Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in
four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy, and the greatest is Confidence. When you believe a
thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.
—Walt Disney (1901–1966)1
The Race Is On
The 16-year-old boy’s age had been found out. He was prevented from enlisting in the military, but at least he could join the Red Cross and drive ambulances overseas. No ordinary ambulances though—instead of a routine camouflage paint job, his would be covered with cartoons.
His military experiences no doubt shaped who he was and how he lived. During World War II, 94 percent of his already successful Dis- ney studio facilities were engaged in special government work, includ- ing the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films that are still shown throughout the world by the U.S. State Department. The other 6 percent made films to raise the civilian morale. Walt had begun drawing at an early age, sell- ing his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old.
Walt Disney believed in believing. When his name or image comes to mind it conjures up feelings of hope and optimism. He is one of America’s greatest examples of a self-made success. Walt Dis-
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ney isn’t only a twentieth-century legend but his name is shorthand for rich imagination.
It has been said that Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds, and emotions of millions of Americans than has any other man in the past century. Since his time, many others have created an- imated characters, theme parks, studios, and film productions. Some have even done it better than Disney. But it is the sum of all his expe- riences that created the unique Walt Disney and Disney Company brands. Certainly our world will know but one Walt Disney.
We’ve all heard the expression, “Live and learn.” In other words, we all learn what we live. And so we must improve the way we live, and improve and improve again.
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes improvement.
It’s never too late. In order to improve our brand and its impact on the world, let’s use Walt Disney’s secrets for making dreams come true as we allow our brand to tell the truth:
• Curiosity. Be curious and discover and define our specific abilities, qualities, and gifts that uniquely define us.
• Confidence. Have confidence and believe that these discoveries are rare and valuable. Don’t just know about them; know that they are yours, and uniquely yours. Ownthem.
• Courage and Constancy.Have courage and teach yourself to live with yourself, constantly and persistently. The most important relation- ship you will ever have isn’t with your family or friends or even your customers—it is with yourself. If you treat yourself well, I promise you, so will everyone else.
If your business relationships aren’t bringing you the results you want, it’s probably more about you than anything else. Restore the rela- tionship with yourself. Stop playing roles like “struggling businessman”
or “poor entrepreneur who never got a chance.” Believe that your per- sonal and professional story will have an ending that allows you to live happily ever after. What are some of the roles you are playing? If some- one were describing you, what character would they say you play?
The price for improvement is paid in time and effort and, yes, some pain from your discoveries. But not asking these questions will cost you dearly in terms of focus, authenticity, and results.
Janis Ian voiced our fears when she sang the popular soulful song from the 1970s, “At Seventeen.” She sang that she “learned the truth at seventeen/that love was meant for beauty queens/and high school girls with clear skinned smiles.”2A million young girls, and no doubt women of all ages, cringed when they listened because they be- lieved that we must pretend to be what we are not or try to look like some beauty queen in order to be loved.
Those false beliefs, constantly reinforced by the media, keep us perpetually trapped in the beauty brand. Even great corporations fall into the trap and create beautiful but false images, thinking that their customers will love them more for their opulent lobby or impressive uniforms or gorgeous offices, stationery, or whatever.
All our lives we try to be what we think the world sees as perfect, in order to stop the pain of being less than others. We try to stop the pain of being left alone and unchosen by being not who we are but who we think we must be.
Listening
She sat in his waiting room, waiting. Forty-five minutes past her given appointment time, she still sat and waited patiently. She was a busy executive herself, with little free time and always juggling an over- loaded schedule. An hour now after the two o’clock appointment, she fidgeted but knew that waiting for Dr. Doug Brown was worth it. His brand, his image, his reputation was that of a doctor who listened.
His brand made his patients feel understood, respected, and recog- nized as deserving attention. These were in fact the qualities that he valued and that were translated into doctor-patient appointments that exceeded the normal 15-minute office visit.
This wasn’t just a satisfying experience for his patients; it was smart business, too. When he listened to his patients they responded by listening carefully to him. By listening carefully and thoroughly to them, he could anticipate what they needed, but more important, he knew what they wanted. He gained loyalty, which resulted in patients taking the actions he wanted. And this actually made his medical practice more efficient in the long term. I asked him once why he was such a patient listener and he said, “It’s one of the things I value most in life—being listened to.”
If branding is all about your stories, then think about the flip side of telling them. For every story told there should be a listener.
Listening is as important as the actual telling of any story. Remember, we have two ears and only one mouth. We know that we all have sto- ries to tell. If we are to build loyalty, a crucial component of any great brand, then we must not only tell our stories but we must listen to each others’ stories, too. When we listen carefully to someone’s story, whether personal or professional, it should make an impact on our ideas, opinions, and feelings. We will then be able to anticipate their needs and wants and be a better brand.
Listening is as important an act as telling. Both acts are essential and revealing. The way we listen tells as much about us as the way we tell our stories. And only when we stop and listen will others be able to tell their stories to us. True stories mean so much less if they go unheard.
Not only should we listen to each other’s stories but we should find a way to hear our own voice. Listen to yourself. What are you saying? How are you saying it? What do you think you sound like to others? Listening completes the branding cycle. It reminds us that the life of the brand grows on two-way communication.
When Dalmatian Press was competing for the Warner Bros. mas- ter publishing activity book license, we made a different kind of case.
We highlighted our financials, product line, and distribution attrib- utes of our company, but then we talked about their company brand and ours. We told our story and why it made us different. We dis- cussed our experiences in which retailers, moms, investors, and many partners listened to us and how that called attention to the belief that listening was as important as talking. Everybody knows that, but we were living it.
We pitched the idea to Warner Bros. that in a business environ- ment where most of our competitors were offering the same features that we offered (although we believed we did it better), we were also offering a resource that was in short supply. We were a listening com- pany and one that created knowledge from listening. This was our brand. This was our experience and one that shaped our belief that listening is power. I don’t think the people present then remember that speech, but I believe that at that moment we affected the emo- tional tone of the conference room. We were involving our potential partner in our very human experiences that went beyond inventory control and selling terms. Our brand, shared via our experiences, broke us out from the features and price structures that our competi- tors competed with.
How Your Brand Is Born
Whatever you are and all that you will become is summed up for you and the world to see in what we call a brand. Just like Kodak or Nike, you have an identity. Your brand is whatever people think or, more important, feel whenever your name or image comes to mind.
You have an image that serves as an instant message for all who look to you for help, for knowledge, for inspiration. Those around you use your image the same way we use shorthand. It quickly en- codes what lies beneath and what takes more time to understand.
What is your brand identity? And, just as important, what is your brand awareness? Make no mistake that as you uncover your stories your brand will change forever. The very means by which you take on and go about this search will differentiate you from the rest, including the old you.
As you define your true stories, put words to them, and feel them, you will be changed. You will become more relevant to your everyday friends and business acquaintances as you apply your own experiences to theirs. You will be infinitely more appropriate, ap- proachable, and meaningful. Hopefully you will also become more compassionate.
How you live with your newly discovered stories will recreate your identity. So ask yourself what feelings you want your presence, even the thought of your presence, to evoke in others. What are the senses that you appeal to? What will you stand for? What’s your brand?
The more your brand affects someone’s well-being, the more critically it is evaluated.
People are willing to pay an enormous amount of money for an as- pirin brand that affects their health. They may not care as much about dish soap. Therefore, we are much more likely to pay for a brand-name pain reliever like Tylenol or Advil, whereas we shop prices and make do with a generic brand of dish soap.
How much more are we willing to pay for a doctor or lawyer with a big brand name, because they can make such a huge difference in the quality of our life. Never mind a doctor—think about how much we are willing to pay a hair stylist because of what we think they can do for us!
It was a natural product line extension for Dalmatian Press to publish educational workbooks. They are more ink on paper, are sold
to the same retail buyer, and use the same manufacturing and art pro- duction process. In fact a lot of coloring book companies produced educational workbooks. Many of our competitors used their everyday cartoon art and put simple educational text under the picture, such as
“How many ducks can you count in this picture?” This they called an educational line! This was a way to make additional revenues for their company. But what about the brands that these workbooks were pub- lished under?
Dalmatian Press had established a brand that made people feel positive and happy. We hadn’t built a brand that made people trust us for our ability to teach their children. Putting our little puppy dog on an educational line wouldn’t offer much educational credibility. So we birthed a new brand called Home Learning Tools. The key to its success is more than great content. It has a logo than proclaims an al- liance with Harvard and the chief of child development on a child- friendly gold ribbon. Our covers are fun but, unlike our competitor’s, they are not funny.
Our competitors have printed kangaroos and clowns on the cover, which have no bearing on learning. They are merely meant to entertain. If the brand stands for trust, then what does that look like as an educational workbook? Not clowns or kangaroos. It looks like the best content possible that parents and teachers can relate to and kids will enjoy. It looks like the actual interior pages delightfully de- picting learning with characters and colors that will never look out- dated. What’s more credible than the DP brand? A brand extension of DP called Home Learning Tools, coproduced with Harvard’s chief of child development. This is what it means to know who you are and what you value, and translate it into the right look and sound that your audience can relate to and be loyal to.
This new line is a big success, but only because we examined what Dalmatian Press stood for. We know who we are, and our cus- tomers count on that. We didn’t try to make the brand be something that it’s not. However, it was the strength of the Dalmatian Press brand that opened the doors with retail buyers to make a sales pitch about our new Home Learning Tools brand. To that audience, our Dalmatian Press brand stood for good service, good quality, good prices, and an overall good experience that made them feel valued and important.
The point is that educational material is on a different playing field than coloring and activity books. It can have a greater impact on
children’s lives, for better or worse. So parents and teachers are going to place more importance on the brand.
In 1994 Western Publishing (Golden Books) was so desperate to cash in on the popular Power Rangers license that they made a deal with Saban Entertainment’s licensing agent to publish educational workbooks. Another publisher named Modern already had the rights to publish coloring books, so the only way Golden could part- ner with the Power Rangers was by inventing another children’s book category. Do you trust the Red Ranger to teach arithmetic and reading to your child? They make the best action figures and color- ing books, but their brand doesn’t stand for education. I might trust Sesame Street to teach my kids, but not Shrek or the Flintstones.
They can create great new opportunities for companies to make money, but it’s a bad use of a brand.
How much more would people pay for the valuable brand of a friend or a trusted mentor at work, if there was such a thing? Well, there is. It is the image that you emit. It is the image that you create and protect. It is your reputation. It will surely change now that you have found and reclaimed your stories, once hidden and untold. You can now consistently protect the essence of all that you want to be.
Now you will get attention because you will be known as the one who understands, the one who gets it. Whether you are building your personal brand or your professional brand, you will be chosen for your ability to relate to other’s wants and needs. With such a repu- tation, you will be trusted with amazing stories, not just to listen to but also to react to. People will choose you or your organization, ex- pecting something in return. They will expect results from their en- counter with you.
Your brand will go beyond managing people’s needs and wants.
It will manage people’s expectations. Depending on who they are, the results desired will range from success and solutions to love and com- passion. But what they know is that by associating with you, they will get better and faster results. The outcome of an encounter with you will be more satisfying than once hoped for. And the domino effect of such encounters will be unending.
Brand Reconciliation
In creating a brand we too often speak of the external things. We are mostly conscious of our accomplishments. Whether it is our human
appearance or our company’s balance sheet, we only see the physical manifestation. We focus on our behavior and on visual signs. The sci- ence and practice of branding seems to emphasize modifying outward behavior and signs. So the notion that brands can succeed or fail de- pending on how we think about them may seem like a stretch. This may be because it is far easier to focus on external behavior than in- ternal feelings. It’s a lot more complicated to figure out the essence of the behavior or the reason for the accomplishment.
But when we figure out that the internal affects the external, we’ll see that any shift in our beliefs creates an external shift in our brand. When we figure this out, then we are approaching the root of the brand—our own brand. The reasons usually go back to the true stories we examined in the last chapter.
And this is exactly what we must do. We should not just build a brand that makes us feel better or look better. We should not create a brand just to get the attention we want. I’m all in favor of feeling bet- ter, looking better, and getting what we want, but we must reconcile our inner self with our outer brand. When there is disparity between what we say we are and who we really are, then our brand will fail miserably and we will be miserable. We will be unsuccessful.
BMW operates admirably in the zone of brand integrity. Few in- dustries depend on brands as much as the automobile industry does, and BMW does it well. Helmut Panke, CEO since 2002, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal: “As provocative as it sounds, the biggest task [in building your brand image] is to be able to say no. Because in the end, authentic brand management boils down to understanding that a brand is a promise that has to be fulfilled everywhere, at any time. So when something doesn’t fit, you must make sure that it is not done.”3 When BMW had to decide whether to get into the hugely successful growth category of minivans, it said no. The brand didn’t fulfill the BMW brand values. Minivans would have broken the brand promise. This is an important example of a company knowing who it is and knowing what its customers need and want from its brand.
Perhaps two of the most important questions we can ask are these:
1. How were you designed to live, and what does that look like?
2. How was your company designed to be, and what does that look like?