Categories: Articles

Telling The Story Of Your Brand

If you had to give a forty-five minute presentation on your brand, could you do it? What would you say?
Today, I spent the better of the afternoon listening to a Vice-President explain the ins and outs of his very well-known and highly regarded brand. He did not discuss why he did it, he explained it as if he were walking you through the thought process and logic behind the birthing and nurturing of his now grown-up child.
I was spellbound.
This was not someone running through a PowerPoint presentation (although he did use PowerPoint). This was not someone showing off the flawless execution of the brand in advertising (in fact, he spent more time showing off where they got it wrong).
It made me think about the Twist Image brand. It made me think about how most companies think about their logo and how it will fit in with the next marketing campaign. It made me realize that simple, clear and consistent still rules in a world of bombardment and even targeted message overload.
It made me realize that when the brand is working from a billboard, TV commercial and website to an email signature file and how the call center speaks to people that a brand is everything. The sum of all business.
So how do people feel about your brand? What are your customers’ expectations when they buy from you (Thanks Tom)? Does a promise even exist? More importantly, do you tell the story with love and care or could you care less because you think a brand is just a logo?
I think businesses are growing up. We’re learning to tell great stories about who and what we are (so all marketers are liars – thanks Seth). We’re letting our consumers play with our brands. We’re able to tell a story about the brand and it’s not a work of fiction.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.