There was little warning of how the boy would turn out. Slight and bespectacled, he looked almost studious, but was no academic. Despite this, in his teens he launched a student magazine and even took it to Oxford's academic elite; he then sold it nationally, far beyond Isis.
In his twenties he tilted at the conventions of an oddly traditional music industry and came close to the edge. His free spirit, however, lent him good fortune and with a strange, instrumental album he crossed to mainstream success.
The legend was born but now played out on broader fields of combat: retailing, manufacturing, aviation. The unprepossessing boy followed his instincts. He grew a beard and strutted manfully, seeking out and inspiring others who shared his free spirit (including this brandstory observer).
Where tradition said zig, our hero said zag. Where the past looked conventional, he preached radical. You may not be biggest, he declaimed, but you can be first.
This spirit of innovation found its most vivid expression within his proudest venture, the airline. First with an Upper Class, he left First Class looking overpriced and stuffy. First with multiple film selection, no smoking flights across the Atlantic, cabin staff encouraged to behave as individuals. First to take on the Goliath of British Airways and win.
Our challenger knew that, slight build or no, with his free spirit he could sling a sharper shot than the big, bad corporate. He knew that the man on the Clapham omnibus would support him, the underdog, if he could bob and weave and keep landing the first blow, publicly. He understood the power of an emotional appeal, which is how he built his brand.
Since that legendary confrontation with Goliath, not every slingshot has found its mark. Yet our hero's powerful story sustains his brand through all the dark days. It lights a path for other Davids to follow.
This brandstory writer had the great good fortune to work on Virgin's behalf for seven years — with campaigns that kept cash flowing and the airline flying — from when it had just four planes in the air.
