Posted on Feb 5, 2016

Is Your Company Story Fiction or Non-Fiction?

What kind of story does your company tell? Is there significant tension in it? Is it clear what’s causing the tension? Who is the hero: your product/service/brand, or the customer?

More importantly, based on the brand promise made in your story, can your team easily and consistently deliver on this promise?

In other words, does the brand experience support the brand story?

The American Marketing Association (AMA) published an article in April 2015 titled Digital Disruption and the Death of Storytelling. It’s written in a Q&A format, based on an interview with Dr. Douglas Rushkoff, media theorist, professor, author, and business consultant. The premise is that social media, Big Data and digital technology are hampering instead of helping marketers’ ability to connect with customers.

It’s increasingly difficult to tell a story that will resonate with customers. Why? As Rushkoff explains:

“Advertisers abused the stories so much that we don’t want to surrender our trust to anyone. We don’t trust the storytellers anymore, except in very few circumstances.”

The reason customers no longer trust (or believe) your brand story might be the type of story you are telling. It’s a marketing issue.

Fiction or Non-Fiction?

The end of the AMA article ends with a poignant statement from Rushkoff:

“A marketer’s role is to go to CEOs and … help them determine what their competitive advantage is. Help them figure out what their actual story as a company is. What do they provide? Where are they going? How do they want to get better? How do they want to make the world a better place? Then help them tell that non-fiction story to the real world. It’s that hard and that easy.”

This is a powerful – and true – statement, and should act as a wake up call to both marketers and CEOs.

But note the critical point here: marketers need to tell a “non-fiction” story.

Many companies still live in the fantasyland of trying to tell a fictional story. They promise that if you buy their product or service you’ll be happier, healthier, safer, faster, cleaner, smarter, better, etc. Whatever predicament you find yourself in, their product or brand is the hero that will save you. But is it really true?

The reality today is that with the click of a mouse customers can easily find out the truth about your company and how it develops, makes, distributes, and sells products and services. They have a window into what all the different people involved with the products and services really think about the organization.

Know What Matters

Attention all leaders! What is published online matters.

What are employees saying about your organization on GlassDoor?
What are employees posting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
What are customers posting online about your organization?
What are suppliers saying about your organization?
What are bloggers and other online media reporting about your organization?

Note: this is not a mandate to foster only great reviews and comments. (Customers are smarter than that.) It’s about fostering a reality that customers can accept and buy-in to. It’s about how what you offer fits into their non-fiction world.

So what’s the best way to foster a positive reality? Develop a clear and concise set of values for your organization.

Know Your Differentiating Values

Developing a purposeful and consistent brand experience is critical to creating a meaningful brand story. And if this brand story is unique to you, relevant to customers, and easily sustainable for everyone associated with your organization, then you have found your competitive advantage.

This is what I refer to as your differentiating values.

If your competitive advantage is to