TWO:The forest round Kandy is glorious, an exuberance, a crush of trees growing as thick as they can stand, the dense tangle of boughs and leaves outgrown by some enormous ficus, or tall terminalia, whose sharp, angular roots have pushed through the soil while its trunk, twisting in a spiral, has made its way to a prodigious height, ending a thick dome of foliage. This, again, is overgrown by delicate creepers decking the green mass with their flowers. Spreading banyans, with a hundred stems thrown out like branches and ending in roots, form colonnades of a rosy grey hue like granite, and might seem to be the vestiges of some colossal church with a dark vault above, scarcely pierced here and there by a gleam of blue light from the sky beyond. Among these giants of the forest dwells a[Pg 131] whole nation of bending ferns as pliant as feathers, of clinging plants hanging in dainty curtains of flowers from tree to tree. Sometimes between the screen of flowers a bit of road comes into view, deep in impalpable brick-red dust, of the same tint as the fruits that hang in branches from the trees.In front of the palace, beds filled with common plants familiar in every European garden fill the place of honour; they are very rare, no doubt, in[Pg 54] these latitudes, and surprising amid the gorgeous hedges of wild bougainvillea that enclose the park.
Employees and consumers. Two halves of a brand’s entirety, the whole of a brand’s audience. Sometimes these two halves have very different viewpoints, creating a weak spot in the brand story. Weakness tarnishes credibility. Brands that aren’t credible aren’t viable.
We squash weakness by designing the whole brand story. It’s crafted around the truism held by employees and consumers to create an experience that connects from the inside out.
By being true to the brand we represent, we elevate the audiences’ relationship to it. Like becomes love becomes a passion. Passion becomes advocacy. And we see the brand blossom from within, creating a whole story the audience embraces. That’s when the brand can truly flex its muscles.
TWO:In the distance, across the plain, herds of deer were feeding, and hardly looked up as the train went by.