12.19.14
How will your brand be remembered?
Let me ask you:
What would happen if your brand suddenly closed its doors today?
What would people say about you tomorrow?
No, I'm not trying to be overly somber at this joyful time of year.
I've been mulling this question for the past two weeks as Canada said goodbye to Jean Beliveau.
His funeral last Wednesday in Montreal had the touch of pageantry typically reserved for Prime Ministers and Premiers, which Beliveau was often enticed into being… yet always declined. The ceremony honouring him at the game the night before was riveting. Catch a glimpse here, including maybe the quietest moment of silence ever witnessed at a sporting event. (Plus a spirited a cappela version of O Canada by 21,000 strong.)
Beliveau has long resided amidst the thin air of Canada’s hockey greats: Richard, Howe, Hull, Orr, Gretzky, Lemieux. Perhaps one or two others. It’s a short list. His career is a litany of superlatives. Yet I’m struck by how, in the days immediately after his passing, anecdote after anecdote recalled Beliveau the person as much as Beliveau the player.
The same words were used repeatedly.
Grace.
Class.
Respect.
Elegance.
Professionalism.
I had my own brief brush with Beliveau a few years ago.
And it lined up precisely with how he is being remembered now.
It was the mid-‘90s. I was managing Freedom 55™ advertising for London Life, and we had a problem in Quebec. We thought we’d simply produce an English TV commercial, adapt it into French and that was good enough. But the francophone segment required its own creative strategy. Though we didn’t use celebrity spokespeople in English Canada, our research showed it might work in Quebec. A long list of names was identified by our French ad agency but only one mattered: Beliveau. Our agency reached out to his representatives and the dance began.
One day, a few weeks later, I was in a meeting with some people in my office when I was interrupted with a message, “Jean Beliveau is on the phone for you.”
The room erupted in giggles.
Yeah, right. As if!
But It really was Beliveau. He was calling personally to let me know he was leaving on an extended trip to Israel (he was very supportive of the Jewish community in Montreal), wouldn’t be around for a few weeks, and if we were trying to reach him, that was why.
My mind was racing. I need to get off the phone. This is Jean-flipping-Beliveau and he has more important things to do. I’m inconsequential. Except he didn’t make me feel that way. And he was in no hurry.
We never ended up doing a deal. The timing didn’t work, and we abandoned the celebrity strategy. If we couldn’t get Beliveau we weren’t going to do it at all. He was God in Quebec.
So what’s the lesson for our own brands?
I assumed (then) that Beliveau would see that short phone call as inconsequential. But now I see I was wrong.
Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame goaltender for the Canadiens, eulogized Beliveau this way:
“He treated everyone with respect. He said the right things, and in the right way — in French and in English — because that’s what he believed, and that’s how he was. He made everyone feel like they mattered. As a great star, he knew he had the responsibility not to live as a star, but as a good person.”
In hindsight, my conversation with Beliveau, however brief, was entirely consequential to him. Reaching out to me, extending me a courtesy, updating me on his schedule – this was who he was, not an act. He made me feel like I mattered.
As great a hockey player that Beliveau was, being a good person is what he’s most remembered for now.
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou
So, as we wrap up 2014 and head into a new year, it’s worth asking how our brands make people feel, and how we’ll be remembered when we close our doors. More importantly, why wouldn’t we take action for the way we want to be remembered… right now? Wouldn’t that make a difference to those we serve… and to ourselves too?
Why wait?
Ask yourself:
- How do you make people feel?
- How will your brand be remembered?
- What are you doing to act that way… right now?
~ Craig
P.S. Peace and Joy for a season to remember, and thank you for reading in 2014!
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