Commandments 4-6
Next, we look at the concept of ‘Be Interested And Interesting’ in terms of story-telling, how we can ‘Be Useful, Everyday’ when it comes to sustainability, and what ‘Have Manners, Be Mindful’ means in the context of representation.
Commandments 4-6 Overview:
Being ‘Interested and Interesting’ is about talking with, not ‘at’ our audience.
As a commandment, ‘Be Interested’ hinges upon ‘reflect their mindset’.
Contextually, this is about stories, leaning into our heritage as a brand with authority.
Originals of Culture are the key storytellers of cultures, we have to talk to them too.
This is about finding news procedures and processes to act [and talk] fast, ensuring our stories are timely.
Asking ourselves ‘What story are we telling?’ across everything, matters, from offline to online to product, to price, to events and much more.
‘Be Useful, Everyday’ is about finding possibilities for people and the planet in ways that are seamless, easy and accessible for all.
Too often sustainability is seen as rather elitist, inaccessible or expensive - breaking down those barriers as a brand is imperative.
‘People’ here is not just about our audience but refers to in-house too; we have to lead by example.
It’s about creating a culture where sustainability is inherent in all that we do.
As a realm, sustainability is expansive; this is not just about design.
It is about being inventive [thinking originally] rather than innovative, about enthusing change for all.
‘Have Manners, Be Mindful’ is about being real and representative in all that we do.
It is about democracy, inclusion, empathy and compassion.
Again, cultivating that culture in-house is our first area to tackle, we have to walk the walk in order to have the right to talk the talk.
Consumers are brands themselves, we cannot pull the wool over their eyes.
Just like with sustainability, being honest and transparent in all that we do is imperative.
Just as we ask ‘What stories are we telling?’, so too must we ask ‘Are we creating possibilities for all?’
4. BE INTERESTED AND INTERESTING
When it comes to being ‘interested and interesting’, this is the equivalent of a conversation; talking with not ‘at’ our audience. From one side, it is about making a decision to continue to understand and respect the consumer in culture - this is the ‘interested’ bit. From another, when it comes to ‘being interesting’ it is about appealing to our audience, and sits next to the idea of reflecting their mindset. Contextually, this is about stories - about giving the consumer ‘the tools to talk’ about us, as well as interesting things to talk about. Again, this can sit across product as much as it can sit across promotion and partnerships - our stories exist everywhere.
Within the research, much of this leans into the idea of us claiming - and talking - about our heritage as a brand, respecting our own legendary lineage within the culture and finding ways to continue to act in a way that is legendary and iconic. It is about having authority within the culture - which we can underpin through working with Originals of Culture - and telling stories alongside them and with them that others want to share. The Originals of Culture, currently, are our main PR, passing the stories and legends of the brand on for us. We have to build that conversation to include new stories, too [through product, through events, through everything].
Highly involved, entrenched even, in the cultures we want to be a part of, Originals of Culture are the main storytellers of the scenes; they know what their audience is interested in and they know how to be interesting to them. Using their platforms - whether publications, stores, events or otherwise - to inform, inspire and educate the audience, they tell stories in spirited, positive ways. Our heritage is just one of the key stories they’re telling; creating new stories and building on our heritage - together - matters.
Alongside this, they use their awareness and love for the soul of their cultures to promote those up and coming within it, noticing them, acknowledging them and uplifting them overall, providing support when needed. This, again, is a form of being ‘interested in’ and taps into the idea of working with both big and small names within the business. As figureheads, they are far more likely to hear about the ‘new’ before us; often we may be hearing about it from the same spaces and places as our competitors. Working with the Originals of Culture to pinpoint that new talent that we as a brand can support and uplift across sport and culture is crucial.
ACTION POINT: COMMUNICATE
As we saw within ‘Be Appropriate, Don’t Appropriate’ this is about finding new ways and new processes and procedures through which to act fast, or rather - as we say below, to be agile [and evolve]. It is about placing our ear far nearer to the ground that it has recently been and finding those new and untold stories to engage the audience with.
Asking ourselves ‘What stories are we telling’ across the work we do?' helps. With products, for instance, are we telling a heritage story? A story about sustainability? A story local to a region or cause? Are we using product to uplift an idea or an audience, perhaps a local artist? Is that product building upon our legendary status through creating new, iconic silhouettes? What stories are we designing and building into our products today?
In-store, what stories are we telling and how? Are our employees on the shop floor [our other best PR department] given the full ‘tools to talk’ about us as a brand? Have we engaged the very people we expect to engage with our audience? Are we allowing them to acquire personal stories with us that they can pass on to the audience on the store floor? What stories are we telling on our store walls? How better can we tell them?
What about online? What are the stories we’re telling there? What are we missing? Do we have a tone of voice, is it reflective? Is it engaging? Does it inspire? What are the things we can be talking about online that the audience give a shit about? Are we being confident enough when it comes to talking about our past? When it comes to talking about our products online, what do those stories look like? Are we talking enough about the designers behind the brand? Could we be talking more?
Stories exist across everything we do as a brand, there is even a story told in price. Being aware of how imperative story-telling is, creating things for people to remember, to talk about and share, to pass on to others, is critical in terms of building a new fan base with Gen Z. Working with the originals of culture, [being interested in them and interesting to them] is the quickest way to start telling stories, before it becomes something deeply rooted in the brand.
5. BE USEFUL, EVERYDAY
Being useful everyday often tends to be about simplification; within the context of this research, that simplification is around sustainability, finding possibilities for people and the planet in ways that are seamless, easy and accessible for all. Too often sustainability is seen as rather elitist, inaccessible or expensive - breaking down those barriers as a brand is imperative when we come to talking about ‘possibilities for people and planet.’
It is about finding ways to bring sustainability to the audience in ways that matter and have impact overall.
Yet this is not just about our audience, it is about our people and teams within the brand too; how are we creating possibilities for our people and the planet in-house? How easy are we making it for them as employees to live a life that is more sustainable? Are we giving them enough possibilities to affect change as individuals when they’re working? Are we leading by example? Are our missions and mantras around sustainability something we’re implementing in-house? Are we walking the walk, not just talking the talk? This is about big things and about small things; it’s about creating a culture where sustainability is inherent in all that we do.
Importantly, we have to reiterate that sustainability is an all-inclusive realm; it extends to representation, to production, to design, to transport, to investment. As a concept, the audience sees it woven throughout everything, it is expansive and all-inclusive, not something we can compartmentalise. Alongside this, it is again expected. As a brand, we are expected to use our power to make a difference here and cannot expect a pat on the back for effecting change. We cannot be ‘exclusive’ with our sustainability learnings either; this is about sharing them with the audience, the figureheads and even the industry. ‘Being sustainable’ is not something we can own, but rather something we should share. If we talk about possibilities for people and for the planet, the act and art of sharing is a must.
ACTION POINT: INVENT
If we don’t cultivate a culture of sustainability in-house, we can’t expect to nurture it outside the brand. This is about finding ways to implement, to educate and to lead by example within the brand, ensuring we are empowering our people to thereby empower and inspire others. Much of this will come down to education, to discussions and to new procedures. Getting our own house in order is critical; sustainability cannot be a marketing ploy but rather a way of ‘doing’, not just ‘saying’.
With our audience, we have to find ways to make sustainability as seamless and as effortless as possible; just because it’s a highly critical cause does not mean we have to make it serious or hard. In our stores, how can we be more sustainable? Do our staff on the store floor understand what we’re trying to do? Are we empowering them too? Online, what is our digital footprint? Where is our money invested? What can be done around manufacture, design, transport, production? Small steps, ones that are honest and transparent, create big change.
This cannot be about jumping on a brand-wagon [sic] or doing things quickly without consideration, but rather - taking a long hard look at everything we do, placing the people and possibilities around that for change, and then boldly cultivating that change. Whether it’s vegetable ink in our printers, recycle points in our stores, re-using of old skateboards or looking at transportation, the brand should enjoy imagining [and then implementing] changes at the brand. Importantly, this is not about innovation [a concept increasingly linked to money in the minds of the audience] but rather about being inventive; applying problem-solving within originality to reimagine and reinvent new things. It’s about redesigning shoe boxes, creating basketball courts with old shoes, running workshops in your Blue Spaces and so much more. By enthusing the brand to make a difference and by cultivating that culture of change at adidas, the impact and inspiration we can create is huge. What can seem overwhelming can actually be exciting; it’s a genuine example of impossible is nothing.
6. HAVE MANNERS, BE MINDFUL
‘Have Manners, Be Mindful’ is simply about representation; the point does not need to be laboured here, we have covered it within the work. Again, like sustainability, it is something expected not something to be congratulated upon. As the research shows, this is about including everyone, about ensuring we are inclusive not exclusive, that we are democratic to be diverse. It is about ensuring representation exists in a real way in-house and outside the brand and that everyone is invited to the table. It is about compassion, empathy and emotional intelligence and - importantly - about awareness. If we are not representative, we are late - and we need to catch up.
For our audience, it is about ensuring they can see reflections of themselves and that they feel included by the brand [rather than ‘invited’, which insinuates a power to include]. It is about ensuring our events are inclusive, our price points are inclusive, our product is inclusive. It is about designing democracy into all that we do. If education is needed in-house around what ‘real and representative’ actually means - we do that too. Bringing an emotional element to it, employing that empathy and compassion to the problem, is part of the solution. Ensuring everyone is heard helps.
ACTION POINT: INGRAIN
Being real and representative has to be ingrained into the culture of the brand across everything that we do. Just as we ask ‘What stories are we telling?’, so too must we ask ‘Are we creating possibilities for all?’ This is about humanity and about being human. If a culture of diversity and representation is ingrained in house, anything we do outside the brand is therefore also real and representative. Keep it simple; don’t politicise it - that keeps people out - be honest, be transparent and be thoughtful. This should not be a complex problem to fix.