The Case for the Storytelling Auditor
Here and on a lot of other marketing blogs these days, you’ve been reading about the importance of storytelling or “brand narrative.” Of course, it is especially important for connecting with your consumer’s more feminine brain traits – and that’s why I return to the topic pretty often.
I got to thinking about it, yet again, as I delivered a presentation to the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility conference recently and had a planning call for a building industry storytelling panel. Because it was so on my mind, an interesting idea floated up: Should brands hire “storytelling auditors?”
I think so – and here are two reasons:
One – terminology and imagery: While I know the “brand manager” should serve as the storytelling auditor, it is never quite written into the job description or committed to seriously. Furthermore, the imagery of “storytelling” seems to humanize that responsibility a bit, which could be a very good thing. Where “brand” seems corporate, “story” seems like something neighbors might tell each other. And, isn’t THAT ideally what marketers are now striving for in all their efforts? To get consumers to pass the tale around – one email, voice or Twitter at a time.
Two – walking the talk: The creation and development of story, chapter by chapter, reflects the long term investment marketers should be putting into better serving their customers – especially if women are a focus. Story is what can link ad campaigns over the years and give marketers something visual and creative in which to “hold” their work. It is an easy question to keep asking: Does this promotion, ad, cause, or business practice really fit into our story? For example, is it a natural for a residential developer to support the breast cancer cause, or would a families-in-need effort be more resonant within a community creation story line?
Things to consider:
Externally: What makes your brand and product incredibly unique,and much more inviting to consumers? What makes them see you as an information or solution provider, rather than a hard sell? Story.
Internally: What gives employees and management an easy reference point and some structure to build upon? What helps a corporation interact more naturally with its consumer base at every level? Story.
Boiling a process down to its essence is often the key. A storytelling auditor should maintain an overall awareness of all output or customer-brand interaction, so he or she can filter out the unimportant characters and plot lines. I don’t see this as a complex new task so much as a finer tuning of that which exists and a raised engagement with what may “happen” next.
All of which makes me think that a brand or business mind is perhaps not the best suited for this role, while a fiction writer may be. (And, I’m guessing there are many underemployed fiction writers out there about now). That talented, objective someone will have an eye and an ear for catching inconsistent tone/irrelevant elements, and he/she will know how to identify and develop those pieces that will really matter throughout the brand tale.
Transforming brand management into storytelling, or adding storytelling in to the brand management mix, may not be a huge change. But, such a shift could be the edge your brand needs in this new, more conceptual, story-expecting age.
