Catalytic Creativity: Brand Promises Can Change Lives

SO much of what we live for is embedded in our values. Love, meaning, truth, passion, honesty, service, are examples of ideas, that have driven promises since we have made since the beginning of time.

Whether we are making these promises at home, at work, or within our communities, promises are serious and important things. The word itself is jam packed with expectations, hopes, dreams, connections, and faith.

A kept promise means, respect, commitment, and integrity. A broken promise means disappointment, disillusion, and separation.

We are involved day to day with creating promises. We are involved in meaningful and powerful endeavors that I believe require us to be practitioners of what we are professing. We research, design, and work long hours into the night helping other companies deliver and their brand promises, yet, we are often remiss in our own companies and teams.

I know that as I have been building my brand these past two years, I have had to work exceedingly hard at really creating a meaningful brand that drives me to work long hours because I believe in what it stands for.

Several years ago, Tom Peters wrote an article for Fast Company, which drastically affected how I looked at my own life, career, dreams and ultimately my brand. He spoke about managing your personal brand. He wrote about how we need to look at how we manage our personal brand and how we must be clear as leaders to live what we say. He explained how personal brands express deeply rooted beliefs that transcend context.

That thinking has brought me to my own personal quest for living my values and bringing a company to life that brings them to life, for me, my partners and my clients.

I work with people from all areas of design and creativity. The common thread that holds that client base together is the notion that we want to all work with and grow with people who share the same values.

All of my clients are creative people who are working to use design to better the world. Each has a passion for the creative process and allows the creative process to affect all areas of their lives. I am working to bring the promises make and the values we believe in to this every day experience as well.

The values that we hold day to day in our personal lives are the same values that drive you in business. The impact our values have on our decision-making does not differ whether we are making personal or business related decisions.

We make decisions minute to minute based on experiences we have had previously and the knowledge gained from that experience. Whether it be on a conscious level or not, it is the truth.

Each interaction we have adds to our knowledge and belief systems. We are constantly adding more texture to our beliefs.

Moment by moment we are evolving our point so view in some way or another… The views are being morphed, strengthened or sometimes even broken. These movements affect our relationships and those relationships in turn evolve. We naturally align ourselves with people, organizations, communities, brands that hold the beliefs we value.

Shared beliefs are evident when we watch a Kodak moment, we watch a Hallmark special, we contribute to farmers through Live Aid or, or we buy a red t-shirt from the Gap. These collaborations between individuals and brands or 2 brands partnering, are based on the fact that they are doing work together that makes a difference in the world.

The brands that are able to bring their brand promises to life in real ways will be the brands that will build and grow, in a healthy and organic way.

I am currently on a business trip to NY. Meetings with clients, and new alliances, dinners with friends, and quiet times with family are what are shaping this trip. It is not so much the activities I am doing, but more the people I am doing them with.

It is about relationships and what is underneath it all. We share the value of creation, design, and dreams. The people I choose to be with are like me. While each of us has our unique beliefs and values there again is this thread of creativity that runs through all my relationships. Conscious or unconscious I am drawn to and am nurtured by those who know how to speak my language and are able to understand the collaborative process of creativity.

So back to building brands. Brands are about bring people to a product or service that will make something better in their lives. Be it a better home, a more affective toothbrush or a safer car, we sell our good and services based on results. More success is equal to more happiness.

At some level when a brand promise is made, a promise of happiness is inferred. So if we do not live up to our brand promises, our customers are cheated out of their share of the happiness.

Think about it. If you are viewed as someone who cheated me out, or disappointed me, why would I want to interact with you again, no less give you money. It is actually pretty simple when you think about it.

Over and over in business we hear, “Organic growth is not enough.” Every time I hear this I just am so puzzled. My thoughts go to why is that?? Why, we are not building brand loyalty, because brands are not living to their promises.

As an industry, we help create and build brands right? We do all this work to help companies define who they are, create ad campaigns to tell people all about it and then they do not follow through to make those promise come to life.

I would like to ask each of you a few questions:

• Are you living up to your brand promise?
• How does your best customer feel this promise?
• How does your new employee experience the promise?
• How does your oldest employee experience this promise?
• How does the person who calls to inquire experience that promise?
• How do you experience that promise?

This is always the question that stumps most business leaders? I get bewildered looks? I get the “Now that’s a thought?” but rarely do I get an answer the leader is proud to say.

Man does that make me sad!

In my experience we as designers are no better at actually living and bringing to life the work we do for our client’s. When was the last time you had conversations about how one of your employees or team members is experiencing your brand promise.

The design firms, brand consultancies, think tanks, ya know, the myriad of business we have built to help “them” are rarely, if ever, living by what they create. Once in a great blue, I have worked with a creative company that was actually practicing what it preached. Not that they do not want to, they wholeheartedly do, but what they are really lacking is commitment. Like all promises that we make they require work and focus to deliver.

It is the companies that are willing to invest in what they BELIEVE in and who make tangible contributions to their communities who will thrive. Being able to live in these values requires honesty and a willingness to take risks. The willingness to face truths.

The business world has somehow decided, that we only talk about values with certain people. Perhaps we are doing branding conversations we turn to our customers, stand behind a glass wall anonymously and think we are listening to the customer.

Perhaps dialogues with customers as eBay has done with their customers. They have managed to not only listen to their customers; they have created dialogue, created shareholders and have integrated the input into the product and experience design. Additionally, they are looked upon as a desirable place to work, because they have been able to bring the practices across all areas of the business.

When I think of brands that I find myself wanting to be loyal to are the brands that stand for what I stand for. Aligning myself to organizations that share my values has been critical to my ongoing growth and success.

I challenge you to think about your brand promise, how you live it and how you bring it to life not lonely for your customers but for your employees as well…

What is the next step you will take to bring it to life?