When Legends Fade.

I recently wrote about the need to make your marketing story legendary. Implicit in that post was the need to constantly reinvigorate the legend as the recent story of the Leonard Cheshire Homes illustrates.

Leonard Cheshire was a war veteran, Victoria Cross recipient and then nurse who founded a charity that runs homes for the disabled around the world. As a child, I was aware of his story and his work. But it is argued today that it has no resonance with younger generations and there has been much press coverage of the intention to change the charity's name to something like eQual UK, Equalability UK or A-BL UK.

Will these names have any resonance with the younger generation and, if so, for how long? How much alienation (or publicity) will be caused by the apparent jettisoning of the true legend? Is it possible to reinvigorate a truly amazing story so that it appeals to all generations going forward?

It's a tough call to make but, whatever decison is reached, the lesson is clear. They must decide what legend they're propagating and live it every day because their failure to do that in the past is the reason they're facing this dilemma.