In 1839 an often-overlooked novelist and playwright, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, once wrote, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Mind you, he was also credited with creating the phrase “It was a dark and stormy night…” which has lived on in its own infamy.
Today, the ‘sword’ has been replaced with highly sophisticated chemical, electrical, and tactical weapons often controlled by computers far from the destruction and the ‘pen’ has been supplanted by print and digital media, social media, publications, books and advertising. Unfortunately, the pen of today has also become a sword, at times destroying ideas, opinions, ideologies, conversations and even companies, schools, beliefs and history. This sword-pen is causing some to withhold their ideas, communicate less, seek solace only with like-minded associates and often refuse to engage with any who yield a contradictory sword-pen. This hesitation may be depriving us of the next great product, technology, service, or leader.
In branding and marketing, one sees the sword-pen thrust with a vengeance by those companies who want to control competition from a pen of a different color. The media lives for this vengeance and hypes the conflict, often unsubstantiated, often one-sided. The natural and organic industries have been attacked for decades, called derogatory names, slandered, maligned, not because these industries were dangerous, but because they were trying to provide alternative solutions available for all. The media keeps these conflicts alive because we as the consumer of these controversies keep buying their rags, listening to their late-night shows, consuming their hyperbole.
I say it is time to continue to change the conversation. Stop the conflict and controversy. Be authentic and educate, not defend, with the intention to help inspire and enhance. Like a fine saber, the pen must now be precise, accurate and focused. And this pen performs best in the hands of a trained professional, whose experience and care ensure the intent is understood. And we are thankful to the few and mighty who have been indomitably dedicated to changing the conversation with the results evident through increased media coverage reflective of a shifting culture. The conversation is shifting. Last month, Supermarket News dedicated a section titled “MISSION POSSIBLE: Retail and food brands are reaching out to do good in a culture that demands it.” Non-GMO is now considered increasingly valuable in the mainstream market. Consumers are increasingly seeking impact-focused products – from regenerative agriculture to social enterprises. Yes, the conversation is changing.
In the world of brand development and marketing consumer products and services, how well each is branded and how their story is told will determine its success. Sometimes it is an adjustment that refocuses the brand architecture on a product’s or service’s purpose, not on an ingredient or proprietary technology. Over time, a brand needs to evolve and have fresh meaning for the current as well as next generation of consumers. This is a profound truth that affects all businesses, large and small. Who are you today? How do you describe your benefits? How do you tell your story? This is also how the pen becomes mightier than the sword in this day and age.
Branding is a company’s bridge to trust. We here at Christie & Co are master architects and wielders of the pen that defines and builds these bridges, keeping them strong and relevant. It will be the well-penned bridges, not swords, that will enhance success and society.
-Gillian Christie