"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
Human beings are the stories they tell. We are our narrations; our companies too. We can start to made this process explicit. Long life to the storytellers!
I guess if content is king,it better be good. I think with all the hype over digital tools, particularly social media, companies forget the fundamental foundations of “branding.” They haven’t changed. Every breakaway brand has a compelling story to tell, from Apple to Nike, to Zappos. It’s the very basic essence of what sets them apart from their competition and serves as a platform for everything they do to engage customers… online, or off. The tools won’t make a difference if the story stinks. As always, good post Mike.
We just went through the “corporate culture revolution” program with Directive Communication International and created more stories in 2 weeks than we had ever before, and this really made a big difference in the passion of the staff and even the senior management. This is so true
mogulmxl: Yes, since the beginning society has been about storytelling and it has translated into brands made by the humans that live them.
Russ: Absolutely, the brands that are breaking out have compelling stories to tell. Those that fail miserably have stories, too – they’re jut not good ones!
surianto: Glad to hear it! Every brand should go through the discovery process if they haven’t already. It does stir the passions. After one of our corporate culture/brand discovery processes, the CEO carried around the book we provided with the corporate narrations for weeks, telling everybody about it as he went.
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I’m going to try and avoid a personal dirtaibe. Firstly, I think a lot of Zappos values are great. If only more companies were as forward thinking, we’d be in a much better place. Secondly, kudos on a thought provoking article. Let me throw some of my own experiences into the mixing pot.I work as a technical consultant for a big 4 professional services company. My co-workers are great and we get on well and I can very much be myself around them but I do think its important to keep a certain separation between your colleagues and your friends. For example, I can’t tell my colleagues (or clients) about me being a professional poledancer even though it’s something a spend hours doing and totally love.Althugh work is important, there’s also buckets going on to get involved in outside of work which are just as enriching and rewarding. I have this huge life outside of work that I refuse to give up. I’m expected to work very long hours with no overtime pay and give my outside commitments up at a moments notice.This is wrong. My life is filled with the following things outside of work: I’m very close to my family and my partner. I’m a masters swimmer, I enjoy mountain climbing and dancing as previously mentioned. I write poetry and I’ve been widely published in the UK. This is my life, this is just as fulfilling as work (possibly moreso) and I get very irate when work spills over into life as my life never gets the chance to spill over into work.You’re also right about vacations shouldn’t be a “reward” for work however I see vacations as the time when I can hit the gym for several hours, tweak my diet and fitness regimes or climb the nearest mountain. I can’t do any of this in work and it’s just too important to me to give up. Maybe if these other activities weren’t as crucial to my happiness and being being an It consultant was more crucial to my happiness I wouldn’t mind so much. When I come into the office I don’t turn into a corporate drone. No one should. If the office can’t recognise and respect individuality then shame. We should all make an effort to go to socials and encourage cohesion in our office wherever possible. You should at least enjoy the company of the people you spend the majority of your day with. To summarise. I’d be all up for increasing my work-life integration if work didn’t already demand 15+ hours of unpaid overtime from me or allowed me flexibility to do more sport. I’m only alive once. I have to fit as much in as possible experience as many different things as possible whilst I’m still mentally and physically capable. I can’t do that on my work blackberry.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Akari. I do think more and more people are beginning to think as you are, that there are more important things in their lives than work. Companies need to realize that and change their culture so that a) people are able to do the things that make them happy and b) the workplace can be a more fulfilling experience, because people are allowed to integrate more of their life into their work.
Mike