s in the best interests of the client.
Banta doesn’t look, act, or invest like the big banks and investment houses that have let people down. They have charted their own independent and objective course, focused on integrity. They’ve launched their own investment fund, which is performing well, and they’ve endowed a chair in business ethics at the University of Redlands. No small accomplishment for an independent wealth management firm in the current economic climate.
The guys at Banta are blessed with good values and good humor, a great combination of qualities that has been tested over the last couple of years. To their credit, they stayed true to their values. The reward has been less downside than most firms and continued loyalty from clients. What a great example for how to succeed in financial services, compared to firms who did what was expedient, and not what was right.
Never lose sight of your promise or your values. Stay true to your brand. That’s our goal. But what about Nike? Here’s the story we’ve been taught:
In the early 60’s, a track coach tinkered with the design of running shoes to enhance performance on the oval. A company was created to advance his discoveries into products that consumers could use to improve their performance. The company had a clear mission and promise: to facilitate authentic athletic performance.
Employees felt just as passionately about the products as the athletes who used them to win track meets and basketball games. They were the frontline focus group and the toughest critics of every product and promotion. The company prospered and soon had the cash and cachet to work with the world’s greatest athletes. The company is synonymous with peak performance. But one thing didn’t change: If it wasn’t authentic…athletic…performance…it wasn’t Nike.
Here’s another perspective: Nike turns out customized tennis shoes for guys who collect them like Barbie dolls. They mashup entertainment and athletics for people who would rather feel the beat than the burn. One could argue that, somehow, they still have that athletic performance cachet. And, they created Nike Plus, which marries sports technology with metrics to prove performance. There’s also something solidly American about them. Is their departure from peak performance a deal with the devil? Or merely a trend-savvy sub brand?
It does the heart good to see Yvon Chouinard recognized for his leadership at Patagonia and for his efforts to inspire responsible and sustainable business practices, most recently in TV commercials for American Express. His story is often simplified, leaving out the setbacks and not-so-brilliant moments in favor of focusing only on mountain ascents and business victories. But the long arc is one o
f constant brand evolution based on rock-solid values, from product, to people, to purpose in everything Patagonia does. Chouinard is widely admired for keeping his company and its values on track, which meant avoiding the shiny traps of others outsize dreams. You can read about it in his book, Let My People Go Surfing. This is a great example of how staying true to your values and your brand are in perfect alignment with success and make it easy for people to love you.
Read the history of Chouinard and Patagonia.
If you don’t have time to read the entire history, read this, the last paragaph: “During the past thirty years, we’ve made many mistakes but we’ve never lost our way for very long. Although we first intended Patagonia as a way to free ourselves from the limitations of the original climbing business, precisely those limitations have kept us on our toes and helped us thrive. We still pursue climbing and surfing, activities that entail risk, require soul, and invite reflection. We favor informal travels with friends – doing what we love to do – to the camera-covered event. We can’t bring ourselves to knowingly make a mediocre product. And we cannot avert our eyes from the harm done, by all of us, to our one and only home.”
Stay True to Your Brand simply means hold onto your core values and find ways to evolve your business that are true to these values. Let these values be your filter for strategy, ideas and people.
I recently went back to the Burger King website known as Subservient Chicken. Still there. The guy in the chicken suit is still doing what you tell him to do. How is that true to Burger King’s core values? It began years ago when Burger King challenged McDonald’s automated food production process – every burger made exactly the same in advance – with it’s Have It Your Way® campaign. The essence of it is that Burger King makes your burger (or chicken sandwich) the way you would have it off the grill in your backyard.
Need more proof? Go to the Burger King website. Slider devices allow you to customize the website to your own satisfaction based on three criteria: Food, Fun and King. And, the latest innovation? Cameras capture customers’ faces and print them on Whopper wrappers for a customized surprise. It’s have it your way, every which way.
My stomach and cholesterol level can’t handle fast food anymore, but I can appreciate a brand that still has clarity about its DNA. Props to Burger King for staying true to its brand.
In the late nineteen-twenties, two companies—Kellogg and Post—dominated the market for packaged cereal. It was still a relatively new market: ready-to-eat cereal had been around for decades, but Americans didn’t see it as a real alternative to oatmeal or cream of wheat until the twenties. So, when the Depression hit, no one knew what would happen to consumer demand. Post did the predictable thing: it reined in expenses and cut back on advertising. But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily pushed its new cereal, Rice Krispies. (Snap, Crackle, and Pop first appeared in the thirties.) By 1933, even as the economy cratered, Kellogg’s profits had risen almost thirty per cent and it had become what it remains today: the industry’s dominant player.
