Are You Telling the Truth?

Brand Coherence vs. Brand Dissonance

Note from Tim: Starting this week, I’m delivering weekly resources from conversations I’ve had around “tension topics,” including some from my recent episode with the incredible

Alec McNayr

. There’s some recommended links and resources at the bottom of this post.

I’d love your feedback on this format, and hope to provide you with value.

Thanks for reading!

Tim

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#32: Alec McNayr — Searching for Who You Truly Are

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Nuggets from the Podcast

The flight was fully boarded and the doors were closed. But one passenger on board was digging around, trying to find their phone. But it was sitting inside the terminal — all hope seemed lost.

Inside, the phone was in the hands of the gate agent, who didn’t hesitate for a second. They would find a way to get this phone to the customer, even though the plane was already away from the gate.

According to news reports, "The captain immediately suggested that the ramp agents on the ground try to jump the phone up to him so he could return it to the customer,"

Video shows the phone that was given to ramp workers who stood below the front of the plane and jump up to hand the phone into the hands of a Southwest Airlines pilot who is hanging out of the window in the cockpit.

Once the plane was in the hands of the pilot, the workers celebrate, and the phone was reunited with the passenger.

All of this caught on video, and just another affirmation of the external messaging that Southwest Airlines speaks to regularly in their marketing efforts: despite low fares and weird boarding processes, they are obsessed with customer service.

In a very different set of circumstances this year, a number of incidents have provided a chilling effect on potential customers and users. Branded as the epitome of quality, Boeing has felt the effects of brand dissonance.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, flown on a Boeing 737 Max 9, suffered a violent explosion when the aircraft lost a door plug during a commercial flight.

In fact, this led to the company holding a “Quality Stand Down” on January 23. "During the session, production, delivery and support teams will pause for a day so employees can take part in working sessions focused on quality," the announcement said.

However, on March 11, 50 passengers were injured when a LATAM Airlines flight from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand, experienced a technical error that caused the plane to experience “strong movement” while en route to Auckland.

Whistleblowers within the company seemed to indicate the external messaging of the company was very clearly not reality on the ground.

"The reason the door blew off is stated in black and white in Boeings own records," the person writes on an aviation website. "It is also very, very stupid and speaks volumes about the quality culture at certain portions of the business."

Most recently on March 25th, the CEO stepped down.

Brand Coherence vs. Brand Dissonance

Alec McNayr, the co-founder of McBeard and current CEO of Spotlight & Co. recently spoke with me about this phenomenon.

“So much attention and money and resource get’s paid to external messaging,” he said.

There’s a huge danger here: often there is a focus on share of conversation and volume on social, huge ad campaigns, and all the media that goes with that, but little is spent considering the internal alignment of these external messages.

“If the things you are saying externally are incongruent with what people are feeling internally…at best you’re going to have a bunch of people that just don’t feel like you’re being honest,” said Alec.

For brands like Boeing, it’s been disastrous. Privately the company was doing whatever helped the stock price — despite publicly claiming being all about quality.

But for a brand like Southwest Airlines when the internal messaging meets external actions, it creates magic like nothing else. Incredible things happen when you get the internal messaging, training, hiring, and decision-making congruent both internally and externally.

“If it works,” Alec believes, “You have a massive opportunity for people to amplify the message if it rings true with what you’re saying.”

Links & Resources

• Founders Podcast #322 Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)

• Leading with Heart: Living & Working the Southwest Way

Recommended Books:

• Decade By Decade by Bobb Biehl

• Asking Profound Questions by Bobb Biehl

• The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life by Paul Millerd

• Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin Freiberg

Connect with Alec McNayr: 

Spotlight | Substack | LinkedIn | X

Support the Podcast

If you’re interested in getting a video setup like I have, check out The Dream Studio Course and don’t waste time trying to figure it out alone.