Moleskine: weaving true stories into the brand

Moleskine notebooks have built their business, reputation and growing fan-base purely on the strength of their product, and the story behind it. Below on the left is one used by Picasso, and on the left one you can buy today.

A post on the Idea Sandbox explains the magic of the product, with some of the key "brand truths" as follows:

– Product features/craftmanship: "black covered, bound with
thread instead of glue, a bookmark ribbon sewn in and a bound elastic band holds the book shut"

– Brand history: 200 years old, riginally produced by small French bookbinders who supplied the
Parisian stationery shops frequented by the international avant-garde

– Famous users:  used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso and Ernest Hemingway.

– Exclusive distribution: sold in all the best bookshops and in particular at: Barnes & Noble, Borders, Waterstone, FNAC

– Credentials through use in movies: such a great product, its often used in movies, further building the brand’s credibility

The brand are proud of their product and celebrate it, with an exhibition in London this October displaying the Moleskine notebooks of 70 artists, designers and artists.

5-minute workout: what brand truths do you have that you could make more of to build authenticity and appeal? Have you looked in detail at things such as your history, famous users, distribution as sources of brand truth?