Brand Stories that Work, Gerry Lantz -- Part Deux

Thank you for continuing the conversation on brand stories that work. Gerry had a pretty spectacular career. He contributed to the growth and success of such clients as Unilever, Hershey Foods, and Hasbro Toys among others, while an officer at Ogilvy and DDB.

In recognition of his contributions, Gerry has received three Effies—the American Marketing Association award for sales effectiveness, two David Ogilvy Awards—for creativity and sales effectiveness, and the Toy Marketing Association's Award for Best Marketing, Advertising, & Promotion of 2000.

As CMO at Ferrero USA, the makers of Tic Tac, Rocher, and Nutella, he directed marketing, sales, advertising, public relations, promotions and research initiatives for both global and domestic brands. He now consults with corporations, communications companies, design firms, ad agencies, and executives in New York and Philadelphia.

Valeria Maltoni: Can there be authentic conversations between consumers and brands?

Gerry Lantz: Absolutely. I just gave a speech at the Smithsonian storytelling weekend, May 4-5, 2007. The conference focused on conversations, storytelling and leadership. The event was sponsored by the Golden Fleece Organizational Storytelling Group in D.C.

Your question about authentic marketing conversations was the driving force behind my presentation. Let’s look at some inauthentic marketing conversations first so when we run into the real thing, it will stand out. Sadly, most run of the mill marketing and advertising thinks it is having a genuine exchange with its consumer, but it’s all send with no receive despite all kinds of “interactive” web stuff going on. The consumer knows when the message and the action of the brand are authentic. Their crap detectors are very sensitive.

Several years ago British Petroleum changed its name to BP and attached new significance to those letters—“Beyond Petroleum.” They did a good job of repositioning themselves as a different kind of Oil Company that was seeking to find alternative energies and be environmentally friendly.

They even changed their logo into a flower-like burst of green, yellow, and white, and changed the livery of their gas stations in the same colors. Everything was so environmentally friendly the brand appears to be a crunchy green salad you could almost eat! Hell, I paid the 10 to 12 cents premium per gallon for their gas because I wanted to support their efforts.

Alas, in 2005, BP had the largest oil leak in its pipelines in the history of Alaska. Press reports were rampant about lack of inspections, ignoring warning signs, etc. Ouch! That green and yellow salad was suddenly less tasty. What’s worse, their Texas refinery blew up killing 15 people and injuring 180, I think. The lawsuits continue to this day on that incident. Again, unsafe conditions had been well documented and warnings given; top managers got into an ugly public row and heads rolled.

I asked the group I was presenting to what went wrong in this case. One astute listener answered: “BP didn’t push its brand story all the way down to the operational level.” Exactly.

Similarly, Chevy Tahoe jumped on the new interactive media and invited consumers to make their own commercials for the latest version of the SUV. A two-way conversation turned into a bloody fiasco. People uploaded ads so critical of the brand (“Chevy Tahoe: Weapon of Mass Destruction.”—that was a tame example!), that they had to pull down ads from their website. (The ads are still on YouTube if you want to see them.)

Chevy executives claimed they expected “some critical ads” but they were inundated. Why? Because they assumed that SUV owners, lovers of the brand would write and produce hymns of praise. NOT. They failed to take into account the worldview of all drivers, many of whom do not buy the Tahoe’s or its “Live Better” theme. Don’t invite a conversation if you don’t want to listen!

Valeria Maltoni: Do you have an example of someone who's done it right?

Gerry Lantz: Let us now praise a savvy marketer who started a frank and startling conversation about images of beauty and beauty products now pitched at women. In the interest of disclosure, I worked on Dove ads twenty-five years ago as a young account executive. When I saw what the brand was doing today, I just had to speak about it and express my admiration.

Dove started an authentic conversation between a brand and its customers and their stories. Dove’s “Real Beauty” and “Self-Esteem” Campaigns. Check out these links: The Campaign for Real Beauty or Dove web site.

Dove has leveraged all the impossible wrinkle-free, wraith-like, retouched beyond reality standards of beauty in advertising and popular culture and stood them on their heads. They have taken the current false category conversation of unachievable beauty playing on the fears and insecurities of so many women and turned it into an honest dialogue.

And you should see the response on the web. And it has been done largely without television ads, mostly with print, billboards, PR, and the web. They have invited women and men to respond and have they ever. Go to their website to see the amazing image of a 96 year old woman which asks you is she “wrinkled and wonderful.” Look at the “Evolution” ad that demonstrates how artificial most beauty ads and images are—and it is lampooned on YouTube, but the ad is sensational. What I admire most is an ad executive at Dove’s agency, Ogilvy, who has said, and I paraphrase, “We don’t want to destroy the competition in the category; we want to change them.” Bravo.

When I presented this case history, women and men were touched by the campaign’s honesty. In 44 countries around the world, consumers have responded by making Dove a $3 billion brand. It’s amazing what an honest conversation with consumers can help build.

Thank you, Gerry. Brand stories that work deliver not only great and memorable experiences, they also deliver results. Gerry discusses how companies can use storytelling techniques during culture change initiatives, mergers and acquisitions, in a recent podcast, courtesy of Anna Farmery at The Engaging Brand.

Let's continue the conversation. When was the last time a brand touched you with its authenticity?

Comments

[annie heckenberger]

Great interview, but Gerry needs to amend his Dove case study. Dove's self-esteem and real beauty campaigns were ENORMOUS spends in advertising dollars. Yes, they did a cool viral video - but the Ellen plugs were not PR placed, they were paid sponsorships. Additionally, their TV spends for the real beauty spots outnumbered previous spends by competitors. Last, the online conversations they generated were about the ad campaign. It was the integration of the campaign across marketing platforms that spelled success for them. (Disclosure: I worked for Dove's #1 competitor at the time.) Valeria - I just sent an email to you, thanks for reaching out! Let's talk.

[Richie]

I think the Dove ads have been a landmark for the advertising industry--a reflection of real, beautiful people as opposed to the shiny plastic androids so beloved of the ad industry in general.

How long before this trend makes its way into other realms?

[Joe Raasch]

I miss the shiny plastic androids. Kidding! Even though the ROI for Dove was probably non-existent, it was a courageous move to show reality commercials. As consumers, we allow wraith-like models to telll us how thin we should be and hey, if we drink that brand of beer, we could be overweight idiots and get the wraith-like girl! Somehow the public is either immune or amused at the absurdiities.

(end editorial)

Last week at the OD Summit in Chicago I learned about "outcome narratives" from an IBM consultant. They had a bit of trouble integrating the PWC acquisition. By using outcome narratives they were able to get everyone focused, top to bottom, on the same goals.

Outcome narratives are sentences, paragraphs, that describe what success looks, feels like. Pretty simple, actually.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Annie -- the Dove people were smart to work the integration over many channels, I agree. Thank you for illuminating the issue of spends. To have the sort of reach that Dove had, funds needed to be allocated to nurturing the brand. It's amazing to me how marketers continue to be expected to make miracles with ever shrinking budgets. This is a rant for another post.

Richie -- I think the 'trend' of real vs. fabricated has already made its way to other realms. Think about blogs and social media.

Joe -- interesting that you would not about the ROI. I wonder if anyone reading this thread knows a bit more about it. I prefer to think of the public as amused. I'm sure Gerry would be interesting in continuing the conversation on outcome narratives.

[Matthew Grant]

I think that the BP example highlights the way that stories are always, to some degree, fabrications or fables. We encounter this in daily life when a child tells us something that we're not sure is true and we say, "Are you telling stories?" If you are going to create a narrative around your brand, you need to work hard to make sure that it is not only fabulous but factual as well.

The Dove example illustrates this in another way as one of your other commentators points out. Dove had to pay a lot of money to create a story around their brand. The point is that that story was "made up." That is, it takes a lot of work to create a compelling story, and then it takes a lot of work to get the story to circulate, and then it takes a lot of work to keep the story "real." As soon as that work stops, the story can unravel and be rewoven into another, sometimes very critical, story (as in the SUV case).

[Valeria Maltoni]

Matthew:

Thank you, this injects another very important element: what is real? In "Story", Bob McKee talks about screenplays being most real when the characters are built in the most essential ways. Real is usually complex and simple feels more real -- yet it is harder to do. Simple = compelling as it is easier to get your head around it.

What does everyone else think?

[Gerry Lantz]

Wow! Dove got a conversation going. I love the exchange. Three responses.

First about spend levels: I have no idea what the numbers were so I bow to the person who is intimate with the dollars spent and that the talk show placements were paid for. Smart spend if you ask me. Didn't mean to imply it was purely PR. Whatever the dollars, the print and outdoor were very brave for a CPG campaign intro. The media strategy is less important to me, however, than the way Dove has aimed to change the conversation about beauty in the marketplace.

Second response: The Unilver executives obviously worked very hard to discover women's dissastisfaction with the conversation about beauty in the category. Dove did research globally in a multiple waves to ground their idea. Sure, Dove is telling a story. All brands do. All ads do. Some stories are fiction; some stories are non-fiction. My opinion: Dove is telling a fairly strong non-fiction story. Just an observer's opinion. Dove touched a nerve that is behind all great stories, fiction or non-fiction, (paraphrasing the words of Robert McKee in his seminar) great stories cause people to say "yes, life is like that." Dove has done that for women by debunking beauty myths and supporting self-esteem. By the way, unbeknownst to me, one of the Dove women, currently in a Dove print ad for "50 woment over 50", showed up to my speech in DC a few weeks ago. She praised the Dove people for picking her, not based on any essay about the product, but for her views about beauty.

I grant Matthew's point that it takes a lot of work to craft a story and to keep it going. Especially in advertising, where wear-out is common. Dove, I believe, has done two things smartly. Dove has made the conversaation around their campaign truly interactive and two way on the web (they have been spoofed mightily on YouTube also). And the brand has stuck to what I believe is its core essence: authentic results authentically delivered. Yes, Dove does face a challenge not to let the Dove story "unravel" by keeping Dove's story and the conversation fresh, engaging, and relevant. They can do it by staying close to the customer and authentically reflecting them. It will be a real creative challenge. That's their job and I hope the continue to do it well.

Third and final response then I'll be quiet and listen: I would welcome a discussion of "outcome narratives". The power of story in organizational life os enormous. Success stories have gotten a powerful boost with the discipline of Appreciative Inquiry; something I am learning more about.

STORIES THAT WORK(R) offers several narrative tools that create and promote collaboration and commitment in planning, leadership, and culture. I'd love to have a conversation on these new avenues in organizational development with some supporting stories of course.

Thanks Valeria for the terrific opportunity.

[Joe Raasch]

Sara J. Mouton Reger is the IBM consultant that wrote, "Can Two Rights Make a Wrong?: Insights from IBM's Tangible Culture Approach."

I have used a similar approach and love her modeling and 'real world' stories of how IBM used this to success.

What about starting with stories to figure out how best to talk about transformations, leadership changes, etc.? I learned that getting the stories is the easy part (though not easy). The hard part is somehow quantifiying them back to senior mgt to support change efforts. Thoughts?

[Gerry Lantz]

Joe
I think stories are more like qualititative research, not quantitative. I recently helped a non-profit in New York re-brand itself by going through a STORIES THAT WORK BRAND STORY process. I interviewed or did focus groups with administrators, the board, clinicians, patients, donors, anyone with a stake in the success of the place. The result was universal agreement: the current brand name and tagline had nothing to do with the real stories all of the stakeholders were telling about the place. I can't take you into all the details due to confidentiality issues, but the point is all stakeholders agreed that the NFP was a second home, a place they felt safe, allowed to grow, cared for etc. Worse, they all agreed its current name gave the wrong impression. No numbers were necessary. The board agreed to the name change.

The proper use of qualitative research is to develop hypotheses for further testing. So in a large org., if there is a budget, you could survey these impressions and get a quantitative answers. So to date over several clients, I have not had to do this.

Now in the commercial world, it's a little tougher. Don't sell stories but solutions to problems. Of course you know this already. Stories are just a means to get you to solutions to larger org. dev. issues. If the vehicle of stories reveal consistent themes, values, successes, obstacles, then there is probably something there to examine further. But don't get hung up on counting, because some of the best ideas come from a single mention of a concept that catches fire. That's how new ideas happen.

Sometimes senior management can be convinced (we used to do this in advertising) by playing videos or audio tapes of actual comments so clients could hear perceptions directly from consumers (or employees). Seeing and hearing is more persausive than telling or selling.

Thanks for the comment, Joe. I will read the book on IBM; it's already on my list to buy.