“I believe in America.”
- Opening line in The Godfather
The Godfather is a gangster movie on its face, but it’s really a fundamental American story about immigration, entrepreneurship, capitalism and family business succession planning.
The American brand, or what it means to be American, is a central theme in the film.
The undertaker opens the movie, confessing that the American system of justice has let him down. At this moment, “I believe,” it is more of an article of faith than a closely-held conviction.
To believe in America is to identify with the values of the brand; that our series of experiences with “America” is one that inspires and uplifts.
Each year, there are several brand scoring rankings put out by various agencies, wherein they rank the top global brand values.
How do you think ole Uncle Sam would fare on that scale today?
A Brand in Decline?
I have previously written on “Brands That Lost Their Way” highlighting the 99 Store and Apple in separate pieces. Maybe the US brand deserves similar scrutiny.
Americans expressing themselves “proud” to be an American is at an all-time low.
Whereas 75% of Indian and Bangladeshi parents say their kids will be better off than they are, that ratio is reversed in the U.S. with just 25% of parents thinking their kids will have a relatively better financial future.
So as we head into our 250th year as a country, does the American brand need a tune-up?
A brand is a series of touchpoints that come together in the mind of the consumer to make up the practical and emotional benefits.
In short, a brand is whatever the customer thinks of you based on their experiences with you.
During a workshop I run with clients, I try to emphasize this point by showing a series of logos and then asking participants to say whatever comes to mind. The Nike swoosh might prompt “performance” or “athletics.” For the last 15 years, the venerable, 100+ year, "British Petroleum” would only yield a room full of people saying, “oil spill.”
And if you turn on the news today, you aren’t likely to get a sparkling image of the U.S.
Instead, it seems that everyone is angry.
Depending on your political persuasion, you might be inclined to sympathize with the anger you see on TV or Twitter.
Regardless, for many, this is a tough year to celebrate the American brand.
Brands Can Go “Big” or “Small”
If you are still with me on this “Independence Day” post, please allow me a slight diversion from the theme on America’s brand to discuss some common challenges in business. After all, this is more of my “lane.”
I bank with JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States.
I don’t know a single retail employee there (even though there are dozens of branches in my community).
A bank’s brand was once transmitted through the consumer experiences with the tellers. A business banking relationship might mean daily trips to a physical branch for deposits and withdrawals. ATMs, online and mobile banking has rendered that process superfluous.
So what’s the JP Morgan brand to me? I guess it’s what I know from speeches from CEO, Jamie Dimon. It’s the occasional mailer they send to me. It’s the picture of that florist guy I see every time I log in to my online account.
But there is very little human relationship.
Chase is a big business that could maybe be served by finding ways to act “small”, connecting with its customers.
I work with small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), almost exclusively below $50MM in revenue.
While JP Morgan’s “big” brand feels inconsequential or aloof, the converse issue is present with SMBs. Small business brands can feel small.
Their opportunity is to punch up their brand by acting bigger.
What does this mean?
Well, let’s start with what it means to be a small business.
For the CEOs I work with, this means having to do it all. They are the salesperson and the head of product. They manage employees and their benefits and they are the main relationship to the customer.
As a small business owner myself, I can relate.
The challenge of doing it all is that we lack focus and the opportunity for repeatable success.
Trying to do it all can lead to distraction.
Last year, I made a big mistake with a client. I was working on something else when I should have been present with her on the Zoom call I was on. Instead, the multi-tasking led her to see that I wasn’t focused and she called me out.
Her bad experience reflected poorly on the Kasvaa brand.
The lesson learned? If you can’t be fully present with a customer, it would be best to not be there at all. I was trying to do it all and I should have missed the meeting and trusted the project manager to deliver. By acting like a “bigger” brand, I could have given my client more value.
Now, let’s return to the question of the “big” American brand.
“Think Globally, Act Locally”
The above phrase was a popular bumper sticker message when I was growing up. It’s been applied to all sorts of fields, but the basic premise remains the same: Be mindful of the consequences and needs of the world, but apply yourself to good works in a local context.
Today, I’m afraid we have it precisely backwards.
Many of us myopically look at the life in front of us and then take our local and contextualized view to social media and make blanket statements that are devoid of empathy for the receiver.
This year, my city of Los Angeles has gone through two major upheavals and I have been infuriated when I pop open Twitter to see people who don’t live here commenting on life here.
The “chaos” they claim to see on the streets of protest and the fires that raged, doesn’t hold space for my experience of communities coming together to support one another in difficult times.
Like JP Morgan, America is a big brand made up of a collection of touchpoints. And like my experience with the bank, the American brand experience is often overshadowed by our experiences with politicians in Washington. This gets conveyed to us not via local representation and civic participation, but largely through our media consumption of our representatives in office.
If your perception is informed by the media then you are likely rating the American brand fairly low today. To be clear, I’m not saying the media is lying, but that it offers a limited and less-direct perspective.
The American brand is not merely Trump or Biden.
America is my friend and neighbor, Javi. America is my Kasvaa teammate, Brittany.
Javi is one of my closest friends and a general contractor by trade. He has lived across the street from me since I moved in the neighborhood in 2013. He and his family were the first to welcome us. He brought me beer when I was redoing the floors and painting the walls. He has worked on dozens of projects to renovate my house and helped me convert a garage into a home office.
Like my great-grandparents, Javi is an immigrant to this country. In countless ways, he has improved our community. He’s the guy in the neighborhood who is always outside and always rushing to lend a hand to even the worst of neighbors.
A couple of weeks back, he asked me for a favor, “Hey, Steve. My Green Card is up for renewal and they want me to come in and take a picture and give my fingerprints. Do you mind, you know, going with me? Might help to have a White guy there.”
I didn’t have to think about it. Of course, I would go.
Is the American brand in trouble?
It depends on where you look.
22 years ago, when this country invaded Iraq under false intelligence, I had the pleasure of living in Italy. I’m sure someone there thought America’s geopolitical moves were the right ones but I never found that person.
I had a friend named Andrea. On the way back from the piazza after a few too many spritz cocktails, he put his arm around me in classic drunk buddy fashion and with broken English said, “Steve…I want you to know that I did not burn the flag! Many did that day. But I did not burn the flag! Because you…are American. And Jeff Buckley….Jeff Buckley is American. So I would not burn the flag.”
It was the first and last day I was grouped with a rock legend.
But through the inebriated haze the words were profoundly beautiful. For Andrea, Buckley and I were his experience of America. We made up part of his brand experience.
So, despite the mess, I’m celebrating America this 4th of July. I’m celebrating the service members like Brittany and her partner. I’m celebrating the immigrants like Javi. I’m celebrating Jeff Buckley!
I’m hoping each of us can be part of our new brand experience: spending time with the good people in your life and opening your heart to many more.
Blessings on America. The brand needs help. It’s up to each of us to do our part to make it better.
Best,
Stephen