Unless you work in the candy industry, you probably didn’t know that M & M's only became a household name after selling their candy-coated chocolate exclusively to U.S. Servicemen in World War II. When the servicemen came back home, demand for those orange, yellow, and red candies we all recognize skyrocketed.  You probably don’t know that M & M’s were the first candy eaten in space, or that there were no red ones between 1976 and 1987, when a bogus study linking red food dye to cancer scared the American public.   Would the M & M’s you see at every counter be as famous, or as big a part of everyone’s life if World War II never happened? Perhaps the vast majority of people would have never heard of them, or perhaps they’d know them by a different brand name. While we’ll never know, it makes you wonder. If you think about it, the story of each brand we use and recognize is deeply tied to the historical events that shaped it over its lifetime. Along with a brand’s location or setting, a brand’s history leaves an indelible stamp on how that brand expresses itself, how it grows or shrinks, and how the world around it experiences and recognizes it.  Even if no one aside from a brand’s founders knows that history, the events, trends, economic demands, and cultural appetites make a mark nonetheless.  And in deeply important ways that contribute to a brand’s story, and even its eventual success or failure.

https://youtu.be/MSdjavA0NLs
Brand History Means Context 
The context of a brand’s story is not only its place, but also its time.  If you’ve done the hard work of figuring out your brand’s identity, values, and core purpose, and if you’ve factored in the ways your brand’s location shapes everything about it, then a final step would be taking note of what’s happening all around you.  Consider the recent years that have seen your brand grow, begin, or change course, and ask yourself:  What’s been going on in the world? Have there been any major shifts in the status quo? Or is the world ready for one? What’s going on in your world right now?  And what’s going on in the industry?  What historical context helps define the changes in society, culture, or your industry? How did all these changes get to where they are?  Answering these questions should give you a sense of your brand’s historical context… and your impression of recent history prepares you to ponder the follow-up: What does all this mean for your brand?   How does recent history, or everything that’s happening today, contribute to your brand’s story and expression? How does it shape the way people think about it or respond to it?  It may not be so easy to distill the answers… or to separate how time and history have influenced your brand from how your brand’s geographic location has.  But a good way to practice, and no doubt a good exercise in and of itself, would be asking how our own individual histories shape the people we are today. 
Starter Questions for Understanding the Past 
 We’re all shaped by the memories of our own history. No exceptions. How we think about ourselves has a lot to do with the story we tell of what has happened to us, and how we got to the present moment. Our fears, aspirations, and present behavior patterns are often echoes of what worked for us in the past. For organizations, looking back and reflecting on their history is an important component of their brand story… and with a handful of direct, but not necessarily easy questions, that history can be unlocked.  When was your brand founded?  Why was it founded?  If the company has been in business for 30, 50, or 70 years, how has the industry changed?  How has the company changed? How did the world change?  What were the big, emotional moments in that history, either the successes or the failures, that shaped the way your company operates today?   How did you react to big events that happened within your business, or on your team? 
Following Memories and Feelings 

Ver todos los episodios