CHAPTER 12

Mission/Purpose/Values Stories

It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.

—Roy Disney

Stories can work to convey the values that you want your company to possess and the mission that you want your company to pursue. Hence, your story might also be working as a sort of living embodiment of your mission statement. But be careful: As I’ve discussed over and over again in the previous pages, the story must correspond to the core Brand DNA and must convey the proper messaging along the right brand lines.

Let’s take an interesting example. My Dad’s Story—Dream for My Child is a very moving short film made for MetLife Hong Kong. It tells the story of a man who loves his daughter so much that he does everything in his power to give her a good life. But he lies to her about having a steady job and having money. In the end, the daughter’s voiceover essentially reveals that the she knows that her daddy loves her so much that he has fabricated lies in order to try to keep her happy and blissfully unaware.

The quality of the storytelling and the emotional power of the story are both unquestionable. Yet, I still wonder about this kind of brand storytelling. Does it fit with the brand? Does it sell more life insurance? Does it help connect you to MetLife? Go to YouTube and watch it, and see what you think.

Let me give you another example. This one is about using a story in a business meeting to help solidify things with a client. The story goes like this. My brother is an executive creative director with a big advertising agency. He has worked for many big agencies and many famous brands. In every meeting with a new brand, it’s his job to show the clients that he “gets their brand.”

One day, he was in a business meeting with his new Gillette clients and they were trying to define their brand. They asked him who he thought best personifies their brand. Was it a movie star like George Clooney? Sean Connery? Brad Pitt?

He suggested maybe a story would be a better way to define Gillette as more of a confident, yet humble, cool-under-pressure kind of brand. The story he told was about one of his heroes, a man who represented the ultimate Joe Cool: Joe Montana.

It was Super Bowl XXIII. The seconds were ticking down. Cincinnati was winning, but the San Francisco 49ers, led by quarterback Joe Montana, were moving down the field. The players’ hearts were pounding, the fans were holding onto their seats. One of Montana’s teammates said he came back into the huddle and looked at the team’s leader, Montana, waiting to see how he was dealing with the pressure. They knew they would live or die by their quarterback.

Would he be sweating? Would he be freaking out? Would he be throwing up (like a certain quarterback from Philadelphia was reputed to have done)?

Just then, Montana looked up at his teammates, gestured over to the sidelines, pointed into the crowd, and said, “Hey, is that comedian John Candy up there in the stands? Wow! That’s awesome.”

Montana seemed almost blissfully unaware of the fact that hundreds of millions of people were watching this, the biggest football game of the year, and there were only a few seconds left and if they failed, they would lose.

Montana cared about none of that. He was being himself and being cool. One of his favorite movie stars was watching him right now and he got a kick out of that. He wasn’t stressed. He wasn’t worried. He knew that he could do what needed to be done to win the game and he wanted to enjoy the moment.

It was then that the rest of the team stopped being worried. It was then that they knew they would win.

And they did.

This story helped the client gain a deeper understanding of their brand, as well as give them a deeper sense of trust in my brother as the creative director who would bring their brand to life on television in their next advertising campaign.

And he did.

Next up, I was able to speak with Michael Simon, chief marketing Officer of Bai Brands, who is a master of delivering fresh brand narratives and has done creative and fantastic work with brands such as Pepperidge Farm, Campbell’s Soup, Godiva Chocolates, and Panera Bread. Michael is an incredibly busy guy, but he was gracious enough to spend a few minutes listening to my questions and then offering these answers relating to how mission/purpose/value stories can help a brand or company.

RK: What role do you see storytelling playing in branding and marketing today?

MS: A marketer aspires to drive a deep and emotional connection with his or her customer. I describe it as moving the customer from preference to love. Storytelling is a device that enables deeper and more memorable engagement often built on a shared sense of values. To break through in today’s cluttered world of 24/7 messaging, a brand must be able to differentiate itself and allow people to understand what it truly stands for. Storytelling is a very effective means to engage, educate, and build affinity with your customers.

RK: How do you create, cultivate, and sustain lifelong relationships with customers via digital narratives across all forms of media?

MS: I think it starts with a foundational understanding of what needs a consumer is trying to satisfy with your product or service; in the words of Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen, knowing the job the customer is hiring you to complete.

But I think it goes even deeper. While people seek products and services to satisfy a functional need, it often ladders up to something more emotional and human. Southwest Airlines was more than simply a low-cost airline. It was providing the 85 percent of the U.S. population who couldn’t afford airline travel when Southwest was founded, the freedom to fly, which enabled greater connection in those people’s lives.

The world of marketing has evolved from informing and selling consumers about the benefits of your product or service to connecting and conversing with the customer. A great brand always sees themselves through the lens of their customer. You must understand how a brand can offer value to their lives. Without that understanding, your communication becomes just another forgettable amalgamation of words in the sea of messages consumers are bombarded with each and every day. While fundamental, that depth of knowledge represents just the beginning.

In a world where every brand is vying for love and attention, the articulation of a brand’s values and soul are equally important. Creating a narrative that delivers meaningful content wrapped in the DNA of your brand becomes paramount to building relationships. This narrative is not limited to one channel. It must be fully integrated across all consumer touch points. It must be consistent and come from a singular voice and point of view. We live in an omni-channel world with people utilizing multiple devices throughout the day to obtain information and enable connection.

Being clear on your brand narrative and the role of each channel in telling your story is critical. In addition, listening to your customer becomes as important as informing them. When you have a message that resonates with the consumer and you share and express that message in a relevant and compelling way, you are well on your way to cultivating and sustaining lifelong relationships with your customers, evolving those interactions with them from transactional to transformational.

RK: It is said that it is not just about storytelling anymore, but about timeless, ever-evolving brand narratives that you must create and control. Do you agree and, if so, can you comment?

MS: I don’t think it was ever just about storytelling. Storytelling was simply a device to deliver the message. What you stand for as a brand (your brand essence or brand narrative) is the foundation that drives everything. The key to establishing deep, sustaining relationships with your customers is to connect with them around a set of shared values, not just a story.

However, a story with no substance will soon be forgotten the moment it is completed. The Bible is a series of stories that speak to a set of core values and a philosophy on life. These tenets or principles are continually reinforced across thousands of years. People remember the stories, but are connected to the ideals.

RK: Marketing used to be about creating a myth and selling it; now it is about finding a truth and sharing it. We are moving from storytelling to brand narratives. So what exactly are brand narratives?

MS: To me, a brand narrative is the essence and soul of a brand. It’s why the brand exists. A good exercise is to ask: What would the world lose if your brand did not exist?

The answer to that question is an effective way to truly understand if your brand stands for anything. If the world would lose nothing, the brand never stood for anything in the first place. In Simon Sinek’s great book Start With Why, he examines companies who are built on a core purpose, their “why,” versus those companies that tell you “what” they do. “Why”-based companies have been shown, across a number of longitudinal studies, to generate greater performance, more engaged employees, and more loyal customers.

When you can connect with someone through the heart rather than just the head, you create a relationship, not a transaction. I firmly believe people want to be inspired. They seek ways to enrich their lives. In a world where myth has become the emperor with no clothes, authenticity is what reigns supreme. Authenticity is built on honesty, transparency, and soul—all critical ingredients of a brand narrative.

RK: What kinds of stories do you use and why? Any and all specific examples that you can share will be much appreciated.

MS: I think of a good story having—as described by Jim Signorelli in his book StoryBranding—a character (or characters) dealing with obstacles to achieve certain goals. The extent to which stories help us connect with our own truths is a function of how well we can identify with the values, beliefs, and feelings experienced by its character.

In the consumer world, the main character is the consumer who represents the protagonist. They are faced with obstacles that prevent them from satisfying either a functional or emotional need. The brand, through both its functional capabilities and its fundamental beliefs, enables the customer-protagonist to overcome these barriers and achieve its goals.

The brand is trying to build, not force, a relationship with the customer. A story is an effective way for a brand to connect with its customers around a set of shared values and ideals, the critical step in forging a relationship built on a strong emotional bond.

In my own experience, I think of my time at Pepperidge Farm, Inc., and the Goldfish story represents to me a great example of the power of applying story as a means of articulating core purpose. Goldfish is a brand built on optimism. Optimism is defined as having a positive outlook on life. An optimistic person does not fall victim to life’s unexpected obstructions, but rather uses their creativity to overcome those obstacles.

There are a host of academic studies that show that people who possess a more positive outlook on life live happier, healthier, and more enriching lives. Academic studies also show that one is not born with an optimistic attitude toward life. It can be nurtured and learned. The articulation of this philosophy of optimism for children was told through the context of entertainment. The story of “Finn and Friends,” two Goldfish crackers that came to life, showcased a cast of compelling animated characters who engaged in a variety of fun adventures always believing that they could overcome any obstacles they faced.

For all the moms out there, we developed a brand narrative called “Fishful Thinking.” This program offered information and exercises for Mom to share with her children to help teach them to develop and reinforce a mindful optimism—that there was no challenge that couldn’t be successfully confronted. These life lessons were the key to enabling their children’s short-term and long-term happiness—moms’ #1 aspiration for their kids as revealed through a Gallup survey we conducted. Every channel, from traditional to digital to earned media to owned media, was used to engage our target with this brand narrative.

RK: How do you use stories to emotionally differentiate any brand from all of the others in the same category and how has storytelling moved toward brand narratives told by many creators and constantly revised by consumers in different forms of digital communication and social media?

MS: The key to creating emotional differentiation relative to competition is to uncover the purpose of the brand that speaks to its core essence. It must be authentic to the brand and not feel derivative of anyone else.

In her terrific book, Different, Young Me Moon of the Harvard Business School describes that great brands of the future must answer these four questions:

“What do we promise that nobody else in our industry can promise?”

“What do we deliver that nobody else can deliver?”

“What do we believe that only we believe?”

“In a world of abundance, what do we offer that is scarce?”

To truly build emotional differentiation, you must find a core truth endemic to your brand (“What do you offer that is scarce?”) that also strikes true to your core audience. The story becomes the means to convey your brand narrative and foster both awareness and understanding.

It begins by sharing it with like-minded individuals. However, if your brand narrative speaks to a real human truth, it eventually becomes no longer your truth, but is shared with a community of those who espouse similar beliefs and values. This is where digital and social media play an important role. They become the interface that facilitates conversation and content around these shared ideals throughout your community. Your relationship with your customer evolves from “you to them” to “you and them” or “us.”

RK: Do you have a specific process in which you craft brand narratives that you would be willing to share with readers?

MS: I’ve employed a process that starts with identifying what I call the Energy Driving Idea (EDI) of a brand. The EDI is the essential strategic idea that defines the soul of the brand and drives the brand’s communication. It is action-oriented and purposeful. The EDI grounds and inspires what we say and helps guide how we further articulate this idea and drive communication strategy and architecture. The EDI is defined as the intersection of the barrier and the brand essence:

The Barrier → EDI ← The Brand Essence

There is a simple process to arrive at the EDI.

Step 1: Situational analysis.

Step 2: Reducing it down to the behavioral challenge.

Step 3: Understanding the behavioral target.

Step 4: Barrier analysis to understand what obstacles inhibit the desired behavior.

Step 5: Business brief (develop communication strategy that articulates the over-arching business issue and goals that brand narrative will address, providing deep insights into target motivators and touch points within competitive and marketplace context).

Step 6: The energy driving idea (a singular idea that is the strategic springboard for a creative idea and contextual framework that will release and direct the energy in a brand).

Once you identify the EDI, the agency or creative team must then frame the story in a compelling and memorable way to share the brand’s ethos with the world. The story must connect the main characters (the brand and the target).

In the short term (“the dating phase”), the brand will help satisfy the needs of the target by enabling the customer, through its functional attributes and their benefits, to achieve its goals. Long term, the story must spark a flame that connects the brand and the consumer around a core set of shared values and beliefs. The story itself dramatizes the obstacles that the consumer must confront and how the brand helps the target face and ultimately overcome these hurdles leading to the establishment of a deep relationship between target and brand. The extent to which any of these obstacles must be overcome sets up the plot.