There’s a concept that drives a lot of key marketing
decisions and investments called “Branding”. A brand is a "name, term,
sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods
and services of one seller and to differentiate them from those of other
sellers.”
Companies around the world spend hundreds of millions
of dollars defining their brand. They then spend billions more building it to
the point where people around the world instantly recognize the brand and
attribute some value to it. This work pays off. Google landed the world’s top
brand recently – its brand alone was valued at $100 Billion. Microsoft was #2,
with a brand valued at $76 Billion. A brand is not a tangible asset per se;
this is about a value or feeling that is implied.
Good brands are about authenticity and reinforcement.
Authenticity means that what you’ve said, and what
has been experienced by the customer, are the same. People put value in
authentic brands. This is one of the reasons why Toyota is in such trouble right
now with its recent engineering troubles. For years it has built a brand based
on quality engineering, and has previously been able to claim that in an
authentic way. Now, they have a lot of work to do to rebuild that trust.
Reinforcement means that customers have a consistent
experience each time. McDonalds is the epitome of this idea. Whether you go to
a McDonald’s in Tacoma or Taipei, you should have a similar experience. When
you go to DisneyWorld in Orlando or Paris, you should have a similar
experience. There shouldn’t be great swings in the level of experience as a way
to protect their brand.
The world’s best brands know the importance of these
attributes, and protect their brands religiously.
As I thought about this talk, I asked myself: What
is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint brand? I think our Faith is defined
in many ways by those we come in contact with every day…some good, some not so
good.
I heard a story recently that reinforces this point.
A woman was driving on the streets of Las Vegas when
she pulled up to an intersection. Stuck
behind a car that wasn’t making a turn properly, she yelled and screamed
profanities at the driver and made common unpleasant gestures. The police
pulled her over, handcuffed her, and took her to the station. She continued in
a similar way all the way to the station. After several hours of waiting a
policeman finally came to take the handcuffs off of her. She demanded to know
why she had been held so long for merely cursing and gesturing at an
intersection. The policeman then told her that’s not why they pulled her over.
They had suspected she had stolen the car. The woman, stunned, said, “Why would
you think that?” The officer explained that when they saw her behavior, they
were surprised. But they thought it was stolen when they saw the bumper stickers
“RULDS2” and “Families can be together forever” on the back of her car.
Clearly, she did not exemplify the brand that these
officers were used to.
The
Brand “Mormon”
How people perceive our Faith is based on what they
see and what they experience. If they see us as faithful, family-oriented,
God-fearing, Christians who do good works, they see us in a positive light. My
friend at works says “Mormons are the nicest people I know”. That’s a
compliment to me and the other Mormon friends that she has had over the years.
Unfortunately, others have different opinions.
As the face to the Church, we are the brand
ambassadors for our religion. And like it or not, we will define our religion
for everyone we come in contact with. Is this a lot of responsibility? Yes.
Does it require us to think before we speak or act? It does.
For my talk today, I want to suggest that Latter-day
Saints can authentically own a very important Christ-like quality that will act
like a light in the darkness and bring people to the Truth. That branding
quality is Service, and the single idea for my talk is:
Let service define you
King Benjamin taught “When you are in the service of
your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God.”
Jesus taught us “For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall
save it.”
More recently President Monson said, “I believe the
Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there
is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves
eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose
themselves in service to others grow and flourish – and in effect save their
lives.”
I think about a story I heard once. A hurricane had
ravished a town, and because Latter-day Saints are easily mobilized and a highly-trained
workforce, they were some of the first responders. Days later, while continuing
to work in the area a neighbor approached one of the Latter-day Saints and said
“We really appreciate your help with all of this. There are two churches who have
really shown us what it’s like to be a Christian: The Mormons and those people
from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”.
This is a good brand experience.
President Monson said, “I am confident it is the intention
of each member of the Church to serve and to help those in need. At baptism we
covenanted to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.” How many
times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another?
How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has
day-to-day living interfered and you’ve left it for others to help, feeling
that “oh, surely someone will take care of that need.”
He continued, “We become
so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and
take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed
ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend
most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at
all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.”
Service opportunities are within eye sight of you
today. There are people around you today who are in need. These are people you
pass in the hallways in church, who may not feel welcome here. You might say
“that happens in other wards, but it does not in my ward”. This is simply not
true. Within the sound of my voice is someone who needs a hand of friendship.
Who needs your hand of kindness. If we fail here, we will fail out there. So
let’s firm up our resolve to help our Church brothers and sisters. Let us be
liberal in our service. Let us become addicted to it.
I want to tell you about two people, both very
different and yet very much the same.
Father Rick is a doctor and he runs an orphanage in
Haiti. The stories that we hear from him will break your heart. Here’s one:
“The unbelievable had happened. Sister
Abha was shot. How could they do this? The Sisters live with the poor, they
live poorly themselves, they care for the worse of the poor. Especially Sister
Abha, who opened their mission in Haiti, with Mother Teresa herself, twenty
eight years ago. She has worked tirelessly in Haiti for all these years. To add
salt to the wound, the shooting was ordered and paid for by a young man she had
taken off the streets and raised from the time he was a small child.
Fortunately she had pushed the arm of the thief as he fired, and the bullet pulverized
one of the bones of her forearm rather than piercing her chest. We were able to
get her to Florida right away for surgery. I called her a few days after her
surgery and asked if she would return to Haiti. She told me that God’s goodness
to her, especially following the shooting, obliged her to continue to
care for the poor of Haiti wholeheartedly. Besides, we will all die one day
anyway. It does not matter how or when or where. It only matters how we have
lived.
As we were organizing for Sister’s Abha’s
emergency care, the phone kept ringing about other kidnapped people and other
people shot in areas of conflict. We were back to the slums again. This time
the special police force was there. I told them I had to go into the slum for
an old man who was shot in the abdomen and a young girl shot through the thigh.
They told me they could not give me cover. I told them I didn’t need cover.
They told me I would be killed if I
went in. I told them I knew I would not be killed. They asked me why, was I a
gangster too? Was I a friend of gangsters? I told them I am a doctor and a
priest, and unless they themselves shot me, I knew I would not be shot.
Four of us went in with two stretchers.
Eight of us came out. (Aside from the two wounded, two young men offered to
help carry the stretchers out.) Not a shot was fired by anyone from the minute
we set foot into the slum until we left. When we came out unharmed, the special
police gave us a full scale scathing and search. They were sure we were
criminals. We had to be, if we could circulate freely in the slum. They
searched us, and when they were done we rushed the wounded, once more, to the
emergency room of Doctors Without Borders.”
The other example of service I want to high-light is
my mother-in-law.
She has always led a simple, humble
life. There is nothing pretentious about her. Year after year she makes due
with very little…she earns in a year what most of us earn in a month. She has
suffered her entire life from terrible, debilitating diseases which restrict
her functionality. Yet, she is constantly on the lookout for service opportunities.
She is like Mother Theresa in that she cares for the downtrodden and forgotten.
She will bring meals to the sick or home bound. She writes letters or cards to
those who have no family. She invites the lonely into her home. She has so
little, but day after day, month after month she finds ways to serve. These are
not the people she visit teaches – it’s not an obligation that she fulfilling.
It’s a way of life. No one knows that she does it, but she does it. These are
the poor, meek, and mild. These people need tenderness, and she administers to
them constantly.
What is similar about these two examples? They both
exemplify the Spirit of Christ in dolling out service. Both give willingly and
openly, with no thoughts of recompense, recognition, or praise. Both of them
have trained their eyes to watch for those in need. They have let service
define their life.
When I read Matthew, 25, it says:
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
“For I was an
hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a
stranger, and ye took me in:
“Naked, and ye
clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto
me.
“Then shall the
righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee?
or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
“When saw we
thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
“Or when saw we
thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
“And the King
shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
The essence of these sacred verses is this: we are
here to serve our fellow travelers on this journey through life. But how? We
must train ourselves to look for it.
We do not see easily find people who are starving in
Sammamish. But we do see people hungry for friendship or Truth. We do not see
people thirsty for water. But we see people struggling to keep their heads
above water. We may not see people who need a roof over their heads, but we see
people who need an arm of comfort.
President Monson said, “An attitude of love
characterized the mission of the Master. He gave sight to the blind, legs to
the lame, and life to the dead. Perhaps when we [face] our Maker, we will not
be asked, ‘How many positions did you hold?’ but rather, ‘How many people did
you help?’ In reality you can never love the Lord until you serve Him by
serving His people.”
I think Jesus is saying “Err on the side of too much
love and too much service. Be indulgent. Go overboard with service. Look for
opportunities to help people, and be ready to help.
