I just came back from the Conversational Marketing Conference in San Francisco. It was a small event, well attended by brand and ad agency executives. Among the attendees were Ogilvy and Johnny Vulkan from Anomaly, who presented on brand utility, essentially the importance that brands stand for big ideals, and a community good, which they take steps to achieve everyday.

Oglivy introduced a great way to think about it. (Brand name) believes that the world would be a better place if (XYZ). For example, Dove believes the world would be a better place when women feel better about their bodies. Try it with your company, or even yourself. Personally, my ideal is “I believe the world would be a better place if everyone who wanted to learn had access to an inspiring teacher.” What I like most about this exercise is how well it helps to organize a social media strategy for your brand.

If I owned a local flower shop, my ideal would be: “Zach Flowers believes that the world would be a better place if everyone who needed to be cheered up had fresh flowers.”
I would build an entire strategy using this theme.

• Asking local office workers to email me the person they know who most needs flowers that day and deliver them, featuring the person and the flowers on my blog
• Dressing an employee in my store colors, asking them to walk down the street and give a flower to anyone who needed a little cheer
• Creating a widget that my customers could post to their friends blogs sending them some flower-power cheer
• Randomly drawing names from my past customers and sending flowers “just because.”
• Creating a podcast interviewing the great things local “hometown heroes” are doing in the community (and offering a 10% discount on my podcast for anyone who orders from me)

I would use this ideal in my radio spots, online videos and website, in addition to my social media strategy—and use it every I represented my brand.

Check out an old interview with Johnny Vulkan for more on this concept. He really gets it!