There is a giant hairy, ape like creature known as the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman believed to be roaming in the Himalayan Mountains.  In Tibet, the word Yeti means “magical creature”.  Many attempts have been made to find this magical creature, including Sir Edmund Hilary’s 10-month expedition in 1960.  His attempts and all others have failed.  Many people claimed to have seen the Yeti; scratchy photos exist and large foot prints have been discovered.  Many believe that it is not one creature but many creatures including a gibbon type ape and the rare Tibetan Blue bear.

So the Yeti remains a legend because like the Loch Ness monster, there is no firm evidence to support its existence. 

Similar expeditions for a ‘magical creature’ are swirling around us in the business world.  Organisations invest time and resources looking for their ‘brand story’.  The single magical story that explains who they are, what they do and why.

Over the last 12 months the most frequent question we are asked is ‘Can you help us develop our brand story?’  It is time to burst that bubble, like the Yeti, it doesn’t exist.  There isn’t one ‘magical story’ but many real stories.

There are many definitions of what brand is and here is one we are putting on the table.  Simply stated ‘Your brand is the stories people share about their experiences with your company, your people and your products’.  These stories could be about poor service or clumsy products or they could be about amazing products that have been life changing, think iPhone.

A company cannot hope to communicate its brand through one single story.  Brand is communicated through many stories.  Collectively these stories are your brand and it is the stories lots and lots of them (not one) that convert what David Ogilvy’s (who was known as The Father of Advertising) defined as the intangibles of a brand into tangibles.

So just like the Yeti, the magical brand story may be out there, we are not saying it isn’t.  But there is no convincing evidence of its existence.  Companies may be better off focusing their expeditions on looking for real creatures.  How many exist in your organisation?  Real stories do exist, they just need to be found and shared…..or you can keep looking for the Yeti.

Check out part two of this post – Push Pull Story Strategy