What’s your story? Branding glory
Venkata Varadarajan
Strategic Marketing Professional | Marketing Communications, Digital Strategy, Content Development, SEO, Social Media & Brand Management | LinkedIn Top Voice
For music afficionados this must ring a bell.
One of the highest selling albums of cult British band “Oasis” was “(What’s the story) Morning Glory?” and obviously a song under this name was added as well. This record in particular propelled the band as a global rock phenomenon. This seminal album remained on top of the charts for over 10 weeks and sold nearly 340,000 copies in the opening week itself. And considered one of the most influential albums of the 90s.
So what really worked in the bands favor? From the first album, this one in particular shifted towards anthem based, music arrangements and the members started taking the notion of a voice of the generation much more seriously.
The underlying meaning of this song is about someone who is majorly addicted to drugs and in such cases don’t have a great go at their future. The song is pretty much a wake-up call with the notion that you need to rise out of your preconceived notions and not waste your time ruining your lives and your future.
In other words, it also refers to what you have been upto lately?
Or what’s been your story?
Sounds pretty much what brands are doing these days right?
Addicted to their own methods of madness. Doing their own thing. A lot maybe internal to what they think is working for them (While it may not be at the larger level)
As a custodian its extremely important that you have a sense of things for you, about you and around you. If you ignore and casual about any of these then you are seriously in trouble. If not now then sooner than you think.
I’d like to elaborate few of my favourite brands and what has been their story!
And all these brands have a great story to tell and a distinct voice. ?
Our story begins in 1971 along the cobblestone streets of Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. It was here where Starbucks opened its first store, offering fresh-roasted coffee beans, tea and spices from around the world for our customers to take home. Our name was inspired by the classic tale, “Moby-Dick,” evoking the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders.
Ten years later, a young New Yorker named Howard Schultz would walk through these doors and become captivated with Starbucks coffee from his first sip. After joining the company in 1982, a different cobblestone road would lead him to another discovery. It was on a trip to Milan in 1983 that Howard first experienced Italy’s coffeehouses, and he returned to Seattle inspired to bring the warmth and artistry of its coffee culture to Starbucks. By 1987, we swapped our brown aprons for green ones and embarked on our next chapter as a coffeehouse.
Starbucks would soon expand to Chicago and Vancouver, Canada and then on to California, Washington, D.C. and New York. By 1996, we would cross the Pacific to open our first store in Japan, followed by Europe in 1998 and China in 1999. Over the next two decades, we would grow to welcome millions of customers each week and become a part of the fabric of tens of thousands of neighborhoods all around the world. In everything we do, we are always dedicated to Our Mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. Read more in the link below.
Whether or not you own a pair of Nike sneakers, the brand is one of the most valuable in the world. This is its story.
Nike was co-founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman in 1964
Now a billionaire businessman, at the beginning of his career Phil Knight worked as a sports reporter and accountant. At university, he earned awards for his track performances as a middle-distance runner in the late 1950s. His track-and-field coach was Bill Bowerman. Two years before launching Nike, Phil graduated with a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford.
Combining his love for running and his newly acquired business skills, Phil launched his shoe company called Blue Ribbon Sports with the objective of importing high-quality and low-cost running shoes from Japan into the American market.
Seven years later, in 1971, the company had grown to fifty employees. The collaboration with the Japanese shoe supplier had ended and Phil chose a shoe factory in Mexico that had been endorsed by Adidas to manufacture his shoes.
He also needed a new name for his first order of leather soccer shoes which he would sell as football shoes. Looking for the best name, he ran a poll of his employees and came up with a name himself, Dimension Six which was rejected by everyone for being “unspeakably bad”.
The rest of the suggestions were not great also. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to come up with new names as he was on a deadline from the factory, the advertising department and the U.S. Patent Office where he needed to file paperwork with for his new shoe.
In the last minute, he received one more suggestion from Jeff Johnson, the company’s first employee. He said this particular name came to him in a dream the night before: Nike. It was the name of the Greek winged goddess of victory, it was short and had a strong sound thanks to the K letter. It had all the attributes of a good brand name that sticks in the mind of customers. With only a few seconds to make his decision, Phil chose Nike and the rest is history.
The company changed its name from Blue Ribbon Sport to Nike in 1978.
The surprising story behind Just do it, NIKE’s iconic tagline
In 1987, Nike was preparing to launch its first major television campaign, which included commercials for running, walking, cross-training, basketball and women’s fitness.
Creative agency Wieden+Kennedy had been hired to create and run the campaign. Each spot was developed by a different creative team and Dan Wieden, founder of the agency felt the campaign needed a tagline that would bring everything together.
In a 2009 documentary about advertising, Dan confessed that he took inspiration from a convicted murderer’s last words to the firing squad before his execution: “Let’s do it!” Nike didn’t feel like the campaign needed the tagline but allowed it nonetheless.
Just do it is among the most popular taglines in the world. In just three words this simple tagline empowers athletes everywhere to stop overthinking and just take the first step. That’s all there is to it. Why? Because if you have a body, you are an athlete. Read more in the link below.
1905: HANS WILSDORF
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The history of Rolex is inextricably linked to the visionary spirit of Hans Wilsdorf, its founder. In 1905, at the age of 24, Hans Wilsdorf founded a company in London specialising in the distribution of timepieces. He began to dream of a watch worn on the wrist. Wristwatches were not very precise at the time, but Hans Wilsdorf foresaw that they could become not only elegant, but also reliable.
To convince the public of the reliability of his resolutely innovative timepieces, he equipped them with small, very precise movements manufactured by a Swiss watchmaking company in Bienne.
1908: THE GENIUS IN FIVE LETTERS
He said, “I tried combining the letters of the alphabet in every possible way. This gave me some hundred names, but none of them felt quite right. One morning, while riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London, a genie whispered ‘Rolex’ in my ear.”
1931: PERPETUAL MOVEMENT
In 1931, Rolex invented and patented the world's first self-winding mechanism with a Perpetual rotor. This ingenious system, a true work of art, is today at the heart of every modern automatic watch.
2017: THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES
Rolex has for decades had a strong presence as an iconic symbol, appearing in many legendary movies. Rolex became Exclusive Watch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017, which has hosted the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles since 1929. Rolex is also Founding Supporter of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, aimed at safeguarding the history of cinema, which is under construction in Los Angeles and due to open soon. Read more in the link below.
"Did you know? IKEA is named after the initials of founder Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, the farm on which he grew up, and Agunnaryd, the nearby village."
Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 at the age of 17, selling household goods like pens, wallets and picture frames. Sm?land, the landscape where Ingvar grew up, was stony and rugged. Back then, many of the inhabitants had to get by with small means, making as much as possible with next to nothing. Because of this, Sm?landers are said to be thrifty and innovative, with a “no-nonsense” approach to everyday problem solving. This heritage is one explanation to the IKEA way of doing things and to our success.
Ikea is known for these and more:
Read more in the link below.
Red Bull is famous for challenging conventional thinking and norms.
More than just an energy drink, Red Bull is a global sports and cultural icon and a way of life. Whether it’s empowering customers, athletes, fans, colleagues, or business partners, Red Bull employees are innovative, driven, and relentless in their pursuit of the highest standards of excellence across everything they do.
This ethos has propelled the company to not only create a new drink category, but also pioneer a whole host of new marketing and business concepts since its founding in 1987. Red Bull purchased and entirely re-branded a number of sports teams, created new sports categories and kicked off countless event series. They launched its own record label, media network, and music festival. Even built a premium fashion label. All of these united around its singular mission: to give wings to people and ideas. Read more in the link below.
1845-1870: The Beginnings of the Lindt & Sprüngli History
The story of Lindt & Sprüngli begins in 1845 when confectioner David Sprüngli-Schwarz and his son Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann have a ground breaking idea: Becoming the first to produce chocolate in solid form in the German-speaking area of Switzerland.
Zurich's social élite is open to the invention and discovers its passion for these sweet delicacies. After only two years, in 1847, the confectioner and his son decide to move their chocolate production from the cramped bakery in Zurich's old town to a small factory in Horgen with a direct water supply, on the upper end of Lake Zurich. They employ ten workers to ensure sufficient production.
1879: The Invention of the Conche
In 1859, Sprüngli and Son open a second and larger confectionery on Zurich’s Paradeplatz.
In the year 1879, Rodolphe Lindt, the son of a pharmacist and master confectioner, purchases two fire-damaged factories near Berne, and a few outdated machines. He intends to manufacture chocolate. At the time, chocolate was a brittle, rough-surfaced and somewhat bitter substance which was laboriously pressed into moulds by hand. Rodolphe's brother, August, also a pharmacist, expresses the opinion that the extra liquid in the chocolate paste, which crystallized with the sugar, should be extracted during production process. So, Rodolphe Lindt invents the ?Conche“ and produces his famous “chocolat fondant”: the world’s first melting chocolate.
With this invention, Rodolphe Lindt was the first chocolatier ever to taste and then produce chocolate as we know it today - chocolate with a smooth, velvety, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth feel. Lindt's melting chocolate contributed significantly to the woldwide reputation of high-quality Swiss chocolate. Read more in the link below.
?Now if these stories are not inspiring and original enough. Think what it can be for you. What has worked. What hasn’t. And why.
What could be done to make your brand interesting and inspirational enough.
You can then rightly say, here’s my story, in all its branding glory!