Fruit Loops Stick Together
When I work with companies to discover their most compelling brand story, we try to distill their brand down to a two or three-word brand promise. This is an internal mantra that helps guide a company’s behavior. One way to think about a brand promise is to describe what you really offer to your customer beyond the product or service you sell. For example, Nike is not just selling shoes–they are offering “authentic athletic performance.” Hallmark does not just sell cards–they offer “caring shared.”
Several years ago, I tried to apply this thinking as a parent to my three daughters, with predictably mixed success. My wife Kris and I succumbed to the pressure of our kids and rented an RV and take them to Disneyworld. We have three wonderful daughters, but they know how to push each other’s buttons when they get the chance–especially in confined quarters. As you can imagine, the bickering started even before Chicago. By Nashville, there was fighting and by the time we reached Florida I decided we needed a “family brand promise.”
At Disney’s “Fort Wilderness” I sat the three of them down at the picnic table and told them I had a family mantra for them: “sisters stick together.” They looked at me over their sugared cereal (which they only get on vacation) and collectively rolled their eyes.
After breakfast the three of them held their own “meeting.” Sophie, the middle one approached me with a smile and announced that they had come up with a new and better family promise: “Fruit Loops for Everyone.” Hilarious laughter.
The trip back to Wisconsin was slightly less antagonistic but no less rambunctious. Whenever I tried to reinforce my choice of family mantra, “sisters stick together,” the three of them would gleefully shout back, “Fruit Loops for Everyone!” Back in Madison the next day, I was getting Anna, our youngest, off to pre-school, and I asked her if she remembered our family promise. She looked up at me with big serious eyes and declared, “Fruit Loops stick together!”
Ever since, this has been our family mantra. We may all be a bit fruity in our own ways, but we are a family and we stick together.
It struck me that there was a good branding lesson in this. A brand promise cannot be forced on the employees with an iron will. That would be like telling employees they must have fun at the office party. It also can’t be left solely to the employees or the mantra might be “vacation every day.” You need to come at it from both directions and there needs to be a little magic in it. A good brand promise resonates with employees because it rings true and inspires them, while helping them understand the reason they come to work every day.
