May I Have Your Attention, Please phần 8 pdf

Remember, it’s not about you and your needs, it’s about themand their needs.Your ego will get in the way of building the best brand.. A true brand will mirror the changes in our own true

brands Remember, it’s not about you and your needs, it’s about themand their needs.

Your ego will get in the way of building the best brand Not theego that is indispensable to negotiating your true brand The ego thatgets in the way is the self-obsessed “me” that isolates us and strips us

of connection to others Don’t let your pride cancel out your gut ition and proven research

intu-Now, what is the most important message that the world can’tlive without and that only you have the unique experience to give?That’s real power This will be the defining moment of your brand.We’ve now come to the part of the brand construction whereyou must have a kind of blueprint or outline for your strategy Youhave learned your stories and realized how unique they make you.You now know that you have the ultimate brand advantage in that

no one can copy what you’ve discovered about yourself

You’ve begun to see how your true essence takes shape and form.What does the true you sound like and look like on paper, on thephone, or in a promise?

Elizabeth Dole has a biography filled with experiences that trate her sincere gift for person-to-person contact Today we see her asbeing approachable and connecting with her audience Her personalbrand based on these unique characteristics extended to her profes-sional brand She was a natural choice to lead the American RedCross, an organization defined by caring for people All of her life’sstories prepared her to personify everything this organization standsfor There was consistency between who she is and what she does.And who can forget the incredible speech she gave to Americanswhen her husband, Bob Dole, ran for president against Bill Clinton?

illus-As his partner, she spoke in a format that no one had ever seen Shespoke to the studio audience not from behind a lectern but while shewalked up and down among them, touching shoulders and makingclose, personal eye contact It was exactly what we expected from her.When Hillary Clinton tried a similar speaking approach, it didn’t con-nect with us Hillary’s personal brand is less approachable and moredistant She feels right when she speaks from behind a lectern or sit-ting still in a chair This is what I’m talking about when I ask, what doyour unique character traits look like in action?

Barbara Walters is a personal hero of mine Forced to compete

in professional broadcasting when woman were dismissed as sequential, she never pretended to be something she wasn’t She

competed in a man’s world, but she didn’t act like a man or look like aman That may sound silly, but many a woman has adopted false man-nerisms, from cigar smoking to suit wearing, in order to fit in BarbaraWalters stood out because she stayed true to her values of professional-ism based on the job, not the gender She is one of the classiest busi-nesswomen I’ve seen Her experiences with financial struggles whileshe supported her family at a very young age gave her a determinationthat you could see and hear and feel in her personal and professionallife Her brand is authentic and she is an icon because of how herunique life has been woven into her valuable brand There is consis-tency between who she truly is and how she looks, sounds, and makes

us feel I believe she is so successful at getting the people she interviews

to open up about their true experiences because she is in touch withher own true identity She knows exactly what to ask because she hasgone there before them and asked herself the same hard questions.New stories are being written every day in your life, aboutyour life Your brand has to be able to stretch beyond the plan tomeet everyone where they are If your brand lives only by today’splan, it will eventually die by this plan A plan needs room for ex-pansion A plan needs room to grow, like a great house that can beseamlessly added on to You’re not changing the foundation butadding a new room We truly do not know at the beginning of ourbrand what the end of it will hold for us

A true brand will mirror the changes in our own true stories.And as long as we know our true essence and incorporate thegrowth and changes bravely, we will strengthen our own brand.Sometimes when we struggle over the particulars of the brand, it

is to avoid discussing the real issues of the meaning behind the brand.When we discuss and dispute the specifics about the brand’s logo,color, how it is used, and where it is placed, we might be sidesteppingthe essentials of the brand itself It is much easier to debate where thebrand logo should be placed on each product and insist that it bemoved from the front to the back than it is to question, “What is themeaning and purpose behind this logo and has it changed over time?”

It causes less trouble to question the color of the logo or thechoice of one word in the ad copy than to probe the real meaning ofthe company motto to see if you still believe in it Such questions andanswers might require painful action Or, worse yet, they may result

152 MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE?

in the choice between getting on board and supporting the true story

or leaving the company in order to be true to yourself Of course, theworst choice would be to fake it and pretend you can represent thebrand as an extension of your true story

When Dalmatian Press expanded its product line from coloringbooks and activity books into storybooks, there was a lot of discus-sion between me, as the founder, and every other department man-ager The conversations and debates centered on where to put thelogo of the Dalmatian Press puppy dog We had always put it on thefront top left corner of each book It was easily seen and “spotted.”Some employees and associates felt that it was too noticeable and that

it made the books look less sophisticated Imagine my distress, whenconfronted by my own employees about the worthiness of my brandlogo for the front cover of our books In essence I was being told thatour logo was not sophisticated enough If these books were to becherished and kept as treasures, passed down through the genera-tions, then the emphasis should be on the content and the beautifulcover illustration

As they showed me example after example of other preciousbooks in the industry, they pointed out that they rarely had the pub-lisher’s logo or brand imprint on the cover These employees had notbeen with our company from the start They didn’t understand thatthe original story of Dalmatian Press was to bring attention to thepublisher and create loyalty to the publisher as opposed to the book’scharacter and story They didn’t understand that I wanted to be asso-ciated with precious stories as much as I wanted our brand to have in-trinsic value The discussions focused on the size of the logo, theposition of it, and how to combine it with the company name But

we never faced the real question: Should we change our “story” andbegin to separate the book’s cover and content from the publisher?The employees and I had three choices:

1 Adopt the original Dalmatian Press mission and stay true to its

essence, which sought brand loyalty to the publisher as much asthe author or cover art

2 Join a different company that held publishing views consistent

with their beliefs

3 Reexamine our past experiences and question how our new ones

have expanded our story and therefore our brand Then define

how to share this evolved brand so that it continues to representour present identity while not abandoning our past ideals, havingalready achieved brand equity Bingo—this was our choice.

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

The best brands mirror the changes in your life At the inception ofDalmatian Press I didn’t foresee this stage of its life A brand has tokeep in mind its audience’s changing wants and needs, and stretch toaccommodate them This doesn’t mean that it becomes what it isn’t.Our solution at Dalmatian Press was to create a revised logo and tradedress for a more expensive line of books while continuing to buildloyalty The new trade dress incorporated a pawprint so there is anobvious connection to our Dalmation logo But it now made the cus-tomer feel different and more sophisticated, with a more sophisti-cated art treatment But first, we had to stop hiding behindconversations about the logo position and get to the difficult heart ofthe matter

I don’t blame the employees for sidestepping this issue, because

I had pounded it into their heads for seven years that only throughconsistency could we build a brand I blame myself for not doing thework of constant self-examination Who the company is today is notwho it was in 1995 It has grown, and the brand needs to reflect thatgrowth It needs to examine the new stories of the company and re-flect them with the brand strategy The best brands must constantlyexamine themselves and see if they continue to reflect the true story,past and present

Kentucky Fried Chicken uses its acronym KFC Its story is thesame, but it appeals to the changing wants and needs of its audi-ence Supposedly, Americans want to eat healthier Deemphasizing

the word fried and replacing it with an acronym lets customers

feel better about choosing to eat its chicken Same food, but ent feeling Today, the Colonel’s spirit and heritage are reflected

differ-in KFC’s brand identity—the logo features Colonel HarlandSanders, one of the most recognized icons in the world Every day,nearly eight million customers are served in terms of their wantsand their needs

Madonna is brilliant at brand alteration One could argue that

her brand is constantly changing But it’s not at all Her brand is

154 MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE?

change If she didn’t change her look and sound, she would not betrue to herself or her audience.

Midwest Airlines, one of my favorite airlines in the country,changed its name in 2004 from Midwest Express to Midwest Airlines.They correctly expected that their new name would increase bookings

as potential passengers came to realize that they are a full-service tional airline, not a regional carrier like the old name seemed to con-vey Their slogan is “The best care in the air,” and it makes a promise

na-to their cusna-tomers that you’ll feel more cared for when you fly withthem Like many in their industry they have endured financial diffi-culties and they will have to decide which corners to cut and whichservices they must keep to fulfill their promise A great brand eventu-ally fails if its products and features don’t deliver Midwest is now us-ing smaller planes that do not have their signature big leather seats.They don’t always serve their famous warm gooey chocolate chipcookies They also do not allow disabled passengers needing oxygen

to fly with them whereas most other airlines do So, although theirbrand name is expanding its reach, their pledge to give the best care

in the air has room to grow If your brand evolves, it must be based ontrue experiences and not on goals yet to be reached

I interviewed the president of the Milwaukee Metropolitan sociation of Commerce, Tim Sheehy, to discuss one of Milwaukee’smost important jewels—Midwest Airlines Headquartered in Mil-waukee, it employs over 2,800 people In addition to Midwest hav-ing a strong brand, Tim knows its alliance with Milwaukee canstrengthen the Milwaukee brand Tim Sheehy is one of Milwaukee’smost important spokespeople as an advocate for encouraging busi-nesses that build Milwaukee’s brand as a great place to live Timgets branding He summed up his discussion about Midwest Air-lines by saying, “Everything from the chocolate chip cookies to thebest service makes you feel special There couldn’t be a better way

As-to welcome people inAs-to Milwaukee than via a Midwest Airlinesflight Their brand tells a great story.”2

Go ahead Live your best brand!

Here’s what a dog can teach us about building brands:

• Never pretend to be something you’re not

• If it itches, scratch it

• Be loyal Jump up and down Beg if you have to

• If what you want is buried, keep digging until you find it.

• No matter how often you’re criticized, don’t buy into the guilt Runright back and make friends

Envision Your Best Brand Moments

Each time you imagine the future, put it into the context of the lowing questions

fol-How does my brand make me feel

connected to an earlier time in my life?

Most often people will develop personal or professional brands thatunknowingly are rooted in their meaningful life experiences We tend

to create two kinds of scenarios Either we try to repair difficult tions or we recreate wonderful situations Perhaps we have livedthrough times when we didn’t get sufficient attention or recognition.Building a conspicuous brand may be a way that we unknowinglydeal with that experience! Or perhaps we had a memorable adoles-cence during which we were recognized for the way we looked oracted Building a brand may be a subconscious attempt to recreatethat situation

situa-If you ask yourself what memories your brand stirs up fromyour earlier personal life, you’ll probably be surprised by your an-swer Keep asking this question, because acknowledging that connec-tion is absolutely essential to your brand building success Then, asyou envision the future, ask what feelings your brand will stir up inothers Is that what you had hoped for? It is your audience’s feelingsthat count If they don’t connect with you and feel like they can re-late to your brand, then you are meaningless to them Is that whatyou want?

What does your brand development help you

to believe about yourself and your future?

Brands are what we feel about the product or the service, but they aremore than that They are what they can make us feel about ourselves.The really potent part of a brand is that it allows you to carry

156 MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE?

around beliefs about yourself that make you feel special, precious,valuable, worth your weight in gold But the truth is that your branddoes not give you these attributes.

The fact that your brand now puts you on people’s radar screensand therefore makes you feel valuable from the resulting recognitiondoesn’t mean that the brand is responsible for you being valuable.You were always valuable, and your brand gave your value a forum to

be seen Said more simply, you define your brand Your brand doesnot define who you are or how you feel

Phil Vischer has been called one of the twenty-first century’smost influential men He is the creator of the Christian phenome-non VeggieTales, to which millions of children give their love andattention We spoke for hours one hot summer day about the heat

he was taking for his brand protection Even though Phil grew up inthe church with his dad the Sunday school superintendent and hismom the choir director, he went through the same problems and is-sues that any kid does When his parents divorced, he moved intothe basement of his house and, metaphorically, of his life Deep inintrospection, he realized that God had filled his head with storiesand the ability to make people laugh Yet he was also filled withmoral outrage, even as a teen, that the world was in trouble when itcame to values

Phil is one incredibly hard worker, but he said, “I’m driven byneed If people took better care of their kids I could slow down I’mnot a type A.” Did he feel like he wasn’t taken care of growing up? Headmitted that the VeggieTales brand is “me.” He also confessed, “Ihave no desire to run a company.” What an admission! He was run-ning a multimillion-dollar company when corporate managementwasn’t his true story His constant self-examination helped him re-main true to his brand protection He knows who he is and what hisbrand means to people Because of his childhood experiences, hewanted to help parents raise their kids with the message of God.Therefore he kept his brand from expanding into product lines thatcould carry the logo but not actually spread God’s word For example,

he expanded into books but not bicycles He protected what hisbrand promised at the expense of new revenues One can see how histrue experiences are reflected in his business, including a succession

of three unsuccessful presidents Was he looking for a father figure,perhaps? Phil says, “Maybe.”3

In 2004 Big Idea, parent company of VeggieTales, was sold toClassic Media But Phil’s brand story is a great and successful example

of building a brand to connect to earlier times in your life in such away that it perpetuates your beliefs and plans for your successful fu-ture—no matter how you define success

If you were to make a list of all the things your brand makes

you believe, you might find words like powerful, important, and cinating on your list If you believe in these qualities associated

fas-with your brand, would they disappear if your brand dissolved?

No These are the qualities that you give to your brand Your branddoes not give them to you However, when envisioning your fu-ture, you must ask what your brand helps your audience to believeabout themselves

• Does it make them feel good?

• Does it make promises that they need to hear?

• Do they feel more important and worthy?

• Does your brand make them feel better or worse?

If you can’t answer “better” to the last question, your brand is in ble Write the most exciting conclusion you can imagine for yourbrand And learn to rewrite it and rewrite it and rewrite it The im-provement of your brand reflects the improvements in your life andits telling

trou-It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: trou-It would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn how to fly while remaining an egg.

We are like eggs at present And you can not go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg We must hatch or go bad.

—C S Lewis (1898–1963)4

158 MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE?

Brand Building Belief VII

I will think of my brand in terms of the results it can bring day, and as a vehicle to mirror change, while connecting me topast ideals

to-Planning for Your Brand 159

Brand Builders

1 What is a “Rudolph” characteristic in your life?

2 If you had 24 hours left, what would you want your brand to

communicate to those important to you?

3 How will your brand mirror the changes in your life? If your

brand is the reflection of your true experiences, what images

do you see?

4 What does your brand help you believe about yourself?

Chapter EIGHT

Getting Results from Your Brand

Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.

—John D Rockefeller, Jr (1874–1960)1

The Map

We’re all trying to deal with different kinds of maps in life Personally

I hate maps I can follow directions so long as they include marks “Turn left at the Holiday Inn, go straight until the road be-comes a one-way street, and immediately turn right into Wal-Mart.”

land-But give me directions that start with the word southeasterly and I am

lost It’s not that I won’t ask for directions I love directions I justdon’t want to read them off of a map In fact, when my husbandhollered to me that Toronto was nowhere near Niagara Falls on ourway there from Buffalo, New York, I snapped I wadded the paper map

in my lap into a ball and threw it out the window while we werespeeding down the highway That would show him

Well, back to maps Not only do I want to be able to read maps

but I want to be on the map You’ve heard the expression “She put

him on the map,” or, “She’s his due north,” or, “He’s on the mapnow!” Remember the free-standing map in shopping malls or themeparks where we search for the “You Are Here” icon? Think about theInternet sites that assist you with direction, reservations, and travel

plans They all begin with the word Start Go to the map Get on the

map Figure out where you are starting from and who you really are.Then and only then can you get to where you want to go

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If you think of yourself as a kind of a map marker for other ple or businesses, then you’ll understand that we need to be thatwhich others look for or look to Success is a huge map marker It’slike a flare sent up demanding attention It acts as a compass, andpeople will want to follow it and be directed by it It’s okay to emulatepatterns of success That doesn’t make you any less authentic, as long

peo-as you use the comppeo-ass of success to discover your characteristic haviors you haven’t owned yet Start by defining yourself as a success

be-to which people can relate We are all like road signs or landmarks ofsome kind We are a key word that others are searching for To get re-sults with your brand, you have to know that you are consistentlyand correctly communicating your brand If you were a key word on asearch engine, what would it be?

Let’s use the word American as an example of a key word This is

a word that is frequently used to describe those born in the UnitedStates, including African American, Native American, Asian Ameri-

can Once while watching Kelly Ripa on the ABC show Regis and Kelly,

I saw an interview of a new television character that happened to be apuppet She asked him what it felt like to be a sock He replied, “Mydear, I’m no sock, I’m a Fabricated American.”

It seems that many people born in the United States want to bedefined as some type of an American When Bruce Springsteen sings

“Born in the USA,” the crowd goes wild For many reasons peoplehave decided that this suffix increases one’s respect, value, credibility,and ownership of various rights The brand “America” is powerful It isinfluential Its logos and brand images make people feel a wide range

of emotions, regardless of political affiliations Liberal Americans tear

up when the American flag is presented Stoic citizens will stand tosing the national anthem The American soldier in uniform stirs upfeelings of loyalty no matter whether we support the war effort or not

In 2003 when the George W Bush administration led the U.S.into war against Iraq, one of the most popular country music groups

of the time spoke out against the president At that time, Bush’s proval ratings were extremely high Lead singer Natalie Maines of theDixie Chicks said that she was ashamed that George Bush was fromher native state, Texas Many people who had aligned themselveswith the “America” brand took this as a personal insult of their brand.Record sales plummeted Radio stations refused to play the group’ssingles Other music stars criticized the Dixie Chicks and distancedthemselves from them

ap-Getting Results from Your Brand 161

No one likes to be told that they have made the wrong choice.And when the Chicks criticized the president it was as if they weresaying, “Bush is no good so America is no good, either.”

We don’t just choose brands because they make life more nient We choose brands to affirm our values and align ourselves withwhat we believe in Our choices say a lot about who we are It’s onething to be told that our choice of music is wrong It’s quite anotherthing to be told that your alignment with your country, and all it rep-resents, is wrong Some products and services matter more and, there-fore, so do their brands

conve-Many Americans never watch hockey or even care much for thegame But in 1980 when the American team won the Olympic goldmedal in hockey, people were proud to be an American I felt thepride bursting through me as I watched the games from the campusbrew house along with hundreds of other screaming, excited collegekids Part of America’s brand is the feeling of being winners, whether

on the ice or on the battlefield If you attack the America brand thenyou make Americans feel like losers People don’t like to be calledlosers When Russia, France, or any other country wins, it makeseveryone who aligns themselves with the country’s brand feel like awinner no matter what the competition is

When J B “Van” VanCronkhite was an American soldier it wasthe early 1950s As a young enlisted man he was taught the art ofpsychological warfare as the cold war heated up His training was forthe express purpose of building or maintaining brand loyalty toAmerica with the armed troops Van tells the story of his days as aninformation and education specialist in western Germany duringthe 1950s Having been trained in psychological warfare methodol-ogy, he was asked to develop a program that would negate the effect

of Russian propaganda that was wooing American soldiers to brace Communism

em-With the assistance of one female and two male soldiers, he veloped a team that visited Army units along the Russian-Americancheckpoint during the notoriously hated Saturday morning informa-tion and education training sessions After announcing that the four-team members were card-carrying Communists (during the tag end ofthe McCarthy Communism hearings), the four extolled the supposedvirtues of Communism as their audiences sat quietly in disbelief overwhat they were hearing

de-Van anticipated that at least one older master sergeant would

162 MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE?