GE: Fame, Feeling and Fluency through [Un]Impossible Missions

I recently attended the Columbia School of Business BRITE Conference. BRITE stands for “Brand – Innovation – Technology” and is an ongoing celebration of “great stuff” academia and commerce relating to big overarching topics in marketing. It is the annual hob-nobbing of fellow marketing wizards hosted by Columbia’s Center on Global Brand Leadership and I would urge you to sign up for next year’s gig.

The speaker roster was intriguing but I approached it with the usual mix of anticipation and apprehension I bring to conferences:

• I might feel something, learn something, even get inspired
• There would inevitably be sessions of lesser applicability to my work as a marketer, and
• Some speakers would be “neutral” enough to tempt me to tune out and check my e-mail.

One of the Keynotes was Linda Boff, CMO of General Electric, and somewhat unexpectedly, landed in the first category.

The GE brand is famous and recognizable (or “fluent” as we think of successful brands at BrainJuicer.) We know GE mostly from its broad range of products that include locomotives and nuclear plants, credit and financial instruments, MRI and other diagnostic equipment healthcare, and until recently refrigerators/dishwashers and stoves (yup...I confess multiple GE white goods purchases) and even TV (GE divested themselves of NBC in their joint venture with Comcast in 2013).

Some of us might know its attributes from its roots in invention (Thomas Edison was a founder).

But the story we consumers are likely to tell about GE has been “well, they do a bit of everything in a lot of big stuff, that is kind of, sort of, about science and technology.” Innovation has played a part in the brand narrative, as well as “imagination”. But honestly if you asked me to articulate how an innovation in a jet engine turbine (one of the things GE makes) benefits me as a consumer, I would be hard pressed.

They certainly have some very distinctive assets: The words “general” and “electric” in their corporate name might have been the explanatory thread in their products, at a certain point in their evolution. The iconic abbreviation to the “GE” logo enjoys fluency as a proxy for quality and reliability, even in markets where the English translation of the full name of the company might not be understood.

How we feel about GE has had its ups and downs: GE has had some darker narratives to overcome as a large lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry as well as its role as an environmental polluter, in air and water, emanating from some of its manufacturing practices. The brand’s "Ecomagination" initiative campaign in 2005 attempted to establish fame and fluency for GE as a “green” company, to varying degrees of success and credibility. Many of us simply couldn’t feel good about the brand.

Ms. Boff took the stage and described the consolidation to concentrate increasingly on transportation in aviation and rail, energy, and healthcare technology. Pretty scientifically serious, rational stuff, and arguably, in their consolidation, the biggest B2B marketing task one might imagine.

What she then described was the most sublimely emotional, System 1 campaign I have encountered of late: the [Un]Impossible Missions narratives.

[Un]Impossible Missions is a collaboration between GE and ad agency BBDO. These films aim to de-bunk the notion that global problems we face in the future can’t be solved, despite impossible odds, with the tenacious pursuit of ingenuity, and the creative application of hard science.

These notions of what is possible often derail us when we attempt to solve difficult problems. “It is kind of a mission everyone who works at GE - particularly our scientists and engineers - wakes up and thinks about every day," Ms. Boff said. She described the idea of the campaign as a vehicle to turn the idioms of impossibility on their heads.

The campaign illustrates phrases like “Catching Lightning in a Bottle” or “Like Talking to a Wall” or, my personal favorite, “A Snowball’s Chance in Hell” (I have used this myself, a lot, to describe goals I was convinced have zero chance of success.)

In “A Snowball’s Chance in Hell” scientists and engineers from the GE Global Research Center decide to send an actual snowball into the closest thing to hell on the planet: the very heart of an old foundry in Kazakhstan, where the molten metal reaches temperatures of over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The voiceover and sound track make us feel like we are watching a sci-fi action flick. The grim setting makes the improbability of “bringing the snowball back safe” palpable. As I sat in the audience I began thinking of the snowball anthropomorphically as a person in a Houdini-like escape, or a beloved pet-like mascot facing a dangerous monster. As the canister cradling the snowball was lowered into the fiery inferno, I felt “FEAR” . . . I WANTED THE SNOWBALL TO LIVE!!!

Spoiler alert: (I hope by now you have watched the video at LEAST twice!) When the scientists apprehensively remove the specially made canister from the molten mess and open it for the cameras and the snowball is there in all its frozen glory, they are gleeful. "Imagine the other impossible things we can do" is the closing tag line in the screen.

Wow. Inspiring emotional storytelling at its best. It just makes us feel “good”. The other videos in the series reveal equally inspiring narratives and they also represent a move by GE to become actual co-producers of content rather than simply advertisers or sponsors.

The campaign has become content that galvanizes their staff as well as their customers and general consumers.

Ms. Boff discussed the pending move of the GE world headquarters from the quiet Fairfield, CT suburbs to its new home on the once derelict and notorious Boston Waterfront. (Most assuredly, with no cynicism, there is a story that is strictly financial in terms of the tax incentives that the company has likely received for moving to Boston.)

But the narrative that they can now tell about the move will stress collaboration available to them with Boston’s academic community. The region around Boston is estimated as home to as many as 250,000 students at over 55 colleges and universities, including the science and technology innovation incubators of MIT and Harvard. This implied partnership signals impeccable science, youthful tenacity, vigorous optimism, and a bold new path to yet-to-be imagined invention and possibilities.

I came away from BRITE feeling GE’s [Un]Impossible Missions is a vibrant, inspiring and reassuring brand narrative that will help the company build Fame, Feeling & Fluency.

Read more from Susan Griffin and Brainjuicer in our Clubhouse.