PJA Blog: The Complex Brand

Thanks to DJ Howatt, I have my nose in the Harvard Business Review for the first time in too long. (When did it go up to $18 an issue?)

The piece he blogged about is called “The Four Truths of the Storyteller,” by Peter Guber. I’ve been seeing Guber’s name in the press for years and know that he’s on the respected side of the feared/respected line in Hollywood (did I mention he’s from Newton, MA?). I can’t say I’m a huge fan of all his films (he did executive produce Midnight Express), but like a pharmaceutical scientist, the fact that he actually got 50 films ‘into the clinic’ (that is, produced) says a lot about his tenacity.

His piece on narrative and its role in effective communications is a winner. And the thesis is simple: to tell a powerful story, you must show truth to yourself, to the audience, to the moment, and to the mission at hand. What interested me was the way the word ‘brand’ can be swapped out for ’story’ or ’storyteller’ in some of the piece’s signature quotes. Brands, after all, are stories.

Here are a few favorites (call it a miniature linguistic mashup):

* “The ability to articulate your brand is crucial in almost every phase of enterprise management.”

* “And as varied as our backgrounds were, I found that we kept returning to one theme: the crucial importance of truth as an attribute of both the powerful brand and the effective brand communicator.”

* “Brands are one of the world’s most powerful tools for achieving astonishing results. For the leader, brands are action-oriented – a force for turning dreams into goals and then into results.”

* Great brands take time to understand what their listeners know about, care about, and want to hear. Then they craft the essential elements of the story so that they elegantly resonate with those needs, starting where the listeners are and bringing them on a satisfying emotional journey.”

* “Brands play a vital role by providing people with a mission that they can believe in and devote themselves to.”

And last but not least:
* “A great brand is devoted to a cause beyond itself.”

And in the spirit of the season, here are a few brands that have won my emotion, devotion, and contributions:
Community Servings
Partners in Health
Eastern Maine Agency on Aging
Cameron and Hayden Lord Foundation

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Advertising, Branding, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.