There was a time in recent marketing history when the CMO’s role was to be the Chief Storyteller. Thankfully, those days are over. There are many who believe that during the “era” of creative titles for the CMO role, the CMO function suffered and still needs more corporate respect.
However, brands are now even more obsessed with telling their story. This desire to articulate the brand to customers and Wall Street is leading brands to find people who can turn facts into fiction and fiction into facts. Forget Peter Drucker. Think Joyce Carol Oates. Brands want storytellers.
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It turns out that in an uncertain, over-digitized, 24/7, techno-heavy world where anyone can influence the attitudes and behaviors of others with a snappy online presence, brands find that having a good “story” is now an absolute necessity. Storytelling is not a new idea. As long as people have been trying to persuade or educate others, telling an interesting story has been, and always will be, the most effective form of communication. So, it should not come as a surprise that “storyteller” is the hot new job in the business world, as The Wall Street Journal reports.
What is a story?
According to the dictionary, a story has multiple meanings.
A story is a described plot; a report of an item of news in media; a piece of gossip; an informal or false statement or explanation; an account of past events in someone’s life or in the evolution of something; a particular person’s representation of the facts of a matter, especially as given in self-defense; a situation viewed in terms of the information known about it or its similarity to another.
The fact that brands need a compelling “story” tells you how disconnected C-suites are from the basic principles of brand management. Brands are promises of relevant, differentiated experiences. Brands must first identify and articulate their experiences. Before you start creating the story, it is essential to know just what is the brand that this story will recount. Brand building is about communicating a coherent, multi-dimensional, flexible, dynamic, evolving, multi-faceted brand story. What do branders think their role has been over the past decades? Being the voice of the customer means that CMOs were supposed to communicate the brand’s story. Now, this storytelling is its own role.
But, just because you see your BA in English finally paying off, let’s be clear: if the brand story does not contribute to enduring profitable growth, the story of the brand storyteller will have an unhappy ending. Please do not forget that marketing and innovation are investments, not costs. The C-suite expects the “investment” to pay out.
Close to ten years ago, we wrote a Trends report for IHG on the significance and value of brand provenance. Provenance, an idea usually associated with Sotheby’s auctions, is crucial to creating a trustworthy brand experience. Storytelling – told with Homeric detail – can articulate and enhance the brand’s provenance, making that brand’s provenance accessible to the target audience.
A brand’s provenance is its consistent, motivating, relevant, distinctive heritage. The power of provenance is not about preserving everything from the past; it is about preserving the best of the past for the present and the future. Provenance emphasizes a past of authenticity, a present of genuine customer engagement, and a trustworthy foundation for the future.
A strong, relevant brand heritage helps to build brand credibility. As with any great story, a brand’s heritage provides customers with verifiable information, giving credence to a brand’s message.
Brand provenance expresses what the brand stands for internally and externally. Yes, internally. Employees need to know the brand just as much as customers need to know the brand.
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A good storyteller will use a brand’s provenance to craft a compelling, interesting, and intriguing argument to draw you into the brand. If you have read Rick Atkinson’s books on the American Revolution, you will immediately understand how entranced you can become when someone can marvelously write about a factual story.
However, it is not enough to write a compelling brand story. Spoiler alert: telling is not selling. In our current environment of multiple platforms, hardware, and media, a storyteller must persuasively communicate that brand story coherently across every viable messaging conveyance.
To be a great brand storyteller, you must be a great Brand Journalist.
In 2004, at McDonald’s, Brand Journalism was a critical part of the fabled turnaround plan.
With McDonald’s success, Brand Journalism became a concept of modern marketing. Advertising Age heralded Brand Journalism as one of the top ten most important ideas of the first decade of this century.
Journalism is the collection and communication of news, events, and happenings. Journalism tells us what is going on in the world around us. Journalism informs, entertains, and persuades. Journalism lets the reader be a witness to history.
It is the same with Brand Journalism.
Brand Journalism is a chronicle of the varied things that happen in your brand’s world, throughout each day, throughout the years. No single communication alone tells the whole brand story. Each communication provides a different insight into your brand.
Brand Journalism is a multi-faceted way of communicating a multi-dimensional brand narrative. A brand is a complex, multi-dimensional, relevant, differentiating brand idea that defines a distinctive brand experience. Brand Journalism is by far the most flexible, meaningful, powerful tool for brand marketers who must navigate through the world-altering forces of mobile, sharing, co-creating, information-rich, information-now.
To communicate a brand’s message, do not copy and clone a single idea within a single template. People will not read the same article with interest over and over again. This is why magazines have different articles. With Brand Journalism, each medium tells a different part of the brand story.
At the time we created Brand Journalism, an Advertising Age commentator wrote that the concept was “lunacy.” Well, Brand Journalism was lunacy you could take to the bank because following the adoption of Brand Journalism, McDonald’s sales turned around. McDonald’s was recognized as the Marketer of the Year, won awards for effectiveness, and the stock price went from around $12 to over $60 in three years. As reporter Randall Ringer commented, “If that’s lunacy, that’s the kind of lunacy that I like!”
Brand Journalism is adaptable and relevant as a marketing tool. It is increasingly important in our fractionated, personalized, digital, always-on, mobile era of sharing and engagement. Brand Journalism is recognized as an effective marketing approach for telling a brand’s story.
Word of caution for those who wish to take on the journalistic storytelling role. What is still missing in today’s evolution is that the storytelling basis for Brand Journalism is a multi-channel, multi-media concept. Every touch point with the customer is a media impression, including packaging.
Sadly, there are many who see Brand Journalism as a clever way to do advertising that gets around advertising avoidance behavior. They see it as sponsored journalism or product/message placement.
For many, the concept of Brand Journalism is confined to the narrow perspective of so-called “content marketing.” It does not recognize that everything communicates: store design, merchandising, signage, and package design.
One marketing firm specializing in marketing automation wrote, “Brand Journalism is a type of content marketing that tells the story of a brand through copy that reads like journalism.”
Wrong.
Brand Journalism is much more than just a different phrase for content marketing. It is more than copy. It is an approach to brand storytelling that involves every opportunity to communicate a brand aspect to consumers.
That marketing firm added, “Why Brand Journalism just makes sense? Because Brand Journalism makes it easier for companies to make a personal connection to their target audiences through storytelling.”
Keep in mind that content marketing has taken on an ad-oriented role that Brand Journalism was never intended to provide. When thinking about content marketing, content marketing folks often overlook package design, store design, signage, product design, and letterhead. Content-focused mis-marketers decree that package design, store design, product design, signage, or letterhead are not effective elements of Brand Journalism. These mis-marketers do not see package design, store design, product design, signage, or letterhead as a way to reinforce the brand story at the point of decision-making and point of use.
So, for all of you chafing at the bit to become a brand storyteller, here are some new rules for making the most out of Brand Journalism.
Rule #1: Know the Brand First. Then, Create the Brand Story
What is the brand? What do you wish the brand stood for in the customer’s mind? What is the intended brand story? Learn the brand story. What elements of the story should each communication option specifically reinforce? What role can package design, store design, product design, signage, letterhead, and such play to bring the brand story to life at the point of purchase?
Rule #2: Brand Provenance
If your brand has a history, use that history. Sure, you should make it engaging. But decades of trustworthiness have been cemented around this provenance. Make that story modern. Contemporize, do not condemn. Do not cast provenance aside.
Rule #3: Change The Mindset
All brand functions need to be part of the Brand Journalism team. But many organizations are not recognizing that in today’s hyper-fractionated world, this is a truism. For example, do not wait to be called in to design a package when someone says, “Oh, we need a new pack design.” Proactively change the way you behave.
Rule #4: Think of yourself as a Brand Journalist.
In the world of Brand Journalism, every brand element is part of the brand story. What part of the story is your package design, store design, product design, signage, or letterhead telling?
Rule #5: Telling Isn’t Selling
Brand storytelling is nice, but it is designed to make a sale. Marketing is profitably satisfying a customer’s need or problem. Disney tells terrific stories. But these stories make money across all platforms, from cruises to theme parks to merchandise. Storytelling for its own sake is bad for business. Your story is intended to sell your brand. Be persuasive and compelling. Telling isn’t selling… and it isn’t yelling.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Joan Kiddon, Partner, The Blake Project, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define and articulate what makes them competitive and valuable at pivotal moments of change. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth, and Brand Education
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