Know who you are(n’t)
I’m into Formula 1 racing. (Thanks, Netflix.)
I got into the worldwide racing series like so many others (especially Americans) after starting Netflix’s Drive to Survive a few years ago. Being a masterclass in marketing in its own right, DTS sucked me quickly into F1’s world of hyper-performance cars and drivers and egos and exotic locations. (We’ll cover DTS and F1 another day.)
Formula 1 captivates the imagination for all the obvious reasons: fast cars, fast tracks, extreme competition, big money.
And its brands.
They’re everywhere — names like Rolex, Pirelli, Red Bull and BOSS.
But the greatest star power belongs to the badges of F1’s rocket ship race cars.
Anyone who’s watched even one episode of Top Gear has heard of them: McLaren, Aston Martin, AMG-Mercedes, Alpine/Renault, Honda, Toyota Gazoo Racing.
And of course, Ferrari — the Scuderia. The scarlet cars. The prancing horse logo on an electric field of yellow. And the Italian carmaker’s iconic founder and patron saint, il Grande Vecchio (the Grand Old Man).
This is the true draw of the worldwide spectacle; it’s a showcase of brand done well, and nobody does it better than Ferrari.
Like all great brands, it’s because Ferrari means more than a car, a driver, a total number of wins and races run. It’s a brand which embodies the sense Jeremy Clarkson described:
“You’re a car, but most of all, what you are, what you’ve become, is a mate. And that’s what makes a car special. That’s what makes a car great. You start to think of it as a person. You start to love it.”
In a sport dominated by laser-like precision and data calculated down to the thousandths of a second, Ferrari stands apart partly due to its imperfection. While other F1 teams put on race management masterclasses, Ferrari sometimes manages to fumble the simplest tasks, like once telling Monaco native and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc to come into the pits during the Monaco Grand Prix, then telling him not to, resulting in Leclerc blowing a commanding lead and finishing not even in the top three.
Then, the team turns around and pull impossible victories out of thin air.
Why? How?
It’s in the brand’s DNA. In a sport decided by milliseconds and designing cars to cut through air with maximum efficiency, it was Enzo Ferrari who allegedly dropped an unofficial vision statement for his racing team when he was questioned about one of Ferrari’s Le Mans cars in 1960: “Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines.”
It was a simple statement that labelled not only what Scuderia Ferrari would become, but more importantly, what it wouldn’t.
This is a major missing piece in most brand statements and visions today, especially in banking.
Banks are very good at telling customers and communities who they are and what they stand for. But can you recall the last time your bank didn’t do something — not because of compliance or policy — but because of brand?
I remember once hearing about a bank in Michigan that refuses to close on Columbus Day (a bank holiday) out of spite toward Michigan’s greatest sports rival, Ohio State University, which is located in Columbus, Ohio.
That’s powerful brand. And in an industry occupied with risk mitigation, this is the great value of a strong brand. It sets you apart. It makes you different. It gives you permission to take risks.
Because critically, your brand doesn’t just tell your customers who are. It also tells them who you aren’t — which, for your sake, better not be like everyone else.