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Who we are in crisis is who we are

Trying to reschedule projects, conduct meetings by video-conference and deal with getting my freshman daughter home from a college that is suddenly shutting down, I’m hit with an unpleasant sense of déjà vu.

Nineteen years ago, my daughter was just a baby, as was my newborn company. In 2001, Character was a feisty start up, trying to “change the world” of marketing through story. Then, 9/11 happened and literally changed the world out from under us all. In the immediate aftermath, the brands and businesses we worked with were thrown off their footing. They had a million immediate fires to put out, but looming behind that was a larger problem. How to move forward.

Many, if not most of our clients were paralyzed with worry about saying the wrong thing, taking the wrong tone or communicating the wrong message to an audience reeling from loss and dealing with unwelcome change. Their instinct was to try to research what the audience wanted to hear and how they wanted to hear it so that the brand wouldn’t make a mistake.

In the meantime, there was a lot of awkward silence.

Over the twenty years we’ve been working on brand stories, one of the principles we’ve seen demonstrated over and over again is that it is impossible to connect with your audience in a meaningful way until you understand who you are. We have met many smart marketers with great insight about their customers and a somewhat shallower sense of who their brand is. In a story, the only way anyone’s true character is revealed is by watching how they deal with adversity, hardship and loss. We all intuitively understand this model, not just because we’ve seen it play out in every powerful story, ever, but also from real life. Conflict and adversity are tests of who we are.

So, as you consider how your brand will respond to the difficulties and hardships of quarantine, and ultimately how it will deal with the consequences and communicate in the aftermath, understand that your audience experiences your brand as if it were a character. The world’s brands are about to “be themselves” harder than they have had to in a long time, and people will be paying attention. What do you want this test to reveal to your audience about who your brand really is, what it believes in and what it values?

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“For B2B businesses, Character is a powerful tool. I have used Character three times in my leader marketing roles, 2x were in B2B businesses. The Character work was the foundation of a transformation in product innovation/commercialization, rebranding, M&A, sales growth, and employee engagement. Character’s work helped us take dead brands and make them relevant again and helped us establish lesser-known brands with high share in a B2B market. What’s so unique is that you don’t create something that the ‘marketing talking heads’ think the company needs, you use the history, culture and DNA that is already part of the company to bring out the true story that is unique to only your brand. The Character team is so special, genuine, and has the perfect mix of creative and business knowledge to lead cross-functional executives through this process. ”
—Melissa Minihan, Head of Digital Commerce & Marketing, Veritiv Corporation

“Character gets to the heart of what good storytelling is all about. They’ve helped Wendy’s focus on what makes us unique, different and special and that’s helped us to get people’s attention, keep their interest and keep the business growing. We compete with much larger brands, but by being overt about how we want to attack those differences, we’ve been able to have a lot of tension and conflict in the story that we are telling. That allows us to keep the story fresh and to fuel it. The more we do that the more positive attention we get as a brand and the more the brand continues to grow, which, in turn, builds our confidence in our storytelling and keeps the courage level high.”

—Kurt  Kane, President U.S. & Chief Commercial Officer, Wendy’s Corporation

“I’ve been through Character’s story framework process four times in my career, and it has always added extraordinary value. It was a central piece of Walmart’s rebranding effort in 2006, as we sought a new articulation of our brand narrative and our purpose. It’s an equally powerful tool for us now, as Walmart defines its place in a rapidly transforming retail environment. And we are currently using it to do the same for Sam’s Club.”

—Tony Rogers, Chief Marketing Officer, Walmart

“Character’s approach to brand building is unlike any other in the business. Jim and his team use the timeless truths of human storytelling to unlock story potential and connect deeply with brand audiences. I’ve worked with Character throughout my career, and my experience with Tabasco was as fascinating, inspiring, and productive as ever. 

Character worked with our team not only to help us re-examine and re-articulate the elemental truths of our iconic global brand but also to develop and apply practical tools that make the brand story framework user-friendly for our entire organization. 

I whole-heartedly recommend Character to any brand marketer who is looking to make intuitive and durable connections with their consumer.”

Lee Susen, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Tabasco / McIlhenny Company