Adapted from an interview with Marian Calabro conducted by Robbie Kaplan, a business journalist and columnist for AuditNet.

Q:  These days, what's the connection between history and marketing?

A:   Your firm's history is a secret weapon that's especially useful in hard times. At CorporateHistory.net we've seen this phenomenon at work in nonprofits, family-owned businesses, and even Fortune 500 companies such as our client Advance Auto Parts. Writing in the employee magazine FrontRunner, Advance CEO Darren Jackson recently declared: "To stay on path, we must remember what has made Advance successful for 75 years. Simply, our values, [which] have been and will continue to be our decision-making compass."


Q:  Why is history especially useful in hard times?

A:  During a recession, customers want assurance that your organization has a strong track record and will be there for them. Employees want that assurance, too. If your firm has lasted a respectable amount of time, no doubt you have survived downturns and emerged stronger. The trick is to tap into that institutional knowledge and share it. Your history is a stranded asset until you put it to work.


Q:  How can it be put to work?

A:  It's a potent, cost-effective tool for marketing, community relations, and worker morale.


Q:  Isn't marketing strictly a function of the marketing department?

A:  Your employees are always your best marketers. Marketing may not be part of our job descriptions, but all of us can advance our careers by becoming better marketers. One way to do that is to connect your customers to your organization's roots. In today's workplace, we get so flooded with daily concerns that it's easy to lose sight of the bigger mission. Your history reconnects you with that. Also, it cuts through the clutter. No other organization can tell your unique story or show your unique images.


Q:  Things change so fast these days, the past feels almost irrelevant.

A:  Some people are uncomfortable with the word "history." Try substituting the word "knowledge" or "reputation" instead. Or think of history as a way to measure your achievements. That's especially vital in the Internet age, when our work product isn't always tangible.


Q:  Any real world examples?

A:  Here's one. I wrote the history of a publicly-held regional energy company that turned 100 a few years ago. Their centennial came at a time when that industry had two black eyes: Enron had self-destructed, and rolling blackouts were hitting California. Suddenly it wasn't so unfashionable for this company to be a "widows and orphans" stock with a century-long record of paying dividends. In fact, the company made its financial stability and scandal-free history a subtle theme in its year-long anniversary campaign. Guess what? They've revived their uninterrupted-dividends message as part of their marketing during the current economic downturn. It still packs a punch.


Q:  It's true that many organizations are brimming with history and institutional knowledge, but how can they capture it?

A:  First, make the commitment. Then start small, in any number of ways:

• Within your department or division, bring long-term and short-term staff together for periodic sharing, even for a single afternoon. Record the results, get them transcribed, share them. It helps to have a third-party interviewer who's experienced in asking the right questions and keeping folks on track.
• Construct a timeline, highlighting the turning points that have moved the organization ahead. Adapt it for your Intranet and external Web sites. Invite employees to contribute information to it.
• Archive key materials and make them accessible. To get started on that, call the nearest graduate school of information services (check the accredited ones at the American Library Association site, www.ala.org) or the Society of American Archivists (www.archivists.org). CorporateHistory.net offers archiving services in the New York metropolitan area.
• Use these materials to enrich your Web site and to create a lasting record such as a book, DVD, or brochure.

Copyright © 2008 Marian Calabro. Organizations are welcome to reprint this article in any medium with written permission from CorporateHistory.net.