Stepping into the temperature-controlled vault, we felt like we were in the presence of baseball's immortal greats.
踏入这个温控仓库，感觉就像是来到了棒球界不朽巨人们的面前。
We were inside a hallowed sanctum at Louisville Slugger: an archive of bat models, each custom-designed to the specifications of a pro. The models fill horizontal racks that line the walls. Reaching to a slot marked R43, Marketing VP Kyle Schlegel reverently withdrew one. "This was the template for all of Babe Ruth's bats," he whispered.
我们走进的是Louisville Slugger公司的圣殿：这里存放着各种棒球棒模型，每一杆都是根据一名专业球员的规格度身定制的。这些模型摆满靠墙排列的水平陈列架。走到一个标记有“R43”的格子时，营销副总裁凯尔•施莱格尔虔诚地取下其中一把。他小声说：“这是贝比•鲁斯（美国19世纪20、30年代著名职业棒球运动员）所有球棒的模版。”
According to legend, the iconic Louisville Slugger bat was born in 1884, when a 17-year-old baseball fan invited a major league player to his father's woodworking shop. The star of the Louisville Eclipse was mired in a hitting slump and had broken his bat. The teen handcrafted a new bat to the player's specifications. The next day the Louisville star got three hits.
富有传奇色彩的Louisville Slugger公司诞生于1884年。相传，当年一名17岁的棒球迷将一位大联盟球手请到了自己父亲的木工作坊。这位路易维尔日蚀队（即现在的路易维尔上校队）球星正处于职业生涯的低谷，而且还把球棒打折了。年轻人便按照这位球员的规格手工制作了一根新球棒。第二天这位球星就赢了三杆子球。
The Brand Ideal, or Purpose, of Louisville Slugger is "to make players great." That statement could sound like puffery, except that the stories surrounding the brand make it plain and true. This is the case for most Ideal-driven businesses. Stories make the Ideal wheel spin.
Louisville Slugger的品牌理念，或者说品牌目的，是“成就伟大的球手”。听着可能像是吹牛，但围绕这个品牌的故事却让它显得朴素实在。大多数受理念驱动的公司都是如此。故事会让理念生生不息。
Much has been written about the importance of storytelling in marketing and management, but nowhere do tales have a taller order than inside the walls of Ideal-driven companies. They bring definition to the Ideal. They authenticate it and animate it. They inspire and direct its activation. They reaffirm the course and perpetuate the narrative.
故事在营销与管理中的重要性已经得到大量论证，但要论故事所扮演的角色之重，莫过于在理念驱动型企业之中。他们将理念加以定义、给予认证并赋予生命。它们启发并引导理念在实践中的应用。它们一再肯定当初的路线，将叙事贯穿始终。
In our year-long journey visiting Ideal-driven companies, we uncovered two types of stories that are particularly nutritive to the Ideal agenda. The first is what Jonah Sachs, author of Winning the Story Wars, calls "genesis stories."
我们用了一年时间拜访由理念驱动的公司，其间我们发现，两种类型的故事最能滋养理想议程。其中一种故事被《赢得讲故事之战》（Winning the Story Wars）一书的作者约拿•萨克斯称为“创世纪故事”。
Genesis stories illuminate the motivation behind the brand or the company at its founding. Like the baseball fan milling a bat for a pro, every great business is a response to a real and specific customer need. And the genesis story clarifies this.
创世纪故事展现了品牌或公司创立之初的动机。正如那位棒球迷为球员打磨球棒的故事一样，每一家伟大的公司都是对某个真实存在的特定顾客需求的响应。而创世纪故事正是理清了这一点。
At Unilever, the genesis story provides inspiration and direction for CEO Paul Polman. In the months before he took charge in 2009, he studied Unilever's genesis. As an outside hire, he made it his business to know the heritage story better than most anyone else.
联合利华（Unilever）创世纪故事为CEO保罗•波尔曼提供着灵感和指引。他在2009年接掌公司前的几个月里研读了联合利华的创始历程。身为一名空降CEO，他自觉自愿地承担起了一向责任，比大多数人都深入地了解公司的传承。
That story began in the 1890s with William Hesketh Lever, who sought to use his new Sunlight brand soap to "make cleanliness commonplace" and mitigate hygiene-related problems that plagued Victorian England. In late 19th century Britain, one of every two babies would not survive their first year.
故事缘起于19世纪90年代，故事的主人公是威廉•赫斯基思•利华，他尝试用自己新推出的Sunlight（“阳光”）牌肥皂“使清洁成为家常便饭”，同时缓解英国维多利亚时期泛滥成灾的卫生问题。20世纪后叶的英国，每两个新生儿中就有一个活不过第一年。
According to Polman, Lever would ask himself, "How do I grow, grow, grow so that more people get the benefit?"
据波特曼说，利华问自己：“我怎样才能实现增长、增长、再增长，让所有人都享受到恩惠？”
Today, Polman says, "the issues have just moved to sub-Saharan Africa and India" -- where another of William Lever's creations, Lifebuoy soap, is there to help the cause. "Lifebuoy is exactly what the name says."
波特曼告诉我们，如今，“问题转移到了撒哈拉以南非洲地区和印度”——而威廉•利华的另一个创造，Lifebuoy（“救生圈”）肥皂，正在那些地方推动这项事业。“Lifebuoy真是名符其实。”
The second type of story we observed is the customer impact story. This narrative documents the life-improving effects of an enterprise. For example, last year, Unilever's Lifebuoy team created a three-minute film to promote hand washing in India. The video depicts a father giving thanks for his son's fifth birthday. The closing sequence reveals that the son is the man's first child to survive his fifth year.
我们总结得到的第二种故事，是顾客影响故事。这种叙事记述的是一家企业在改善生活方面的成效。例如去年，联合利华的Lifebuoy团队就创作了一则三分钟短片，用以在印度推广洗手习惯。视频中，一名父亲在儿子的五岁生日上表达感恩。片尾披露，这个儿子是他第一个活到五岁的孩子。
The Lifebuoy film has been viewed on YouTube almost 19 million times.
这则Lifebuoy短片在YouTube上的播放次数接近1,900万次。
Customer impact stories don't have to recount saved lives to be powerful. Edmunds, which provides online services for car buyers, used video testimonials to share what its Brand Ideal—"Simplifying life's big decisions"—means for its customers. One video shows how the Edmunds website empowered a 74-year-old woman to purchase her "ticket to independence." Another celebrates a mother's new-found mobility.
顾客影响故事要有说服力，不一定非要述说拯救了多少条人命。为汽车买家提供网络服务的Edmunds公司就使用视频推荐，来分享自己的品牌理念——“简化生活中的重大决定”——对顾客的意义。其中一则视频展示了Edmunds网站如何使一位74岁老妇得以买到她“前往独立的门票”。还有一则视频则庆贺了一位母亲新近获得的出行自由。
Edmund's President & COO Seth Berkowitz says, "The videos reflect exactly what we would like to think we're all about -- and the mission we're trying to live."
Edmund总裁兼首席运营官塞斯•贝尔科维奇说：“这些视频恰好反映了我们对自身宗旨的设定——以及我们努力实践的使命。”
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