Tom White, founder of 3DI2, is known for setting new standards for linking brand development to sales growth, and for introducing new products based upon the creation of an emotional identity. White began his career as the youngest marketing executive in the history of Lockheed-Martin, responsible for promotion of all Lockheed products and programs worldwide. After successfully positioning the company to win a $70-billion fighter jet program, White founded his firm in 1990. Working in the United States and Europe, White was immediately engaged by Fortune 500 leaders to oversee brand transformation programs for Motorola, Philips, Volvo and Iridium. In all, White has worked with clients including Paccar’s DAF Trucks division, Clear Wireless, Shell, Microsoft, Agilent, GE Plastics, Ugo, Takeya and others. He graduated from Cal State Northridge in 1978 with a degree in Industrial Design and honors from the Industrial Design Society of America, and received an MBA from Pepperdine University in 1984.
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>> The [inaudible] creativity is all about recognizing that building something new, building something interesting requires us to plumb the depth of our character. To understand what it is we think, what it is that we feel. And it's that intersection of the mind and the heart where the magic can happen. So I am 3DI2. That's the name of my consultancy, and we say that we are decision influencers because we help our clients attract more customers. We help our clients to influence the decision that their customers will make, and we do that through developing new brands. I've had an opportunity to work all over the world in some of the most beautiful places on Earth with some very talented people doing some very interesting things. I have worked with companies that are household names, and I have worked with hot slower companies, all of whom were run by visionaries. Tonight what we're going to do is we're going to explore the world of the big brand. So these are companies who have done extraordinary things, all of whom are companies that we recognize and know about and feel some way about because they have made us feel some way about them. And we're going to learn what their secrets are for making us come to them in vast numbers and enjoy buying things and their products. So before we begin, I would just like to take a little inventory of the audience here. How many people here are students? Great. How many people here are entrepreneurs? And how many people here have been influenced in a positive way by brands at some point in their lives? And how many people here feel that the world of branding and creating brands either on individuals or on companies is growing? I think so, too. So tonight we're going to take a journey. We're going to go on a journey of the imagination together, and in this journey, we are going to examine seven creative thinkers who have together created great commerce through a sense of wonder that they have, the way of looking at the world with a sense of optimism, and an idea that anything is possible if you can simply muster your courage, the courage required to pursue it. In every case, I think what you'll see is that they brought to their brand a certain sense of magic, and it's that magic and it's that wonder that attracts us. Because the magic and wonder are aspects of the heart. So when we say great commerce, what are we talking about? We're talking about sales-generating brands. Brands that generate sales. And when we look at these seven great thinkers, we're going to look at the seven secrets for building a mega-selling brand. So what is a mega-selling brand? A mega-selling brand is a brand that causes us to believe that our lives will be so positively influenced by purchasing that that they're offering that we buy from them again and again and again. A mega-selling brand is a brand that causes us to buy without stopping. A mega-selling brand is a brand that we adopt as part of our lifestyle. We are proud to be a part of a mega-selling brand. And so what we'll see is that not by accident these are some of the most popular, most successful companies in the world. Now, when we go through these seven secrets because we have people of different disciplines and sort of, you know, different pursuits in life here in the audience together tonight, if you're a student, if you're a professional, if you're a spouse, if you're an engineer or a designer or a businessman or an entrepreneur, these seven secrets will work for you if you want to convince anyone to do anything worthwhile. Now I was talking with Dr. [Inaudible] just before the presentation, and he said, well, you know, these seven secrets can be used for the force of good or the force of evil, and that's true, but there's a fail-safe mechanism built into these seven secrets that doesn't let that happen, and I'll show you what that is. One way to look at the value of a brand, and [inaudible] really understand what those numbers are because this is the commerce of creativity and not just creativity on its own, we always need to look at the numbers. We need to evaluate the success of our creative endeavor. We will see the secrets of the masters, and, finally, we're going to look behind the curtain at the work that goes into making a brand come to life. So here we go. Secret number one comes to us from FedEx. Communicate value. Now what that means is we don't want to talk about function. We want to talk about value. Here's Fred Smith. Fred Smith is a pilot. Fred Smith founded Federal Express. That's FedEx. Fred Smith says, "I wasn't afraid to lose my money. I always knew I was right." And he was right, but his perspective on why he was going to be right wasn't connecting with the market because what Fred Smith said and what FedEx used in their advertising was that we have the largest fleet of privately-owned jets in the world, and what he was trying to communicate was that the certainty with which your package will arrive at its destination on time. But the audience couldn't make that translation, and FedEx was beginning to plummet downward because the audience didn't understand the value. And when they decided that instead of looking from a pilot's perspective, let's look at our customer. Let's see the world from their perspective. He realized that overnight was what people would buy. They weren't buying the use of jets. They were buying the value, the certainty of guaranteed overnight delivery, and when that change happened, FedEx took off. So there's great value in a single word, and when we're creating a brand, we want to distill our value down to one word or two words. Because we don't want to make it complex. So FedEx is now worth 30 billion dollars thanks to the word overnight and, of course, all those jets. And the lesson that we learned from FedEx is that we want to communicate value and not function. Make sense? Secret number two comes to us from Starbucks. We want to create an experience. So when Howard Schultz started Starbucks, here's what he said. He said, "Starbucks is rekindling America's love affair with coffee, bringing romance and fresh flavor back into the brew." Love. Romance. Now I don't know how many of us really think about love and romance when we look at a cup of Starbucks coffee. We're usually there for a reason, but the romance and the love affair has stayed with Starbucks, and what's happening is that the coffee, which is what they were known for, is disappearing from the brand. Did you notice that? Did you ever notice before that there was a mermaid in the center of the Starbucks coffee logo? Many people never saw that, and [inaudible] really conscious of it until suddenly coffee disappeared, and all we see is the mermaid. Now the coffee disappeared for two very important reasons. The first reason is because of the next case study I'm about to show you, but the other reason is that they are going to focus on their coffeehouse experience. This environment here that only Starbucks has, and they're amplifying that. You know, there's padded seats. There's seating areas. There's Wi-Fi. They want us to come and experience a Starbucks environment. So Starbucks is a 36 billion dollar brand, and the lesson that they've taught us is to create an experience. Now, why is coffee being eliminated from the Starbucks brand? Because there's a company that takes consistently, consistency so seriously that they have seriously eroded Starbucks' market share. This company was started in 1955 with a guy named Ray Kroc, who was a milkshake machine salesman. Said if we look after the customer, the business will take care of itself. So Starbucks, which is known for hamburgers traditionally, is now known for coffee about as good as Starbucks and quicker and cheaper. And they're a bigger brand. So is it a smart idea for Starbucks to take coffee out of their brand and let us focus on the experience of Starbucks where, by the way, they can sell us now food and all kinds of drinks and alcohol in the future as well, which McDonald's can never do. What McDonald's sells, though, is really none of those things. What McDonald's sells is the emotions of love. McDonald's says I'm loving it, right. That's their slogan. I'm loving it. So really what that means is under that [inaudible] of I'm loving it, McDonald's can offer for sale anything they want to that they can make in their kitchens in one way or another, and that's what they do. And McDonald's business model is that they are going to go after segment after segment after segment, and reach into these markets like Starbucks has, and they're going to own that. And I guess we're going to love it. And it works. McDonald's is valued at 67 billion dollars. So there's a lot of money to be made by adopting a position or communicating it clearly and with a consistency something that everyone can understand and connect with on an emotional level. So secret number three, take consistency seriously. When you're making hamburgers, [inaudible] the quality of those hamburgers, make it the same all the time. The coffee, etc. Everything McDonald's does is the same all the time, and it's because we can depend upon that consistency, that reliability. There's dependability of that brand, and we go there because we're all seeking consistency in our lives amidst the change in the world. Secret number four says be authentic. So who knows the Nike story? How many people are familiar with how Nike got started? You know, it's a very interesting story. Because the leaders of this company, like the leaders of some of these other companies, did not start out as business people. They started out as individuals with a passion and knowledge and a desire to help people. Now here's what Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, who are the founders of Nike, believed. By the way, this is Bill Bowerman, and he was the track [inaudible] at the University of Oregon, and Phil Knight was a track star. They shared a passion for helping athletes reach their full potential, and Nike believes that if you have a body, you're an athlete. So what does that mean that Nike's market is? Everybody. Great position to be in. So if their market is everybody, and if what they're selling is just do it. Just do it, it, then they're selling it to everybody. So what is it? Shoes? Golf clubs? Golf balls? Football gear? Nike is in every sport that exists on Earth. This is a Nike car. Now if you're going to sell that everyone on Earth, there's really no end to what it is that you can offer providing that you keep your consistency level. By the way, does anybody have a guess, and I'd like to hear a couple guesses, and I know a few people in here know this answer. How many factories Nike holds around the world? Who can guess?
>> Zero -
>> Zero. Correct answer. So Nike's one of the biggest, most recognizable brands on Earth. One of the most successful selling companies that there is, and they don't own a single factory. Now isn't that interesting. So what Nike's really selling is their brand. Fifty billion dollars' worth of it. That's the value of Nike, and they're growing. And as long as they continue their brand strategy like this, they will continue to grow. They are the largest sports and apparel company on Earth. And they're authentic. They were runners. They started out as runners. They started as athletes, and they continue to sell athletes. Secret number five comes from Disney, touch the heart, and I don't think that there's anybody that we can think of that touches the heart better than the Walt Disney Company. And Walt Disney was known for saying I only hope that we never forget one thing, and that is it was all started by a mouse. And that sounds like a cute phrase, you know. It was all started by a mouse. It was all started by Mickey Mouse. But here's what Walt Disney meant by that. Before there was Mickey Mouse, there was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Does anybody remember ever hearing about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in their Disney lore? OK. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was a very, very popular cartoon which Walt Disney was selling to a distributor in New York. The distributor in New York decided since you're selling this to me, I must own it, and since I own it, therefore, what did he do. He went to Hollywood and hired all Walt Disney's animators away, and he called Walt Disney, and he said come to New York to my office. Walt Disney went to New York, and he said, you know, now I own Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and I own all of your animators, too. So thank you, and that was the end of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. So on the train ride home, Walt Disney designed Mickey Mouse, and with his last animator left in the studio who did not defect, [inaudible] they designed "Steamboat Willie" and they produced that cartoon in about thirty days. And what happened after that was that Walt Disney always made license agreements, and any of my friends that are on here who have worked with Disney will attest to you, [inaudible] of those agreements to make sure that they protect their property, and when you protect your property, that means you can license out your property. And so what do you do now that you own, really own Mickey Mouse? You begin to license it. You begin to do things with it. So when Walt Disney said it all started with Mickey Mouse, what he meant was he actually really got it. We have a property that we have to protect, and we can license and make contracts and really own it now. In the process, Disney realized that what they owned in the market, of course, is family magic. And there can be the Fox Family Channel, there can be ABC Kids, which is also Disney property, but Disney owns family magic. And so if you own family magic, what can you invite people to do? You can invite them to do anything, anywhere. So you can invite them to see cartoons in the movies, and, by the way, they created Mickey Mouse, but they didn't invent "Beauty and the Beast". It's a classic story, but now it's a Disney story, a brilliant story at that. Then you put it on the stage. So then you have cartoons, and then you have your stage productions of your titles that you've own, and then you buy other companies who have products that fit the family magic paradigm. So now you're offering real value. In fact, now you look for anything that says family magic. And so you say, well, Marvel is family magic. So let's add that, too, which Disney now does as well. And then you need to have distribution in order to communicate all of your family magic assets, both in television and online and everywhere else media can be sent and transmitted. And then you create environments all over the world, where they can come experience the magic and buy more of the magic, and you can even send them out to sea. So the value of family magic of 74 billion dollars, more or less. And what the Walt Disney Company has shown us is that if you touch the heart with consistency, become known as a company that touches the heart, in this case, the family's heart, people will come and see you all the time. Now for the real master. When we think about the value of Apple, there are a lot of places we can look because there's a lot of value there, but what it really comes down to from Apple is the process of [inaudible] simplification. When Apple goes for the design process, and my friend, [Inaudible], who runs RKS design, a brilliant design food goes through this process as well. And that means that you need to create it, and then create it again and create it again, and then throw that away and create it again and again and again. Simplification is not a process of using your first idea. It's the process of using your hundredth idea. And that's really what Apple does, and that's why Apple creates things that are so simple and so beautiful. Now, here's what Steve Jobs said, and I know you all know this, but I thought that if we talked about Steve, it merits repeating. He said here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pigs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. They have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them. You can disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy have to think that they can change the world are the ones who do. And so Steve was one of those who did. So we talked about courage a little earlier. Well, throughout Steve Jobs' career, he has shown extraordinary courage. He was worth 100 billion dollars by the time he was 25 years old. That's an achievement. But then what happened? He got kicked out of his own company. Now, he created Pixar in the meantime. Also good, but when he came back, he came back renewed. This is what Steve looked like before he left, and this is what he looks like after he came back. Same pose, different guy. He came back a little changed. So more determined, more focused, wiser, and with much clearer vision of what it was that he wanted to accomplish, and accomplish he did. He developed one product after another that would enhance the value of our lives everywhere we lived our lives. Wherever we work, wherever we play, wherever we drive, wherever we sit, stand, walk, talk, whatever it is that we're doing, there's an Apple product. I'm seeing Apple lights up here as I'm looking right now. There's an Apple product that affects our life, our lives for the positive, and you see the zeal and the enthusiasm that he had for presenting this, but when he presented this little device, this was so amazingly complicated, this thing, so incredibly complex in terms of engineering, production. It really looked like something that we had never seen before, and, in fact, we hadn't. But as most of us know, there's really nothing on there that didn't exist before they integrated those systems and did a beautiful job of it. But as a result, Steve was always able to launch magic. He introduced magic to us, and we couldn't wait to see what it was that he was going to launch next. And he changed one business after another, too. So he changed the music business for good. And every time he did it, he used communication from the heart to the heart to get everyone on board with the idea, and everyone loved it. It's simple. The world of apps. Come on, Steve. And the pad that really is going to continue to change our lives. You know, this is really the format for the future. Apple was really not the first to create this, but they were the first to launch it in a hugely successful format. And, finally, once you've built that kind of force power, then you do something that my friend [Inaudible] could tell us in much greater detail than I can because he experienced it firsthand. You create Apple stores all over the world like this one in Beijing. So that everybody everywhere can come in and have an Apple experience and buy and use Apple products all the time. So what does that make Apple? Because Steve Jobs said let's think different, who knows what that means?
>> Most valuable company on Earth.
>> Very good.
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And that translates into 476 billion dollars in market capitalization. And it's interesting, too, because when Apple first launched the MacIntosh, their slogan was this is a computer for the rest of us. The rest of us. It's, like, here's everyone else but here's us. So he was gathering this community, and I remember at the time, you know, we felt small. It's, like, oh, this is an exclusive club. But as it turns out, there's just not a bigger club than that around. This is the big club now. So that's what happened with Apple. So we've see now six secrets. Before we press on, can anyone tell me the six secrets so far? Who can remember secret number one? [multiple speakers] Communicate value. Nice. Number two -
>> Create an experience.
>> Good grief. Number three. [multiple speakers] Very good. Number four. [multiple speakers] Number five, touch the heart, and number six. Very good. Are these all making sense so far? Alright. Now let's go to number seven, but to go to number seven we need to take a little bit of a secure, circuitous route now because that's where this story integrates with my story. So we say, OK. Tom White went to Cal State - Northridge. Received his degree in industrial design when Cal State - Northridge offered a degree in industrial design. When there was an art building that housed the industrial design department, which is gone with the earthquake, and I received honors from the IDSA upon graduation, thank you very much. And I eventually received my MBA from the other school. And after graduating went to work for Citibank where my job was to design automated teller systems of the future. Automated teller systems had just been introduced. We were designing new systems. We would use touch screens, for example. And I was two years at Citicorp and then Lockheed decided that they also wanted to create a networked system, similar to what I was creating at Citibank. So they hired me to do that. And so for two years, I developed a new networked system. I concepted it. I designed it. I prototyped it, and then I went to the head of the department, and I said, well, now what do we do. He said, well, now we have to go get the money, funding, to build them in production and install them. I said, well, who does that. He said, well, I don't know. I said, well, what do you have to do. He said, well, we have to make a presentation. I said, well, can I do that. Sure, you can do that. So I did that. And I created a kind of a magical presentation a little similar to this except then the screen turned transparent, and it revealed our hero behind the screen, and we invited all of the department heads from Lockheed to come and see this. So the head of marketing, head of [inaudible], you know, all the department heads were there. And the head of marketing said great presentation. I guess you can sell. By the way, here's the money for your system. Why don't you come head up the product promotion department over in marketing? So I was thrilled because that meant go to the Paris Air Show. That meant design all the company's exhibits, all of the company's media, all their brochures. There was no Internet yet. And eventually all their films for promoting company products. So I did that, and one of my first tasks seemed simple enough that that was the marketing department is going to host this year's management association meeting where typically there are about sixty people that attend, but the head of marketing said no, I want this to be the biggest management association meeting ever, that we've ever had. He said I want to fill up the Sheraton Grand Ballroom for this one. So do what you need to do. So I created a piece of media, drawing from Walt Disney and touch the heart. Drawing from Nike. It had a sense of authenticity about it, but we had to get people there. So what do you do to convince every management association employee to come to this presentation? Well, you have to make them a promise. So here's what we did, and all the Lockheed management said, well, he'll never go for this, you know. This is the president of Lockheed here. He'll never do it, Tom, so don't even ask him. It'll be very bad for your career. So I said I know we can get this set up. All he's got to do is come in, stand there, and we'll shoot his picture, and that's it. Well, he did, and what every employee in the company saw was, you know, this man swearing, they're going to see something they've never seen before, and everybody wanted to see it. But we had standing room only, 600 people filling the Sheraton Grand Ballroom in Universal City. So that was really my first marketing success at Lockheed, and soon thereafter came the challenge. I received a letter, and the letter said we want you to show up here in this building. Now this looks like, you know, someplace movies are made of. Not good ones. And so I went to that far corner of the Burbank Airport with my paper, and I waited. The place was empty. There was some oil drums. Not all the lights were working. You know, I found the door number. I checked around. There's no one there, and I thought there must be a mistake, or I'm in real trouble. Eventually, there were ten people in the room, also with a piece of paper, also looking like they were in real trouble. And soon thereafter, two men with clipboards came in the room, and they said, OK. We've asked you to come here. We want you to sign this, sign up because you're going to be part of a new program that the company is going to be bidding on, and it's a must win program for the company. Well, there was a certain feeling like there was no choice, and that wasn't the feeling. That was the reality. And, you know, there were engineers. There were all different kinds of people, these ten of us that were in the room together, but that was the start of the Lockheed F22 program. And so further here's the challenge. The challenge is, and this was my responsibility, to convince the Air Force, to convince the US government, and to convince the public eventually that between the Lockheed team and the [Inaudible] team, the two competing companies that were going to be bidding on this new advance tactical fighter, that Lockheed was the only clear choice. The challenge was that [Inaudible] had just launched the B2 bomber. The stealth bomber who was the darling. It was amazing. When it flew overhead, you know, people burst into tears. You know, it was so spectacular, and it used stealth technology, it used new materials. Anything that Lockheed had that was aircraft was classified top secret. Couldn't show it. Couldn't say anything about it, and part of the proposal challenge is that you need to demonstrate prior success. Well, there wasn't any we could check. So here's what we decided to do. We decided to look back at Lockheed's heritage, and here's what Robert Gross, who bought Lockheed originally from the Lockheed brothers and really turned it into success like Ray Kroc did with McDonald's. And he says there's a certain feeling of courage and hope when you work in the field of the air. You instinctively look up, not down. You look ahead, not back. You look ahead where the horizons are absolutely unlimited. And so we took that concept of looking ahead and looking into the future that we decided to adopt that as the concept we would use to prove to the Air Force, the government, and the people that Lockheed had the right vision. So we started talking about the future, and that is in every area of the company where we're communicating something. The new Lockheed technical institute where we were going to be training all these new engineers. We communicated that with films, brochures, posters, mugs, souvenir items. Everyone at Lockheed were shocked because they could feel that there was something new happening. There was something different here, bigger. More important than they'd ever seen before. The composites development center where, you know, graphite thermal plastics were just being invented at that time, Lockheed had a center. They knew how to do it. Well, this new plane required that. So we promoted that. We promoted every aspect of the company out, to the outside world with some really beautiful materials, and these were award-winning materials, design awards. We were winning design awards. We were winning film awards at the New York International Film Festival, beating out Porsche for the movies that we were making.
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And we did something that I think was a very important component of our success, and that is we created a fictitious jet. So I went to the engineering department, and I said I would like for you to design me a jet that's exactly the opposite of the real jet. I didn't know what it looked like. So I was safe. And so they did that, and then we sent it to the Air Force, and we said can we show this jet, and the Air Force said, yes, you may show this jet, and, you know, we didn't show anything until we had a stamp on it. And then I hired Sidney, the design futurist, very famous, brilliant guy to design the jet based on that concept drawing. We produced posters of the jet in flight shooting down the bad guys. We had posters of the jet in combat environment. We even produced a poster of the jet being manufactured in a factory of the future. So as far as the Air Force was concerned, we knew exactly what the future looked like. So that was sort of a big check mark. Lockheed knows what the future looks like, and, oh, by the way, it looks good. But there was still something missing. This is all beautiful stuff, but it's a blue sky. You know, and as a designer, we love blue sky, OK, but then there's the MBA side of this that says, wait a minute. Blue sky's risk. Blue sky's risky. What you have to do is show me that you've done this before. Show me you know how to do it, and that was the missing piece. OK. So with that in mind, we went to work on the proposal. Now I can't show you the proposal, but it didn't look a lot different from this. You know, I'm [inaudible] to write proposals that's this thick. This is measured in feet, and I was also responsible for every word, drawing, headline, diagram, layout, color that was in this book, which is unique for a company to bring a creative into the proposal development process, but they wanted to make sure that we were doing what Steve Jobs did, which is oversimplify it because this is some heavy technical stuff. So we did that, and we oversimplified. We made sure our message was very, very clear. And then we created a logo, and this logo defined the program. So we had the F22. [Inaudible] had the F23, but [Inaudible] didn't have a logo, and we did, and we had an American star in the middle of ours. OK. So we've got a lot of the parts and pieces put together now, but that missing element of the puzzle was still evading us. How do we prove without a doubt, which is what they asked me to do. Prove without a doubt that Lockheed is the only choice, guaranteeing that these guys will deliver. There's got to be a public agreement, by the way, too. We can't be a backroom quiet deal because otherwise the public will say, well, hey, Lockheed hasn't done anything. I haven't seen it. How did you guys come up with that choice? So it had to be public, and we still couldn't show the jet. So where we looked was backward in order to look forward, and we went back fifty years to the creation of the P38. You all familiar with the P38? Well, P38 was really a revolutionary aircraft. You know, it had this center, this pilot's pod there, and then the engine itself was out on the limbs. So it had two fuselages with the center pod, and this was really a darling. Forgive me. A darling of World War II. And when you're in the business of creating platforms that are designed to deliver effectiveness, you know, you really begin to embrace this machinery. So, OK, that was a success because Lockheed created the P38. So we have our proven past success, but it's fifty years ago, but it's fifty years ago to the year. So that's good, but what do we need to touch the heart, Walt Disney style, what do we need in order to connect with the heart of every target audience member? Who's going to come see this movie that we're going to make? We'll need a hero. So for that hero, we looked to this guy. Dick Bong. Dick Bong was the ace of aces of World War II. He shot down more enemy aircraft than any other man in World War II ever did. So he's called the ace of aces, and he flew the P38. So what we decided to do was to remind the Air Force of how very important the courage and character of the pilot is when considering designing a new airplane. Because one of the things this airplane was supposed to do, this new airplane, this F22, it was nearly supposed to fly itself. You know, so that's the last plane really that's going to be produced before the drones now. So it's a piloted aircraft, but super sophisticated electronic systems on board. The route [Inaudible] took was to demonstrate that you can nearly fly it without thinking about it, and we took the exact opposite approach, and we said no. It's all about the pilot. And with that, we were speaking to the decision markers in the Air Force. So we created a film starring Dick Bong. This is a 12-minute little mini feature film featuring Dick Bong, who flies this P-38 out of history and lands on a boy's front lawn and comes in and tells him what it takes to be a great fighter pilot. And in the movie, they have a kind of a zen moment where they sit together, and the boy says, you know, why did you come see me. Said, well, I think you got what it takes, kid, but you're going to have to find that out for yourself. So we finish the film, and those of who were involved in making this film were extremely proud of it and felt very optimistic of the reactions we were going to get from the audience. Very optimistic. And this was going to be shown at the big trade show in Washington, D.C. called the Air Force Association Show. It happens once a year, and all the Air Force brass come to the show. And so, of course, we designed a specially configured exhibition. What you're seeing here is the theater portion of the exhibit. And our Lockheed top team was able to invite the Secretary of the Air Force, the Undersecretary of the Air Force, their wives, and their entourage to come during the Black Tie Dinner, right after the Black Tie Dinner, and come and see our movie. Backing up two weeks before that event, the senior Lockheed team wanted to just prescreen this, which was smart to do for the Air Force middle management. They wanted to make sure there were no bad surprises. So we gathered together an audience about this size actually, and we showed them the film. Lights went down, show the film, lights went up. Of course, we were expecting applause. Maybe standing ovation. But that didn't happen. The opposite happened. There was silence. And then the worst thing happened. There was mumbling. What now? Now the front row, which is all the Lockheed brass and all of the Air Force middle management are whispering. It's worse yet. And, finally, the head of the [Inaudible] program, the F22 program stands up, and he said we can't show this film. This film about boy and his dog, by the way, [inaudible]. We can't show this film because this is not what we're about. We're about technology. We're about stealth. We're about maneuverability. We can't show this. And though all those points were in the film, what they were reacting to and what they were unprepared for was the level of emotion that we were integrating into this story. So they didn't know what to do. So they reacted with their customer there, you know, probably a pretty logical way. So they pointed to the back of the room. White, go find another movie to show in two weeks, and that was the end of the meeting. So I spent two weeks worrying about all of the different options that could happen because I knew there was not going to be another film to be found. I suggested options, but none of them were workable. So the decision was made. Fine. We have to go with it. We spent a lot of money on this film. We spent a lot of money on the exhibit, on the posters, all print material, on this whole campaign. We have to go with it. So back to Washington, D.C. , and that night, Secretary of the Air Force, Undersecretary of the Air Force, and their entourage are all in their beautiful dress brass. And then it's time for them to walk into our theater and see this film. So they all entered that door which opens [inaudible]. Closes. The movie starts. For 12 minutes, the audience is waiting. Twelve minutes later, the exit doors open. Again, nothing. Now none of the wives and none of the entourage know what happened two weeks earlier, but I do. So I don't know what's going to happen when somebody emerges from the theater. Is there going to be a problem? But here's what happened. The Secretary of the Air Force walks out the exit door with tears, and he walked from the exit door through a [inaudible], you know, a huge sea of people very processionally. And the audience parted like the Red Sea, and the Secretary walked over to [Inaudible], who's the chairman at the time of Lockheed Corporate, and grabbed his hands with both of his hands. He said you've captured the spirit of this program. Well, everyone saw that, and that was cause for great celebration and success. I continue to have a job. And this is how we promoted it. We had a poster that showed what this was really all, you know, and to show this poster at a high technology trade show was also a real risk that we took, but it worked very well. In fact, our audiences are, the lines at the show were so long we had to print tickets in order that the people wouldn't just go walk way, and then they would come back every 15 minutes, and there was a show, and there was a full theater for four straight days, eight hours a day. So it was a huge success. We were on the cover of "Air Force" magazine. We distributed thousands of copies of the film all over the Air Force, and Lockheed became intertwined with the concept of the F22 program. [Inaudible] had the F23. When we unveiled both of our planes, our plane really was beautiful. The F23 really wasn't so beautiful. But the F23 was purported to have, and the story still stands, the best technology of the two airplane platforms. Did the communication do that whole job? Well, it didn't do the whole job, but we have [inaudible] at dinner earlier tonight. When communication happens, it's very difficult to change that conversation, and it's much easier to join in it. We've all been listening to the Republican debates, right. We're joining in that discussion. It's being presented to us. Well, we created the discussion here, and this discussion is about the future and that Lockheed sees it, and that we've created it before, and it worked. And what that means was that Lockheed won a 70 billion dollar program, 70 billion dollar program. That's a pretty big contract. But what has happened since then is that Lockheed has won every follow on to that program that there has been. So when they said this is a must win program, they meant that this is going to be the program that's going to take our company into the future, and it did. Because today when you look at what the pricing of the F35 program is going to be, and, by the way, do you see what they called the F35. It's the Lighting II. The P38 was the Lighting I. This is the Lighting II. And the Air Force names their own planes. We didn't do that. So the Air Force loved the concept, named this the Lighting II.
[ Background Discussion ]
Just a team. Just a team. So that brings us, finally, to secret number seven, and that is promise the future convincingly. Interestingly. Steve Jobs always did it, too. So to summarize the seven secrets. Let's all say it together. Number one.
>> Communicate value.
>> Perfect. Number two.
>> Create experience.
>> Number three. [Inaudible] Number four. [Inaudible] Number five. [Inaudible] Number six. [Inaudible] And number seven.
>> Promise the future.
>> Great.
[ Background Sounds ]
Any discussion of brand really has to end with, you know, the current reigning master. And here's what Steve Jobs is recognized for as he, you know, departs. Your time is limited. So don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living off the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of the opinions of others drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Well, that's what I have to say tonight.
[ Applause ]
Are there any questions?
>> Can we see that movie?
[ Background Discussion and Sounds ]
>> Do you really want to see the movie -
>> Yes.
>> [Inaudible] gallantry and [inaudible] in action, [inaudible] beyond the call of duty [inaudible] of 10 October to 15 November 1944. Major Bong voluntarily and at his own request engaged in repeated combat missions including unusually hazardous [inaudible] of the Philippines.
[ Music and Background Sounds and Discussion ]
>> Jason, bedtime. Lights out.
[ Background Sounds ]
[ Music and Background Sounds and Discussion ]
>> Sorry, kid. Didn't mean to wake you.
>> Dick Bong?
>> It's nice work. Did you make all these?
>> Yeah. I mean, yes, sir.
>> [Inaudible] when I took that picture. 1944 -
>> You're just talking [inaudible].
>> Well, that was really something. Sometimes there were so many planes in the air it was unbelievable. Pilots were good. Some of them were very good. [Inaudible] I used to watch one of these [inaudible] almost every day fly over my folks' farm. That's when I knew I was going to fly. And about the time I was your age, I got my first look at one of these -
>> The Boeing P26 -
>> Yeah. What a beauty. First all-metal [inaudible]. First time I saw it, I was only 12. The plane I was going to fly -
>> The P38.
>> Wasn't even built yet. She was still just a dream. When that dream came to life, we busted out of the skies like her name -
>> The Lighting.
>> Nothing could touch us. P38 was my plane, Jason. She was the most powerful fighter I'd ever seen. Forty thousand feet, 400 knots -
>> A lot more maneuverable, too.
>> A great plane. Made a lot of difference. You know, we could never imagine the fighters flying today. Takes vision, Jason, and don't ever forget that. It takes vision to make a great aircraft. And the F16 looks like a great fighter, but every pilot has his plane for his time. I mean, yours is going to be totally different. Only one thing will be the same. The pilots with the right stuff will be pushing those new airplanes to their limits -
>> But that's what I want to do.
>> I know. Now courage is something they can never build into these planes. Every pilot brings it with him. That's not all it takes. [Inaudible] These guys. They can tell you. When you're up there, when you're engaged, oh, you'll understand.
>> Yeah.
>> Got to go, ace.
>> No. Don't go. I mean, why did you come see me?
>> Well, I came to make sure. See, I think you've got what it takes, but, you know, you've got to find that out for yourself.
>> But can you show me?
>> That's up to you, ace. I'm history. You're the future.
>> [Inaudible] Message follows. The enemy has launched the first wave [inaudible]. Parts unknown. Assume alert status. Acknowledge by flight. Congress, the call sign will be ghost one. Execute order has been authenticated. Scram first four [inaudible]. Go get them, boys.
>> There is your call, Jason.
[ Music and Background Sounds and Discussion ]
>> Major Jason Connors, reporting for duty, sir.
[ Music and Background Sounds and Discussion ]
>> Wingmen will rendezvous at point bravo, angel 200. Do you copy?
>> Yes, sir.
>> Standby for fighter configuration.
>> The most advanced aircraft ever built. It has a fully integrated avionic sweep that includes weapons management, system [inaudible] monitoring, and automated pilot displays and controls. This system is fully supported and reliable. It has supersonic [inaudible]. Its sensors include an advanced radar, [inaudible] and an electronic warfare [inaudible]. Lightweight composites and single-piece wing [inaudible] maintain the correct thrust-to-weight ratio and overall air [inaudible]. Finally, [inaudible] ensures that a necessary survivability to accomplish the mission. This is a totally integrated weapons system. Unlike anything the world's ever seen. This is [inaudible] represents the best of America's technology. [Inaudible]
>> Ghost one, cleared to takeoff runway 03.
[ Music and Background Sounds and Discussion ]
>> Ghost flight, push it up. [Inaudible] push it up.
[ Music and Background Sounds and Discussion ]
>> Ghost one. Mission accomplished. [Inaudible]
>> [Inaudible] We got them.
[ Music and Background Sounds ]
>> Jason, get a move on. Come on. You don't want to be late for school.
>> [Inaudible] dad. Steve Bong. He's going to fly over our house.
>> What?
>> Steve Bong.
>> Jason, that's Mr. Lavere mowing his lawn. I don't know these late nights are so good for you. You have to start going to bed a little earlier. Come on, let's get some breakfast.
>> Breakfast?
>> Yeah, you know, that meal that we eat in the morning before [inaudible]. Where did this come from? It's got your name on it.
>> I got it from a friend.
>> Kind of big. You'll grow into it.
>> I know.
>> Come on, buddy. Even fighter pilots got to get to school on time.
[ Music ]
>> Thanks, major.
[ Music ]
[ Applause and Music ]
[ Music ]
[ Music ]
[ Applause ]
>> Now that was the response we were hoping for. Any other questions? I don't have any more film.
>> How long did it take to shoot that particular movie?
>> We shot that movie in a week.
>> Wow.
>> So I guess you could have done [inaudible] concept and everything. Possibly could have redone something [inaudible] if it was an absolute necessity, or there was no way to physically reshoot something else with a different concept.
>> In fact, what happened was when we were very near the shoot day, you know, we had storyboarded this, you know, nearly every frame of this film out, and when we did review it with Lockheed management, they said, you know, where's the technology. And you remember the scene where he said we're now going to [inaudible] aircraft, all that animation, we added that. Because, you know, they gave us a half an inch of technical specs, and they said we want this in the film. So the best way we could figure out to do that was to put in a thirty-second piece of animation that told all of it. Now we told everything. We showed it. The [inaudible] came up on the screen. Showed it from every different angle, and they were very satisfied with that. SO we did go through that process. We [inaudible] produce it and say here it is. We went through a lot of different reviews, and, of course, to the Air Force, too. Yes.
>> How close was the finished F22 to the design that you created for that film?
>> To this plane?
>> Yeah -
>> Nothing like it at all. Yeah. Completely different -
>> It was impressive.
>> No, the design was beautiful, and, you know, [Inaudible] is a genius, and he really brought that to life. But the point was make sure it looked nothing like the final. So we had a beautiful fictitious plane and a beautiful final plane also.
>> What was [inaudible]? What was it compared [inaudible]?
>> [Inaudible] had a very sophisticated approach. You know, their exhibit and all their materials were sort of very high level, you know, a lot of flight [inaudible], lot of black and white photography. It was very beautiful, but it really was lacking kind of a touch. You know, when they had all the technology displayed, it was more like a museum, you know, more like a gallery. A beautiful gallery. So they did a great job, but, you know, somehow didn't manage to connect with the heart in the same way. Yes.
>> So you basically applied those same concepts over and over [inaudible].
>> Yes. The seven secrets. Exactly. And, you know, and these are companies that have been around for some time. Some of them have been around for a good long time, but the concepts are the same for, you know, virtual companies that have no locations. So, you know, for [inaudible], you know, you [inaudible] you can look at all of those seven secrets, and you can see that they are applying them, and it's working. So they're fundamental. You know, they're based on what has worked in the past, but it's really what I stick to, you know, every time I approach any kind of an engagement. Yes.
>> You have all the examples that you gave are well-entrenched companies, and you just talked now about companies that have been around [inaudible] years. These fundamentals, do you think change in any way [inaudible], and, if so, how [inaudible].
>> Very good question. They apply the same way. Of course, with a Lockheed, we had some rather huge, you know, Cold War budgets to work with. You know, that was before the Wall came down, and there was, you know, that was Reagan era defense spending. So those were big budgets. But the same rules apply to startups, but you have to do it very creatively. You have to do it very cleverly, but you still need to follow the rules. So if you're doing three small things, they have to be consistent. Those three small things have to touch the heart. Those three small things have to be simple. You know, the rules still apply, but the scale changes. Make sense? And even if you're a virtual company, you still need to be thinking, be conscious about what that environment is going to be like that people are going to be working within. You know, Facebook just gave this timeline. That's an environment. You know, we can all go there. That's got great value to us now. Even though there's no physical Facebook to go visit. Yes.
>> Could you quickly explain how to use the seven secrets on [inaudible]?
>> Well, I can. So, and, you know, Andrea, who really was responsible for making sure that this logo was presented the same way in every piece of media that we created. Was responsible for the consistency. You know, we have the eye on there, which is, you know, the eye of the creator that's looking into the soul. There's a certain touch to the heart in that. We stared, and Bob can tell you, we started we a lot of different ideas and really had to distill down how do we present this intersection of business and the creative world with an idea that we're going to talk about creatives resulting in business success. And so we [inaudible] the commerce of creativity. So we had an [inaudible] but other than that, it's two words. So, you know, and it sort of goes on, and if you look at the text that we used, we talk about the promise of what we're going to be giving people when they come here. What you'll be seeing is this. So we, good question, but we, I think we [inaudible]. So Robbie's asking this question, and Robbie had a client named Corewater. By the way, who knows Corewater? [Inaudible] who knows Corewater? OK. Corewater manufactures and markets a stunning series of reusable water bottles because they're made out of BPA-free plastic. [Inaudible] has designed that series of bottles, but when I came to work with Robbie, I saw that they had designed this magnificent bottle, and I said, well, what's, Robbie, what are they doing with it now. And he said, well, they're out of budget. You know, they're a startup. You know, an ex-Microsoft guy, an ex-agency guy. Smart, sharp guys, but they're out of budget. And Robbie and I talked together about the things we could do. I said why don't we give them a vision of the future, and show them how we can make a success of this. Great. So we got them on the phone, and we had dinner with them. And Robbie and I talked to Eric, the founder, and we said, Eric, we can create a strategic roadmap by which you can be selling a lot of these bottles very quickly. Are you open to that? Yes, I'm open to that. So we created a strategic roadmap which included as part of that process bringing them in so that they can understand what Corewater bottles are really about because you know what the market looks like for reusable water bottles right now. It's saturated. And here's a new [inaudible] that wants to come in with a new story, and they didn't have a story. They just had a spectacularly beautiful bottle. So in digging down, why did you guys decide to get into the water bottle business? Is it to go compete with, you know, Camelback and [Inaudible] and all the rest of these guys? No, no, no. We did it because water's really important. I said OK. Now let's stick with that. You are advocates for water, and this vessel you've produced, which they call a hydration vessel, which I think Robbie came up with, was a trophy for water. So I said, guys, whatever you do, you're water advocates. And the light bulb went off in, you know, all of our heads at that time, and they said that's it. And so [inaudible] with a concept of water advocacy. They put together a new website. They gave Robbie the money to go and manufacture these bottles, and with the story that we put out through social channels, through all the online channels we could harness at that time, Core had oversold their first year production of water bottles within the first three months of this program going live. And since then, Robbie has produced, you know, I think there are a half a dozen, nearly a half a dozen different water bottles including water bottle families, and Core is growing very quickly. So what we were able to do to Robbie's point is to move them from the, you know, from the thing, which is critical, because that's what they're making, to the value, to the concept. We're advocates for water. That means they were into bringing a huge volume of people who were not satisfied simply by a reusable bottle. They cared more about water than [inaudible], and so we had tiers of audiences that we brought in one after another after another, and built a pretty huge following. I would urge you to go and check out Corewater dot com and see these bottles, and then buy. I was going to bring mine tonight and forgot. Couple more questions, yes.
>> Can you say something about consistency that talks about not becoming run of the mill?
>> Yes. By using the other six, you got to use the other six, it will ensure that your consistency will not be run of the mill, but you've got to do the other six. But once you do those six, then do it all the same every time. Yes.
>> What was the fail-safe so that the seven secrets [inaudible] -
>> Thanks for bringing that up. The fail-safe is authenticity. You know, you've really got to show what you're about. You've got to show your heart. And if what's in your heart comes across as a sour note, it's not going to work. That if it's not real and it's not authentic, and you don't really know what you're talking about, you don't really do what you preach, people see through it immediately, and they won't let you do it.
