A recent article about a legendary musician contains a fascinating revelation. It seems this beloved figure has an imposing personal assistant who gives specific instructions to any new collaborator about to meet his boss for the first time.
“You can’t talk about the past, how much you love any of his art that you might know about. And you can’t talk about the future, what he’s planning on doing. You can only talk about the present.”
This is also good advice for how brands should relate to their customers.
The past: comforting, but dead
Sure, it’s understandable why long-tenured companies might lean into the old days. The past, preserved in amber, offers a sense of nostalgia that’s easy for seasoned brands to exploit. We started this company in a simpler time, they declare, and grew it on hard work and handshakes.
To be fair, customers do value continuity and stability when choosing to do business with an organization, especially as change accelerates and corporate life expectancies shrink. Longevity can be a comforting supporting point within a broader brand story.
But it can’t be the whole tale. Markets and economies have shifted since those halcyon early days. The rules and players are all different. Those founding family members immortalized in their boardroom oil portraits are no longer available for new engagements.
Just as importantly, relying on the past runs the risk of sounding like every other company dwelling in yesteryear. For decades and counting, we’ve all heard brand narratives that begin “For decades and counting.”
When relied upon too heavily, the past almost becomes insulting to the modern-day customer. They want to buy from a company that’s built for their business environment, offering talent and tools that will meet their needs today. Their unspoken response to backward-facing brands: Don’t sell to me in the same way you’d pitch my grandfather.
In his instructions to new session players, the assistant to our legendary musician gets it. The great man knows what he’s accomplished, after all, and he’s heard it all before. But he’s here today to work on new music, and he needs you focused on that.
The future: compelling, but risky
It’s just as tempting for brands to situate themselves firmly in the years to come. A forward-looking focus is particularly appealing to new companies with nascent business plans and unproven products.
This approach is also understandable, in a way. We’re all enticed by the unknown, after all, drawn to the possibility of what could be made better. Customers seek real improvements in their lives and businesses, and “what if” can be far a more entrancing frame than “what is.”
Yet too often, newer brands overemphasize the future to distract from the shortcomings of their current state. By leaning too hard into tomorrow, upstarts make a similar mistake as their long-tenured, history-obsessed peers: they position themselves away from the current reality of the people whose business they seek.
Yes, the world needs visionary companies run by forward-looking thinkers. And it's undeniable that investors tend to value the future performance of companies over their current results.
But when brands make big promises about products that haven’t shipped yet, they run the risk of hawking vaporware. When a company sets a lofty vision without evidence that it’s contributing to it now, it can go down like a beach read: entertaining in the moment, but fleeting once the vacation’s over.
Like the past, the future can be useful to a brand, but in moderation. It’s good to provide a coherent rationale for where a company aspires to be in the years ahead, and what principles might guide it there. But to be credible, it must ground that story in the reality of what it’s achieving for its customers now.
Our musical legend sees no point in investing his finite time and energy in discussing whatever projects might come down the road. He’s here to make something extraordinary today.
The present: where true legend lies
The most effective brands live predominantly in the here and now. While respectful to their heritage and guided by their vision, they tell a clear and credible story about how they can make customers’ lives better today.
If the principles of yesteryear apply to their current workings, they back them up with hard evidence of the decisions they’re presently making. If they believe their products will help create a better tomorrow, they provide proof that their customers are beginning to experience those benefits today.
Grounding a brand in the present is not always the easiest path. It requires leaders to balance aspiration with reality, keeping an eye on where markets are headed without losing focus on what their customers care about most: improving their lives and businesses immediately.
Whether you’re a proud steward of a long-tenured brand or an optimistic driver of a promising new one, that’s how you become legendary.
Matt has steered strategy and writing work for Mack Trucks, GE, Cargill, Best Made, BMO, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He helped create and advise the Threshold podcast, which won a Peabody Award in 2020 for excellence in storytelling.
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