Once upon a Brand: Part Two

"Delivering on what we promised on race day itself and all the activities surrounding the race is what it all comes down to. Period. You can do an excellent job of communicating the essence of your brand through a variety of media, but if you don't deliver on that promise, you are in trouble because people will feel let down and you lose that confidence and emotional connection with the consumer.

"Making sure all employees, volunteers, and sponsors understand what your brand is all about is critical in gaining their hearts and souls behind the brand so they all execute well in a consistent manner. The goal is to excite, educate, and motivate them about what the brand means so they deliver on that consumer promise."

Ferguson says the toughest challenge in protecting the brand story is "maintaining the essence (equity) of your brand from year to year while allowing it to evolve from an overall messaging and 'look and feel' standpoint! The key elements of a marathon are the runners' medals, poster and T-shirts... all of these are freshly designed each year together with the ad campaign to create a new and exciting dimension to the brand. While we may have new creative, it is all consistent with the basic equity/character of the brand. It is important to evolve the brand from year to year to create ongoing interest and intrigue, but you must be true to the essence of the brand -- thus the copy strategy. It really ends up being an interpretation of the copy strategy vs. rewriting it every year. One must keep a brand fresh!"

Branding veteran J. Walker Smith, president of Yankelovich Partners, offers some final thoughts: "The notion of brand storytelling is a powerful idea that is underutilized in most brand marketing, mainly because of the idea of positioning. Of course, the two ideas are not incompatible, but each emphasizes a different approach. Storytelling focuses on the emotional hook of a narrative -- drama, conflict, resolution, a moral. Positioning emphasizes the benefits of the way(s) in which a product solves problems -- needs, gaps, attributes, payoff."

Storytelling is one way to communicate a position; indeed, the best brand storytelling not only makes an emotional connection, it has something to say about benefits.

The end.

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