I feel like as marketers, what we need to strive for
are stories that are as interesting and compelling
and engaging as the best thing that we're streaming
And that is a ridiculously high bar,
but I feel like that's what good storytelling is,
is how do you make people fall in love with your brand?
Hey, I'm Sarah Franklin, and welcome to Connections,
where we hear from some of the most innovative leaders
Thomas Edison is known as America's greatest inventor,
breaking new ground in mass communications,
sound recording and motion pictures.
That spirit of innovation is in the DNA of General Electric,
the company he co-founded in 1889.
And it continues today under their CMO, Linda Boff.
You grew up in New Jersey.
Yeah, I'm across the river, so to speak.
It's nice to be in New York, but I'm a Jersey girl.
I'm the oldest of four girls.
So I kind of start there because in some ways my family
experience, as much being from Jersey,
I think if I look back, kind of shaped who I am
So I was so fortunate to be born into a family of a mom
and a dad who were obsessed with theater.
And having that experience so young I think really stayed
with me and in some ways kind of shaped my love
And so you also have what you might call the homegrown MBA.
I think you had like, was it eight internships or something?
I think I hold a Guinness world record in internships.
(laughs) You need to write that in the book, right?
You know, I went to a liberal arts college in upstate
New York called Union College, and I loved college,
but I always wanted to work, fine student, great worker.
And I think the way I explored that was, you know,
starting sophomore year or so, I thought, okay
I can get some experience, and I went to Washington
and did the summer internship on the Hill.
I went and worked at, I don't know, three or four
radio stations in the Albany area as an intern.
And each time I got a little closer to knowing
this is something I'm interested in, or a little
further away, this is something I don't want to touch again.
You know to me internships were ways to kind of see
what might be beyond the game board and just get a couple
You got incredible experience in marketing
and communications for 18 years before you went to GE.
ABC, radio networks, I went to a publishing company
when magazines were pretty popular.
They were all the rage. (laughs)
They were all the rage, they were all the rage.
Worked at a big institute called the American Museum
of Natural History, and then went to Citigroup
in a kind of startup job inside a big company,
starting a financial service company for women.
And it sounds like popcorn as I'm describing it,
it sounds like a potpourri of jobs.
but the through line for me was always something
that was a creative challenge, that at least, Sarah,
to me felt as though I kept borrowing from what I had done
before, even though the fields were nonlinear, right?
What does the American Museum of Natural History
have in common with Citigroup?
But I think it's a way of thinking.
It's a way of thinking of audience-backed, which is always
It's discovering the DNA of an organization,
and what makes that special, and interesting, and unique,
Well, it sounds like a steel thread
And you come to GE, where you bring ideas to life.
What is that like to work at such an iconic company?
I feel like I work at Thomas Edison's company.
Edison famously said, "I figure out what the world needs,
To work at a company that's focused on the future of flight,
decarbonization and the energy transition, precision health,
what treatment for what person at what time.
I pinch myself in the morning.
It's really a goosebump kind of company.
And the people who go to work at GE are folks
that aren't looking for an easy job, so there's almost
a sense in the culture of give me your tough problems,
give me the things that are kind of hard to do,
I'm going to figure it out.
And, you know, as a marketer I don't have an MBA,
and I've learned it on the job, from the business people
I work with, from the engineers who are problem solving,
and I think most of all, from trying to figure out how
to bring to life a brand in a way that is interesting
to such a panoply of audiences.
GE has incredible stories.
How, as a marketer, do you tell those stories?
So I think storytelling's everything.
Any company has a set of facts and a set of stories.
Data's so important, but without a narrative, data's dull.
Just a bunch of one and zeros.
And at the same time, if you only have a narrative
and you don't have data, that's sort of like an air balloon
So I think of storytelling, I think of our narrative
as kind of this journey into ourself,
When I'm looking at work, I always am looking for one,
what's the connection with the audience?
Two, is it simple enough?
Are we making people work hard to get us
or are we making it easy for them to get us?
And then is it differentiated, or could our competitor do it
and change the name and it would be the same thing?
It's the worst, it's the worst.
But I think it can be easy sometimes to fall into the trap
of, okay, this is a pretty good way to say something,
versus nobody else can say it this way.
What are the challenges of taking a legacy brand
and making it relevant today?
I think to me, the challenge of being around for so long
is keeping it fresh, keeping it relevant while still drawing
on what's made us trusted, respected, a company
that our customers count on 24 hours a day.
There's a perirenal GE story about innovation, about health,
And I think the challenge is keeping it fresh
and finding ways that connect with you.
As a long established brand, you're still trying things
Actually, I don't know if you knew, this Thomas Edison
and Alexander Graham Bell did experiments here
in this building that we're at.
I so love that we are sitting in a building,
That where experimentation had its flames and its moment.
How do you embrace his spirit of innovation
and experimentation today?
I think in some ways, experimentation is part of what
has kept our team and our brand rejuvenated.
For instance, GE was the first brand on Vine.
We did a little science experiment and we posted it on Vine
and we invited others to experiment with us.
I use that example, it's this big, it's a teeny,
teeny little example, but it's kind of in our DNA
to think about how do you light a flame,
and maybe invite others and turn that flame into a campfire.
I'll go back to Edison, since once upon a time
he was somewhere in this building.
This idea of, you know, with a light bulb,
he tried a thousand things that didn't work,
but then there was something that did.
And I think that's true with marketing,
not everything's going to be a hit.
And I think you have to try and see what captures people's
attention, what they're going to spark to.
So to me, experimentation is, I think of it as, in some ways
the life blood of storytelling.
How important is it to you to be on these digital
platforms and to be the first, to have the courage
Being first isn't about the shiny object for us,
it's about reinforcing that GE's a company of innovation.
I think the fact that we are willing to experiment,
whether that's six seconds on Vine, or a six hour show
Nat Geo with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard,
looking at the science of breakthrough and discovery.
There are ways that bring our brand to life that reinforce
who we really are, a company of innovation, a company
of invention, a company that's excited about what's next.
And I've heard you use this word, I hope I can say it well,
So first of all, Sarah, I don't even know if it's a word,
Okay, I looked in the dictionary,
No, I was like, I don't know. (laughs)
So to me, there's something about getting deeply
comfortable with who you are as a company, as a brand,
Because I think without that, you're building a false house.
So it starts with, in our case, what is super interesting
Our interestingness is different than yours,
is different than Pepsi's, is different than Peloton's.
There's something about interestingness
that as a storyteller, I find really compelling.
Like what's that thing that's going to make you say, wow,
I'm going to remember that, that was a story well told
based on who we really are.
You mentioned brands like Peloton, Pepsi.
How do you do that as a brand and as a marketer?
I'll tell you something we did early that I think
was remarkably helpful to us.
I dispatched a couple folks to just go and wander around
our facilities, to literally go and walk our factories,
smell the machinery, talk to people, hear their stories.
And it is amazing how, when you're sitting across
from somebody who's the machinist on a heavy duty
gas turbine, you learn something that you could never learn
sitting in a corporate office.
And then from there, we built dozens and dozens of stories.
And how open do you have to be with the beginner's mind
when you hear what's really coming back?
That's a wonderful question.
I think the beginner's mind in some ways is why I personally
try to surround myself with people from all different
industries, startups, lots of agency partners,
because I think that beginner's mind, fresh eyes,
it gets worn off quickly.
And then all of a sudden you're sort of saying
the same stuff and thinking about stuff the same way.
You're not interesting anymore. (laughs)
And you're not so interesting anymore.
So I think that outside-in point of view
And I feel like our team at GE, my team at GE
has that combination of, some people have been there
a little while, a lot of people have come from the outside
and just have a fresh approach.
To me, marketing is always exciting.
It's always the next thing, it's always waking up
the next morning and seeing, what's Salesforce doing?
What's another company doing?
Oh, that's really interesting, I haven't thought about it.
You've been a huge part of GE's transformation.
What's your advice to other leaders navigating change?
I feel like as marketers, what we need to strive for
are stories that are as interesting and compelling
and engaging as the best thing that we're streaming
And that is a ridiculously high bar, but I feel like
that's what good storytelling is, is how do you make people
fall in love with your brand?
What is your advice to marketers that are trying
to stay one step ahead of the curve?
You know, sometimes as marketers, we like to talk,
We like to talk, I like to talk. (both laugh)
But I think listening to our audiences and figuring out
where they're spending time is a way to kind of look
into the future a little bit.
I can't predict where the next big thing is going to be,
but I can watch where people are spending time,
and so I think it's listening to the marketplace
and taking your cues from your audience.
I think if you're not on the playing field,
if you're not using the tools and spending time
where your audiences are, you're never going to learn anything.
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