• by Milan Martin , March 9, 2012

We all know those people who are “all talk” or even worse, who say one thing and do another. We see it everywhere, in politicians who flip-flop, in celebrities who present one image but live another and, yes, in companies that say one thing and do quite another or nothing much at all. This dissonance between words and actions can lead to the erosion of trust and ultimately the destruction of any relationship.

As creative marketers, our job is to help companies build better relationships with the people they want to do business with. But who wants a relationship with a company?

Savvy companies know the importance of the brand in this equation; that the most successful are built and managed around the fact that people buy brands, rarely just products. And that the trust shoppers establish with a brand is core to an ongoing relationship that we as marketers must nurture.

A recent article in Advertising Age on former P&G marketing chief Jim Stengel and his “Stengel 50” outlines how brands with “ideals” not only have a leg up in consumer consideration but also financially outperform the S&P 500.

Moreover, the power of the digital realm has raised the stakes in this relationship. The openness of digital communication has shown us yet again that it’s not enough just to tell stories. Thus the great brands have embraced digital as a space to create real interaction, the kind of interaction that heightens the expectations of behavior in the relationship and then really pays them off. Don’t just tell me what you believe, show me.

 In fact, the digital age has brought about an actual mandate to align how brands “talk” and how they “act.” So when we talk about marketing and communications, marketers should be less interested in the debate of “online vs. offline” and more interested in “Are the brand’s actions tightly aligned with its professed values, and do those actions stand out and make a real difference, big or small?”

Whether your brand is a hardcore purpose-driven brand or not, the right place to start in crafting how it behaves and the value it brings to the relationship is when the brand mission itself is being created. Great brands have a logical and compelling mission – one that they and their customers can look to for clarity and inspiration – and a plan to execute on that mission in words and actions.

Nike’s mission is to “Bring Inspiration and Innovation to Every Athlete in the World.” Sony wants to “Emotionally Touch and Excite Our Customers.” Samsung’s is to “Inspire the World. Create the Future.” And Google’s is “To Organize the World's Information and Make It Universally Accessible and Useful.”

These missions drive the kinds of products they create, the services they offer and generally how they do business. But there’s a huge and still-underutilized opportunity (especially in this digital age) to let the mission shape how the brand contributes to the world at large and is how it’s known for it. The internet has pulled the curtain back on brand behavior and empowered consumers to make their opinions count. Economic challenges have stoked debates on individual vs. shared responsibility and have made the world’s citizens restless for more control of their futures. Brands that tap into this can make a deep impression for “walking the walk.”

PC maker Lenovo’s brand mission is to be the brand “For Those Who Do.” At the urging of brand development agency Anthem Worldwide, Lenovo has complemented the beautiful words, pictures and stories of their global advertising campaign and by creating The Do Network – a place that inspires “doers” to bring serious ideas to life with a little help from Lenovo, such as technology, guidance, grant money, etc. (Full disclosure: I am a managing director at Anthem Worldwide.)

It’s been in-market for just a few months at this point, and the results are astounding. Initially launched in just three countries (India, Indonesia and Russia), The Do Network has generated thousands of project submissions and hundreds of thousands of very deep engagements. Lenovo expects this to keep growing and that the result will be greater consideration for the brand and greater conversion to sales.

Why? Because to say something supportive like “We’re for those who do” and then actually create a platform that helps people get it done drives the kind of emotional investment that keeps shoppers’ eyes away from of the myriad other PC options when it comes time to purchase.

At the end of the day, it comes down to the simple notion that actions speak louder than words. There’s a Chinese proverb that sums this up beautifully: “Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.”