Another Sunday. Another Story on Branding.
In our overzeal to talk about our brand, we talk so much about it that the prospect is confused, and he moves on to other brands. Brands that have consistently focused on the central benefit have become legends and ones that serve as examples of brand strategy success. An unrelated story ‘set in stone’ demonstrates this beautifully.
It’s a story about a block of ordinary Italian marble. The connection with branding strategy is at the far end. Here it goes.
Southern Europe. Renaissance Period (13th to 17th Century). The entire Europe, particularly the southern part was changing from the medieval ages to the modern world. Art, science, religion, humanism, etc. were making their presence felt again and people who were involved in any of these were finally finding respect and recognition.
Italy in particular was quite active in this period. Names like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello, Agostino, were very well known in the arts sphere as were names like Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus, etc. Art developed very significantly. They created beautiful and artful buildings and put statues and sculptures across to adorn them. Most of them are so beautiful that they make Italy a country that can double up as a museum.
Let me now take you back to the block of marble.
In 1410, some prominent religio–political people in Florence, Italy decided to have 12 sculptures to decorate one of their cathedrals. In 1465, a famous sculptor Agostino, disciple of another famous sculptor Donatello was commissioned to make the statue of David who defeated Goliath. It was to be one of the 12 sculptures. However, this was also a prestigious project since this sculpture was supposed to be the symbol of Florence town.
Agostino traveled to distant north Italy near Tuscany and dug out a huge block of marble from a quarry in Carrara. With great difficulty, the block of marble was brought to the town of Florence.
Year 1465. Agostino started his work on this block of marble. He had just removed excess stones from the leg and torso area when his master, Donatello passed away. He stopped work and the block of marble lay unattended for almost 10 years. Another sculptor, Antonio Rosselino was commissioned to complete the work in 1476 but the deal did not go through.
The huge block of marble that was almost 20ft in length and about 5 ft in width lay on the workshop unattended for the next 25 years. Its fortune changed in the year 1500 when some people wondered about what such a large block of marble was doing in the workshop. They discovered the story and they somehow put it up straight for other master sculptors to give an audition.
First to be called was legendary Leonardo Da Vinci. Then came a stream of other sculptors and artists. Everyone saw the block of marble which by this time had become quite worn out due to lying unused in the open. Some asked for huge sums of money to work on the block of marble, some pointed out flaws in the marble block and some, the authorities did not find fit.
A boy in early twenties walked in. He was a sculptor, painter and many more things. He showed interest in creating David. He was Michelangelo.
When the cathedral authorities asked him why they should select him to create David from the block of marble, he gave the answer that is the core of almost all branding strategies.
He famously remarked, “I can already see David inside this marble block and all that I have to do is to remove everything that is not David.”
And the rest is history. Quite expectedly, the block of marble, despite the flaws and ravages of nature, was chiseled out by Michelangelo in just 2 years to become the statue of David which today, is considered to be the most perfect and proportional statue of a man.
It’s so relatable in our branding and communication strategies. We dump a load of information about our brands on our prospects and become disappointed when another brand with a far simpler and core message walks away with the prospect and makes him its customer.