By Robert Wheatley

Emotion, mission and higher purpose can be found…anywhere!!!

Yes, even in the seemingly mundane. I invite you to sit back for just a moment. Before we say anything else, before you read anything else. Please watch this video clip from the truly remarkable show — Mad Men.

Here we have a fictional new business presentation about creating a new campaign for a slide projector. One that, in its day, featured new technology the marketing folk referred to as a wheel. Of course their priority is to work the wheel into the campaign. You can imagine the thoughts of features related to convenience, sorting, etc. the client probably thought would be the focus of any communication.

Ohhh — the power of perspective. Of thinking beyond the obvious…

Is it really a time machine? A look into lives spent. Memories. Moments. Emotions. The context of this theatrical vignette is remarkable and instructive. Since the start of this blog we’ve discussed at length the requirement to impart brands with greater meaning. We’ve referred to this as a strategic mission – a disciplined effort to look for alignment between consumer passions and interests and a path for brands to help be an enabler, facilitator.

From a communications standpoint, in virtually every product category we work with from food to beer to household items, the goal is to identify a higher purpose a brand can own, one that is relevant to its user’s lifestyle.

So our friends at the fictional agency during the era of low-tech slide projectors, manages to land on a thought that imbues the simple “wheel” with extraordinary powers of human connection.

Yes, mission and purpose can be found in virtually anything. If you’re open to it and think differently about the brand, product and business you’re in. It’s a matter of perspective. Then consider the enormous opportunities this understanding can unleash. Want to sell more stuff, more profitably? This is the path.

I get chills. Do you?