The Quisenblog

There is a famous story about President John F. Kennedy’s first visit to NASA’s headquarters back in 1961. While touring the facility, the President’s entourage reportedly came upon a man mopping the floor in one of the hallways. The President stopped to chat with the man, shook his hand, and asked what he did at NASA. The janitor proudly addressed the young President by saying, “Sir, I’m helping to put a man on the moon!”

This story illustrates the idea that everyone at NASA, regardless of his or her position, was in their own way contributing toward the ultimate mission of the organization. Is the same true in your company?

As managers, too often we’re tempted to treat team members or departments as “cogs in a bigger machine,” rather than allow them to share in the mission of the company (what we refer to as your “Brand Vision”). Too often our “greater purpose” never makes it beyond our executive suite (or worse, out of our own heads). By allowing everyone in the organization to take ownership of the Brand Vision and bring their own special “mojo” to it, it makes it much more likely the customers and prospects we deal with on a daily basis, regardless of where in the operation they reside, will see us as we intend them to.

The first step in building this camaraderie and getting buy-in from everyone in the organization is to share how your Brand Vision was arrived at, what it means to your customer, and why it is meaningful, unique and true. Then, turn your employees and departments loose in determining how they can contribute to the expression of the Brand Vision, and ultimately, how they can surprise and delight customers through fulfillment of the Brand Vision.

A few well-known examples that come to mind of companies that give their team members freedom in expressing the organization’s Brand Vision in their own unique way are Zappos (”Beyond-Exceptional Customer Service”) and Starbucks (”Welcoming”). A specific example of how one employee’s actions can elevate an entire organization comes from this previous post we had on Southwest Airlines.

Is knowing the mission of the organization is to put a man on the moon going to affect how a janitor mops a floor? Who knows. But just the fact that he felt a part of that mission surely paid benefits to NASA in some form, probably in a way that NASA management couldn’t have imagined.

The same can be true for just about any forward-thinking organization. Allowing employees and departments to determine for themselves how they can meaningfully bring the organization’s Brand Vision to life in their day-to-day dealings will unleash a collective creativity that will be inspiring to witness. Rewarding ideas and initiatives developed by staff, and sharing successes with all in your organization, are excellent ways management can perpetuate the growth and consistency of the Brand Vision.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey On Clients, On Customers, Ramblings, customer experience brand vision, empower employees, janitor, john F. Kennedy, NASA, Southwest, surprise, zappos

Tang was a horrible product. It was an awful-tasting, expensive, nutrient-deficient powdery “drink substance” developed by General Foods as an alternative morning beverage back in the late 1950s that suffered from poor sales for the first several years after its launch.

Then something interesting happened. In 1965, General Foods somehow convinced NASA to include Tang on its manned Gemini space flights. Overnight, Tang was no longer a weird-tasting breakfast drink. It was what the astronauts drank.

And kids couldn’t get enough of it. They literally begged their moms to purchase the stuff. And proudly paraded it out of their lunchboxes.

You see, back in 1965, every kid wanted to be an astronaut. And if she couldn’t be in the Gemini capsule there at Cape Canaveral, at least she could have the ‘astro beverage’ in her Yogi Bear lunchbox!

This is just one example of how a simple story can create a whole mythology for a brand. It is the narrative of the brand that people connect with, that makes the purchase more “personal” and says something about them. This narrative is what helps people define a brand for themselves, and whether or not it belongs as part of their “personal brand.”

What does it take to make a compelling story for a brand? The first rule is to be authentic. If your cookies really aren’t made by elves in trees, then don’t try to convince us that they are. If your product was created by a bunch of guys in white coats in a chemistry lab, don’t try to have us buy a story that the recipe was handed down from some Italian grandma’s kitchen.

Take an inventory of what part of your “story” is different enough to make people notice. Then ask if it can be extrapolated to be associated with some sort of benefit. Even a seemingly irrelevant detail of your brand’s history or early beginnings could be the rough material to build a story from.

The most compelling stories are those that are both simple and timeless. In the early ‘70s, when automakers were falling all over one another claiming to get the best gas mileage, Volvo built a brand story around safety. While many outerwear manufacturers were focused on cutting costs by shipping production overseas, Timberland proudly crafted a story of how their products were built by generations of real craftsmen here in the U.S. The Body Shop used only natural ingredients with no animal testing in its beauty products. Suddenly the product is not just something to wear, or drive, or eat. it is a status symbol of sorts. A way to express your own personal values.

In the end, that’s exactly what brands are: the stories and experiences consumers associate with them.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey On Clients, Ramblings brand narrative, Gemini space flights, General Foods, NASA, personal brand, Tang, The Body Shop, Timberland, Volvo