How do you create a great brand? Well, great brands become great by doing great things, by making brave decisions and sticking to their principles.
In September 1962 the then un-known Beatles were desperately looking for their first number one hit. Their first single, Love me do, had failed to reach the top of the charts. The pressure was very much on them to produce a hit – and quickly.
Their producer George Martin (now Sir George) offered them a song he had called How do you do it? Martin promised them a sure fire number one record, and the fame and fortune that would follow. But The Beatles turned him down, on the grounds that the record wasn’t right for them – it simply didn’t live up to the standards they were setting themselves. How many brands given the same pressure to perform in the short term would really stick to their own principles and do the right thing for the longer term perspective? It’s a key question and one that sets great brands apart.
As for How do you do it, the song eventually became a number one hit in the UK – as predicted – but for another Liverpool band called Gerry & The Pacemakers. The Beatles, went on to rather greater things.
(an extract from Wish You Were Here by Julian Stubbs)
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Julian
Member UP THERE, EVERYWHERE
Stockholm, Sweden