Ron Culp is a friend and former client of some 21 odd years. His personal story is remarkable. It is a teaching moment for anyone considering a career in the PR world. His blog, Culpwrit.com, is one of the most popular around among those looking to get their careers off the ground.
And here we are at the front end of another school term, perhaps the beginning of that all-important senior year for those ramping up to liftoff in the real world. So let’s explore some of the best advice you’ll ever hear on how to optimize that final season and get ready for the rest of your life.
Ron graciously consented to let me peel back the veneer and get closer in on the grist that helped propel his life through remarkable experiences as head of corporate communications at two the most iconic companies in the world – Sara Lee and Sears. From there he moved to the agency business running the Chicago office of financial and merger/acquisition specialist Sard Verbinnen and then moved on to Ketchum Public Relations as regional chief and head of its North American corporate practice. We will also bring you up to date on the dawn of the latest chapter in Part II.
So you may want to take notes. Here we go:
Ron landed on the fundamental point about college life, your life; any point in life – all you have is time and your choices about how to spend it. “The central marker of my college experience was involvement in extra-curricular activities. You can basically split your life between doing your studies and managing your social life. Or you can follow a slightly different path,” he said. In Ron’s case, with dramatic results connected to his choices. His point is simple but profound — you can choose to be passive or really active. It’s a clear choice. A conscious decision.
In our business contacts and relationships matter, and Ron started developing his connections while in school. “I’m still hearing from people in my network that began in the college years. Just today I received a text from a guy I went to school with who 40 years later wanted to convey an opportunity I might be interested in.”
What was the Ron model?
o President of his dorm
o Editor of the campus newspaper
o Statewide chair of the College Republicans group
o Student member of the School Board of Trustees
o And through this connection involved in other University committees
Chief takeaway – this decision set in place a life-long devotion to raising your hand, saying yes and getting involved. The benefits are tangible and compelling – career altering in fact. Ron claims the social life can be woven through all of these activities and thus it’s not just a singular slavish focus on nose to grind stone.
But make no mistake this habit of his was a deal maker for a future filled with great opportunity. “As you can imagine through my school paper experience, I’m interviewing the Mayor. I’m meeting the Gubernatorial candidates during an election. I enjoyed being in that space because I was interested in politics and thought it might lead me in that direction. It did.”
What’s going on here? Can you see the theme? Ron secures meaning, enjoyment, interest that fuels his passions FROM his involvement in all these activities beyond the classroom. To be sure it was purposeful. He’s a purposeful guy. The advice: get involved – no, really involved. All you have is time. How you invest it will make the difference later in where you get to go, what you get to do.
Tomorrow’s post will bring a focus on Ron’s career choices and key moments along the path that helped shape his trajectory. Stand by for more.
Where does superior work come from in the PR and marketing communications field? Ok, so you say the work comes out of the heads of talented people. To be sure. But what separates the players from the posers? How do some people take their careers and business solutions to higher levels while others just mark their time “executing the project”?
We all think of super successful professional athletes and musicians or actors as people with incredible talent. Born that way maybe? Physically designed for success in their chosen field in some way? Lucky even? Maybe not. Read on.
The Brains Business…
In the PR and marketing game, we live in an intellectual property world informed by big ideas and remarkable insights. Certainly at the academic level there’s specific training in communications, public relations and marketing that helps fill the brain with understanding how these tools and disciplines work. But as said earlier some will succeed on higher levels down the line.
How can PR people achieve at the top levels? What separates the best from less than that? Is it luck? Ingrained talent? IQ scores? Contacts and relationships? No truer words were ever spoken on this earth than “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.” And therein lies the start of understanding the path to better performances. And nowhere is this better illustrated than by example from one of the most successful rock bands of all time, The Beatles.
Fab Four Fame an Act of God, Force of Nature or Sheer Luck?
In his fabulous book, Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell dissects success and achievement, blowing away the myths of fate and born-with-it talent that seems to pave the way for superstardom in one’s chosen field. The Beatles it turns out were a living example of what Gladwell calls the 10,000-hour rule. The band, formed in 1957 in Liverpool, was unremarkable in its early days. Until, a club owner in Hamburg, Germany signed them up to play over a period of years in a setting that is absolutely remarkable for one thing: the Clubs were open 24 hours. The band played seven days a week, often for 5 to 6 hours a day or more.
Over a two-year period, The Beatles played 1,200 times. Most bands don’t even secure that much on-stage performance experience in the course of a career. They played non-stop thus having to learn extraordinary amounts of material. They played, and played, and played. Outcome: the enormous amount of work put in forged a band with incredible skill sets. Gladwell’s conclusion: what separates the major winners from also-rans is at least 10,000 hours of focus and dedication to learning, growing and doing in ones field. Mastery is achieved when the effort put in is exceptional and extraordinary. Anything less and mastery is virtually impossible to secure.
How does this play out in PR?
Study, study, study and then study some more. Know everything about your client’s business and category. Read every publication you can get your hands on related to our field and practice generally. Feed your head through a continued effort to draw from the best minds in the marketing and communications field.
How do you leap ahead of “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”? By making the communications and brand-building world an avocation as much as it is an occupation. Study, absorb, listen, read and focus your efforts on learning. Write and publish in our field – writing by the way is an essential practice (we’re story tellers) and one that you get better at only by doing. The more you know about a business and the competitors and the consumer who buys, the more creative and strategic the solutions get.
Out-sized ideas are not accidents, they are the outcome knowing, studying, digging deep to get your arms around the grist of what drives a business and what stands in the way of its growth.
As you work to expand what you know and understand about communication, human behavior and brand creation, the more clients will believe you have something special to offer. Programs get better, more creative. Your ability to help solve more problems grows exponentially.
How can you get to your 10,000 hours more quickly? Sorry there’s no way around it. Hard work followed by more of the same.
Your brand as expert in third-party content key to completing media picture
By Robert Wheatley
Ok, you’re doing business in a high involvement category like pet care, or you’re competing in a business where you’ve found a relevant issue or passion your consumers truly care about — like childcare products and addressing the parenting advice needs of new moms and dads.
You want to take advantage of the vast capabilities social networks provide along with other digital channels to publish, to inform, to give your brand a voice as a trusted source of education and information on topics that matter to your best customers.
Curating — another step along the path…
To be sure optimizing earned, owned, shared and paid channels is critical to taking a holistic approach to communication – one that recognizes the consumer is truly in control of the relationship and we need to be present where and when they choose to engage.
That said there’s another and equally compelling arena for engagement that truly helps complete the picture on the road to becoming more valuable and enticing as a trusted, useful source.
This story in the Chicago Tribune charts the sea change in the pet care category as super-premium diets gain traction and consumers increasingly see their pets as family. So behaviorally they’re working over-time to understand the finer points of pet nutrition. There’s just so much to learn for so many sources. Who can make sense of it?
Savvy pet care brands can help. You can help too in your category. How? Curate the third party info out there.
The Internet presents itself as a gigantic and perhaps infinite library and broadcaster of material, information, media and advice. Brands can play an invaluable role to help separate wheat from chaff in the overwhelming landslide of this content — and in doing so bring the best of third party media forward in an organized, easy-to-consume way.
The goal: be an expert and respected tour guide in subject areas that matter to the relevant lifestyle passions and interests of your core consumers. Simply said don’t just publish exciting original content but also edit the abundance that’s already out there from other credible sources.
Add context to the content…
There’s more to it than simply aggregating a portfolio of blogs, articles and broadcasts. Add context and commentary that helps layer on a sense of meaning, direction, guidance and interpretation. This is what a trusted source does: separate the useful from the not so and then add color and value to the most relevant material out there.
After all, your brand is an “expert” in its category, right? Who better to help sift through and identify the best and then provide it to your fans and followers. Just another way to add greater value — to matter — in the relationship you’re working tirelessly to build with consumers and stakeholders.
In the most recent issue of ADWEEK we find an article about the iconic and revered media fashion bible Vogue magazine, and its new Influencer Network of 1,000 women bloggers who have some form of sway with fashionistas in the fashion world.
So a highly respected media property recognizes the power of self-appointed fashion experts and works to align itself with this incremental and important cog in the marketing wheel. The Influencer network of course is accessible to the magazine’s advertisers. And according to ADWEEK the panel members are not paid. Very important and thus credibility maintained. They are asked to provide “feedback” on everything from new product concepts to fashion collections and new campaign materials. And encouraged to talk about products in their networks.
Some time ago we developed a rough approximation of this phenomena and called it the Circle of Influence. Influence matters greatly – to traction of messaging, to credibility, to awareness, to driving word of mouth, to trial and ultimately to sales growth.
Here’s the nuance that matters: Collaboration with bloggers and experts…
Forging a deeper relationship that goes beyond treating the blogger media channel as simply that, another channel of media. Take Neiman Marcus for example. In their NM Daily maga-blog, they recently ran a post featuring photos and links to fashion bloggers they know and respect who wore the season’s new hot color pink – a trend condition thus verified through the involvement of bloggers on the topic.
So what does this mean to you? In a nutshell, it means working to create a closer-in connection and collegial relationship with the most respected bloggers and experts in your category. Not just reaching out to inform them of new products and other initiatives. We’re talking about investment and infrastructure.
Bloggers are media so access to news and information before it hits the mainstream is meaningful. Giving them the opportunity to try, sample and experience new products, new marketing platforms before they go live are important. Seeking out their opinions and views on new programs and campaigns helps make them insiders. Inviting them to your offices for visits, tours and meetings helps build the rapport.
How do you define who matters? Here are some tips to identify the best of the best:
1. Cross platform engagement: the most savvy bloggers and experts (who usually are also bloggers) spread their work across multiple platforms including email, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
2. Passion and strength of voice: you can tell by reading their work, the frequency of the posts, the due diligence done to unearth new information, whether you’re dealing with a poser or a passionate expert.
3. Audience: numbers are useful as verification tools but should not be treated as the determining metric. Quality of the editorial product needs to be weighed with this. Look for linking with other leading experts and those who actively engage with commentary in other blogs.
4. Quote-able source: bloggers who rate higher in the influence arena are also quote-able sources in mainstream channels and online editions of conventional media properties. It’s a measure of their value and power when traditional channels look to them for comment.
5. Compatibility: you know your brand’s voice, it’s point of view in the marketplace. Does the blogger share your sensibilities? More likely the relationship will prosper if you find yourselves frequently on the same side of the opinion fence. Doesn’t mean you need to agree 100% of the time, just more often than not.
Relationships matter and our advice is this: treat these important constituents like your very best customers. Identify the top players and develop infrastructure to facilitate a close-in relationship. Consider embedding that relationship in our social media platforms, too.
Last Sunday was Father’s Day. And for the third year in a row, the family took me to Tabor Hill Winery’s great restaurant near our weekend home in southwest Michigan for a wonderful afternoon. It’s becoming a welcome ritual. A repeat performance – or in my case three-peat – as part of this annual Daddy Day celebration.
Can your brand and business benefit from working in and around, adopting or creating rituals? I think so.
A ritual is really a deep dive into repetitive behavior. What is it about rituals that are so satisfying? Perhaps most important of all are the good feelings, emotions and memories surrounding these experiences. In an uncertain age when all about us is in a state of constant upheaval, rituals can bring comfort, familiarity and satisfied expectations to life experiences. They are known, understood, predictable and perceived as events that consistently deliver a reliable outcome.
Rituals can be a force of habit. They can spring from activities we hold dear or enjoy in some way and thus are welcome additions to life’s routine.
Rituals come in various forms and flavors…
There’s the morning visit to Starbucks for a better coffee experience prior to tackling the day
Dieting and January
The annual beach vacation my close friends take every year on Nantucket
Spring cleaning season
Fourth of July family gatherings
Summer yard and gardening care
Thanksgiving at Grandma’s or holiday events generally
Fall fashion introductions and wardrobe makeovers
Super Bowl parties
Events, seasonal occasions, family, experiences, hobbies and personal passions – all reflect a sense of added value we place on ritual behavior – which many people hold in high esteem.
Barilla mines family time around the dinner table…
Barilla Pasta reveals a shining example of this principle at work in a brand’s effort to build added relevance, meaning and value to their core users. What’s the ritual? Family dinner together.
There’s real substance to go along with the concept. Food and conversation are like Oreos and cream filling – they belong together. Taking time to slow down and interact over a meal is a useful goal with a value proposition attached to it.
For a brand to creatively adopt this ritual-in-the-making shows insight and strategic thinking at its finest in a project that puts their product at the center of a mission to help family members get closer to one another.
The engaging voice this gives the brand on relevant topics is compelling. Sustainable. Campaign-able. Emotional. Relevant. Interesting. Intrinsically important.
At home I am the family chef. I enjoy cooking. I have a passion for it. And my four-year old daughter Peach is getting interested in helping Daddy do his thing at the counter top. I can think of nothing more satisfying than getting her involved with me, with food. Maybe a ritual in the making? Who knows.
So what’s going on here? Brands that work to help enable these lifestyle events and interests create a path for constructing a closer relationship with their users. Of “mattering” if you will.
Sure you can go along and operate without making the effort and keeping the relationship down at the transactional level. But think of the possibilities over time when you interact with consumers at a deeper place where emotional ties and fabric are formed? More exciting, more effective I think.
I love my two Newfoundland’s Goliath and Olympus. I care about them. I enjoy being with them, drool and all. But you know who loves them even more than me? Dr. Marty Becker, perhaps the most famous of all Veterinarians in America and certainly one of the most visible, knowledgeable pet care experts on the planet. He’s a regular contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America and the Dr. Oz Show.
Does he know my two black behemoths? No. But this man genuinely cares about animals and their health and welfare like a passionate preacher cares for his flock.
Dr. Becker’s book-tour-on-a-rock ‘n roll bus steered into Chicago recently for an appearance at the Bloomingdale PETCO store. The book signing sandwiched between various media interviews and a nice helping on the side of warm greetings and hugs with his many fans and acquaintances. He’s on a national tour to promote a his new book “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual” – perhaps the best book of its kind – to provide innovative, creative and practical guidance for pet parents in caring for their four-legged family members.
I ran out to Bloomingdale on a mission to chat with Marty about FOUND (I’m on the Board), the unique Chicago-based animal rescue organization that focuses on the most extreme cases of abuse and health problems – those animals who will be put down if not treated with the transformational care and therapies at FOUND. I arrived early but no matter, from the moment I set foot in the parking lot and walked up to Marty to say hello, admirers from near and far were at hand.
It’s great to be loved and clearly he is. His warmth and accessibility made for instant rapport and inclusion for all who approached. More importantly his affinity for the four-legged fans was obvious and apparent. And thus why his book will do well. It’s the authenticity and passion that drives this man and thus his ability to exude from every pore the innate sense of trust people gravitate to.
He’s also pretty good at creating handles for pet care ideas and short cuts such that the rest of us will remembers his suggestions on improved wellness, nutrition and training. (Watch the ABC7 interview link above).
I digress. This blog is about marketing and communications best practices and you can see it here in the seamless integration of experience (bus tour) combined with media appearances (earned media this credible awareness) and wrapped within an outstanding social media presence where conversation meets content brilliantly. Marty knows that helping people is how you build relationships and achieve success in the longer run.
Social media is not about a transactional mentality to strict adherence to product feature and benefit messaging. Rather its about being genuinely helpful and providing information that’s relevant to people and their lifestyles. Pet ownership by the way, is absolutely a lifestyle. So with passion and purpose Marty populates his book launch campaign with useful information, genuine caring, up-close conversation and a strong measure of media savvy. It takes hard work and obviously Marty is up for it. Then again why wouldn’t he when it’s obviously his life’s mission.
Bravo. By the way, Marty’s bus was previously rolling on the Lady GaGa tour. Lots of strategically placed mirrors. What fun…
The value proposition for what a great agency can (should?) deliver
By Robert Wheatley
What is powerful communication? Well you know it when you’re confronted with it, right? When it moves you. When it evokes a strong feeling or visceral response. This leads us directly to discovering the value proposition for an agency such as W&T. What is it exactly that we deliver to our clients?
Hopefully it includes transformational ideas that can alter the course of a brand’s trajectory and business results. To be sure the usual litmus test of our capability is often examined through the lens of campaign-able events and larger-scale integrated projects and programs.
That said at a fundamental level PR and social media communication is made powerful by how we use specific words and pictures to convey a story. In-other-words WHAT we say and importantly, HOW we say it. With sentiment. With anticipation. With passion and emotion. Please watch this video all the way through — then let’s talk some more.
Was there an “aha” moment here? Yep. A change of verbiage delivers a change in behavior. Sure this is a story well told. Point has been made: words matter. They can be used to great impact or something less than that. You can state the obvious — or develop dramatic new context by altering the way a brand message or proposition is conveyed.
Every so often we come face-to-face with process working to overtake ideas. With the urgency to “get the word out” driving the program boat, sometimes there’s a chance this momentum will super-cede the need to devote time and energy to creating a stronger and more compelling message.
Words can take you somewhere unexpected – or not. What you say can be simply a statement of the obvious – here’s my product, my feature and my benefit. Or, with a change of positioning, you can alter the course of brand history with a thought that grabs consumers in compelling fashion.
This is what we’re on the planet to accomplish at W&T. To find the right context that inspires and engages.
Pet Food Forum presentation challenges industry to consider new pet ownership paradigm
By Robert Wheatley
If anything our agency has a long-standing love affair with the pet care category. It’s a business we have a passion for. And that comes out routinely in our efforts to position ourselves as thought-leaders and public relations/social media experts in generating pet care brand growth.
This week I had the wonderful privilege of presenting at the Pet Food Forum convention here in Chicago. Delightfully, the folks at Watt Publishing (Debbie Phillips in particular) who produce Pet Food Industry magazine and this annual conference for pet food manufacturers, allowed me to collaborate on a unique presentation with David Lummis of Packaged Facts research.
Both David and I share a personal interest in emerging evidence that there is a tangible, demonstrable, documented connection between pet ownership and human health and wellness benefits. This is a transformative idea for pet ownership and may well be for the pet care business generally. Bottom line: successful brand communication springs from relevance of the message to the consumer. And what could be more relevant than your pet supporting your own health?
Dr. Marty Becker, perhaps the nation’s most well-known celebrity vet and pet care advocate wrote a book called the “Healing Power of Pets” where we describes pet ownership as a “Human Life Support System.” Marty deserves credit and a big thank you for helping me gather data for this presentation.
Human health — virgin territory for pet brand building…
Right now the go-to-market platform for most pet care brands is focused on celebrating the emotional bond that resides at the center of the relationship between pets and their two-legged parents. More recently there’s been an avalanche of pet food brand communication centered on superior pet food ingredient story telling. A phenomenon we call “premiumization” has taken root and drives the entire industry. The massive 2007 pet food recall opened the doors to public discovery of what pet food ingredient terms mean and ushered in a new era of redefinition and re-staging of higher quality pet diets. That said, the focus on ingredients breeds too much similarity (we call this specsmanship) in brand conversations with consumers.
No one has really moved as yet to expand their brand voice to address the connection between pet ownership and improved health and wellness for the pet parent. Hence our goal at the conference to get this on the industry’s radar screen…
What rich territory to mine for engagement when you consider the chance to expand the pet care value proposition to include protecting, elevating your own health. The pet and pet parent relationship is an amazing story of emotional bond in itself. The symbiotic nature of this – one protects the health and wellbeing of the other – is just exciting. Brands that get this right can redefine the conversation and drive a wedge of differentiation in how they go to market.
YouTube functionality supports converting engagement to sale
By Robert Wheatley
Scanning the recent edition of Google’s recent self-published e-zine Think Quarterly, I ran across an article on functionality improvements at YouTube that permit viewers to buy items they like within the production via a point/click hotlink to another web platform.
Video is an engaging and entertaining medium. With high involvement categories that naturally attract an enthusiastic fan base, you can immediately see the business-generating opportunities when taking advantage of viewer interest and converting “in the moment” to a purchase opportunity.
The site above, You-Tique, is a great example of a fashion business aggregating a series of trend videos around everything from “What’s New for Spring” to occasion based ideas, such as what to wear for a hot date. The use of a Stylist expert helps set the credibility and value equation at the right level right out of the gate.
From there viewers can watch a model wearing the products and click to buy while viewing the video. It’s easy, pretty painless and, in my opinion, way more effective than looking at still photos of a product with narrative information alongside.
Zappos has figured out that online e-tailing gets compelling when you combine the right products with exemplary service. So who knows if the folks behind You-Tique have similar policies for returns and friendly live support. That said, the concept of watch and buy is just plain captivating.
You get richer story telling, context, validation and other benefits that outshine static web site galleries by adding the flavor of video production to the whole proposition. May not be right for every product category but this peek at the future is exciting none-the-less. Think Quarterly says the click through rates for You-Tique have been stellar…
How a strategic mission can fuel the next historic move in marketing and PR.
By Robert Wheatley
Most of us have experienced a point in our careers when the stars aligned as our PR campaigns and marketing programs achieved dramatic perhaps even monumental results. A moment in time when we almost can’t believe what we’ve just witnessed in business growth, consumer buzz, perhaps major media attention — or to leap-frog a much bigger competitor with a better idea the world says yes to.
Life’s achievements, career or otherwise, are to be savored — and we hope dearly, to be repeated. No one-hit-wonder here. Nope, not a one-trick pony, right? We always say this under our breath with a slight tinge of trepidation that maybe the big outcome will be hard to come by a second or third time. So we push ahead eager that some of the magic and creative lightening will strike twice and hit the results jackpot again. Dumb luck you think? No….
So what is the grist of this success made of these days? Is there a consistent theme within these experiences and projects that metaphorically or mathematically blew the doors off? It is highly probable they were big bets representing a strategic swing for the fence. Some risk capital, personal and otherwise, was expended. Let’s explore some evolutions in the current path to remarkable marketing achievement….
Finding Your Mission…
Lately we’re seeing some organizations up the ante and scope of their marketing and outreach efforts by enveloping their brands in an initiative that draws from a more cinematic scope and mission.
Take ConAgra’s recent announcement of a multi-brand campaign entitled Child Hunger Ends Here. No small cause and one that resonates with moms everywhere who understand and appreciate the plight of less fortunate children. The project unites a portfolio of their packaged foods brands under a single banner.
Or Pepsico’s massive “Refresh Project” – an initiative that falls from the company’s efforts to emphasize social values while working to embed greater meaning into their brands and businesses. Refresh invites investment proposals from all comers at the local level for arts, music, community and education projects.
And the comprehensive, “Live Music Series” lifestyle program from Jim Beam bourbon that helps unlock the social connections inherent in their business category. Beam is sponsoring and presenting an array of music events, offers and experiences. What resonates here is the commitment to relevance with their core target audience’s lifestyle passions and aspirations.
By definition we’re wading into territory populated with larger-in-scope, transformative projects that carry with them the potential to impact brand and business behavior. And in doing so fulfill the definition of what we would call a “BIG” idea: bigger in agenda, bigger in reach, bigger in ambition and hopefully attached also to bigger outcomes and long-term benefits.
Efforts in this vein surely will work harder to break through the rust of rampant, epidemic indifference that exists virtually everywhere. Sounds good, but what’s the path look like? Let’s examine five key elements that together bring some magic to the table when working to elevate the brand’s mission and meaning to a higher level:
1. A historic sense of gravitas, mattering and purpose – consumer behaviorists tell us that people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves (And so by the way do employees, too). Projects that spring from a foundation of greater meaning, value and symbolism in turn infuse the business with superior significance and worth. There’s just a richer conversation to be had than the year-to-year rework of product feature and benefit messaging
2. Momentum to ante-up a clutter-busting focus of resources (not tonnage in spend but in cross-channel deployment) – more horsepower is secured when the concept also waves the flag of moral imperative or corporate calling. The aggregation of assets on a single platform creates potential homerun clout. Much needed in a marketing environment already riven with attention deficits and loss of grip in conventional media channels
3. The concept is drenched with inherent merit, married to simplicity – and thus it immediately gains power and demands attention. Said another way the intellectual space a brand can expect to own exists in direct proportion to its meaning and value to the consumer. Projects of larger scope won’t work successfully if burdened by too many agendas or alternative messaging priorities all competing for brain time. Instead the simple thrust of hunger, community betterment and music are liberating in their ability to finally get somewhere with a human who invests very little mental territory with any one idea before moving on
4. Relentless devotion to consumer insight – These platforms all spring from understanding consumer aspirations, values and passions. Hunger, what gives? It’s the common thread of value and importance moms place on their primary role as caretaker of their children’s welfare. This is an over-arching common trait and mission within moms’ understanding of what matters. Matching the brand agenda to this prevailing behavior embraces the emotional ties so important in building brand relationships
5. Corporate reputation and brand reputation no longer separated – both are intertwined. Consumers watch and observe businesses to see if actions match words. Are an organization’s beliefs and values of equal priority with the demands of commerce and balance sheets? You are making a statement about what you believe in, what is important as a business and as a brand. A strategic mission creates an internal and external flagpole all stakeholders can rally around and salute. In doing so the faceless corporation gets an endearing face and the business results can benefit from this humanizing experience
Yes there’s a process required to correctly sync an organization’s DNA, values and understanding of the consumer’s lifestyle priorities with a mission that makes sense. But in equal measure it requires one other thing to make this “jackpot” moment recur. Fearlessness.
Go for it. Life is short and no great thing is accomplished by staying in the comfort zone.
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