What Story Does Your Brand Tell?

"Your brand is all about the stories you tell and the relationships you build." That's what Todd Gentzel said over 10 years ago when he was putting together the foundation for Yaffe's brand consulting and corporate culture business. Today, that practice is thriving in our Houston office, where Todd and his team run it as part of Yaffe/Deutser's main offerings. And those words mean even more today than they did 10 years ago.

With digital, mobile and social media all becoming ways for consumers to connect with the brands they love, building relationships is all the rage today. It's talked about all over the place, in article, blogs, on Twitter, in podcasts, any media you can think of really. But I want to talk about the first part of Todd's statement. Because as you look at the really successful and innovative brands, it still is all about the stories you tell.

Online shoe company, Zappos is probably one of the biggest success stories of the digital era. It's a brand with fierce loyalty from customers and almost cult-like devotion from it's employees. Last year, Inc. Magazine wrote a long piece on Zapposand their CEO Tony Hsieh called The Zappos Way of Managing. It's a worthwhile read if you have a few minutes. Among the many things they discussed in the article was how devoted Hsieh is to happiness, both his customers' happiness and his employees' happiness. Part of that is his employees are empowered to make decisions on their own.

Hsieh tells the story of one employee that received a call from a woman trying to cancel a shoe order for her husband, who had just died. Not only did the employee cancel the order no problem, she sent a bouquet of flowers to the man's funeral, from Zappos. Not only is that woman a fan for life, she has a great story about the Zappos brand she tells often. So, do the 30 or 40 people who attended the funeral.

"Stories like these are being created every day, thousands and thousands of times," says Hsieh in the article. "It's just an example that if you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff follows."

In another article by The Harvard Business Review, A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture, they also talk about stories. In this case, they're talking about a company that wants to change their corporate culture even though they're very successful and profitable. When asked why the CEO relates their culture of work above all else by telling the story of an employee they told had to come in for a meeting with a client on her wedding day. She was told the meeting was early enough in the day that she would still have plenty of time to get ready for the wedding. The CEO was ashamed of the story, but yet it's one of the stories he tells about his brand. The consultant in the article then told the CEO, if he wanted to change his culture, he needed to change the stories they told. And he gave some pretty good examples.

Every day we work with clients on defining their brand and their corporate culture. There's a lot of research and technical stuff that goes into it. But, in the end, it really still is about all about the stories you tell and the relationships you build. What stories are you telling about your brand? Are they saying the things you want to be said about you? Or is it time to start creating new stories?

Mike McClure, Chief Storyteller