Robi Ganguly’s Big Ideas

I’m really enjoying Valeria Maltoni’s blog. Since coming across it, I’ve found it to be entertaining, enlightening and well written. Color me impressed.

Her latest piece, a discussion with Gerry Lantz about brands, is a two-parter that discusses something I’m pretty interested in: stories.

I’m a story guy. I like to tell stories, I like to hear them and I as readers of this blog know, I love to read them. When it comes to communicating with others, I find that stories tend to work very effectively. Done well, they tend to be easy to remember and can be very persuasive. I continue to work at being better at telling stories and weaving stories into my personal and professional life. I really like the discussion that Valeria and Gerry have about brand stories, I think you will too. In particular, when Gerry says,

“Now over time, if the brand positioning is delivered to consumers by their experience with the product, then a relationship starts to build based on trusting the product or service to perform as promised. The brand actually begins to play a role in consumers’ lives. An amazing thing happens with brands over time, the product values transform into brand values—what is delivered goes from being pure features and benefits to emotional satisfaction. Real alliances, friendships get built. It’s MY brand consumers begin to feel.”

I find myself nodding my head in agreement. The product values transform into brand values.

As much as folks want to use advertising to convey their message, they need to realize that the product is communicating as well. No matter how much you spend, you can’t overcome a crappy product over the long run, that’s  just the truth.

I’d like to circle back later on what stories brands are telling with their products, but let me leave you with a few questions to get you thinking:

• What story does Yahoo! tell you?
• How about Google?
• What story do you find yourself thinking of with respect to Starbucks?
• How about McDonald’s?
• What’s your favorite brand story?

And here’s one last one, touching upon my personal hot-button: Of those brands who have developed a story in your head, which ones do you choose to share? Whose story do you retell?

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