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Market Leadership

Narrative + PR = Category Winner

It’s harder than ever to stand out — with most companies saying the same thing as competitors. It’s even harder to seize the top spot within your given category. Despite all the digital automation and intelligence available to marketers, effective public relations still provides the most credible path to winning the market positioning battle, especially for startups and B2B tech firms. Don’t get me wrong… Growth hacking is great. As is paid digital marketing that

Guy Murrel June 27, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Achieve Strategic Company Alignment with a Strategic Narrative

Every business leader wants their company to be strategically aligned. It creates unity among teams and delivers a consistent, clear message of who the company is and what it stands for. Unfortunately, achieving this sort of alignment from the top down and across every facet of the organization is complicated because a lot of companies struggle with their positioning and messaging. What is strategic business alignment? Jonathan Trevor and Barry Varcoe do a great job

Christin Jeffers June 14, 2018

Strategic Narrative

30 Quotes on “Narrative” and its Impact on Storytelling

As stated in the previous “50 Quotes on Narrative that Change the Way we look at Storytelling” blog post – a picture may be worth a thousand words, but the narrative itself is priceless. As marketing and PR pros, we must unpack the truth in what makes a narrative resonate with our audience, thereby incentivizing our desired call to action. It takes time and dedication to create a powerful narrative – a constant drip of

Charles Trowbridge June 6, 2018

Strategic Narrative

How Communications Pros can get the Whole Company Excited About Category Building

Communications and PR people get the importance of narrative. You don’t need to convince us, it’s the world we live in. Stories shape and redefine our companies, our clients, the industry we are in and the industries we represent. Our day-to-day work involves digging up those narratives, editing them, analyzing them and acting with the story as the backbone of our activity. Therefore, when the marketing team creates a plan or the PR agency comes

Laura Balboni May 29, 2018

Market Leadership

Why You Shouldn’t Leave it up to the Industry Analysts to Define and Claim Your Market Category

If you are in the tech space, you are familiar with all the industry research firms who tout their worth and value when it comes to defining who your company is and where you fit within their various market categories. Companies pay a LOT of money to get on analysts’ radar screens and utilize their advice and services. There’s nothing really wrong with this approach. There is definitely certain value you get out of paid

Terri Douglas May 24, 2018

Market Leadership

Five Reasons why Category Building is Marketing Gold

True market leaders own, define and/or lead market categories. Think about the Apple’s, Netflix’s and Airbnb’s of the world. They disrupted competitive and dynamic markets, intentionally created new and innovative categories in markets where technology was forcing change – and the results have been extremely prosperous. Marketers should be REALLY excited about this because it’s not easy to stand out in crowded digital platforms – and it’s getting harder to bring new people in. Consumers

Christin Jeffers May 17, 2018

Thought Leadership

We’ve Come Full Circle: Email is Dead.

I’m not one to jump on trends. If something brings actual value, then I’m all for it. If it feels like it’s all style over substance, it probably is. Business development in the B2B tech sector for public relations companies is often a timely convergence of need, trends and luck. In the age of email lists – bought and sold like bizdev currency – it is tempting to get stuck in the blast loop, trying

Charles Trowbridge May 9, 2018

Market Leadership

Women-in-Tech Narrative Aims to Empower and Inspire

This article is reposted from Business 2 Community. Read the original posting here: https://www.business2community.com/leadership/women-in-tech-narrative-aims-to-empower-and-inspire-02052220 An industry narrative presents a great opportunity for organizations of all types to stand for something higher than “what they do.” Crafting a narrative that aims to inspire industry change is the stuff that sets true market leaders apart and determines business winners and category champions. Sometimes it’s hard to grasp how a strategic narrative – not traditional messaging or storytelling – can

Guy Murrel April 30, 2018

Market Leadership

Narrative Spotlight: A Strategic Narrative Can Sweeten Social Media and Drive Real Change

In many respects, the social media narrative is souring as its worst qualities have come to light. Anyone who follows the news has seen countless stories about data breaches, election meddling, its addictive nature and even its impact on mental health – and studies back these claims. For instance, social media is now reportedly linked to depression in teens. A study completed by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK revealed that Instagram,

Christin Jeffers April 24, 2018

Market Leadership

Dear CMO, What’s Makes a Tasty Marketing Recipe?

There is no one correct way to make my favorite dish of all time – macaroni and cheese. With a plethora of options — from cheese selection to noodle type, in addition to different cooking methods involving butter, eggs or cream — the beautiful thing about making “mac and cheese” is that no matter what ingredients you use, the combination of pasta and cheese usually tastes good no matter what (though there are still ways

Jeremy Douglas April 19, 2018

Catapult PR and CorSource Develop and Launch ‘Staffing Lifecycle Management’ Through the Strategic Narrative Marketing Approach

Today we are excited to announce that we helped CorSource create and launch a new process framework through the Strategic Narrative Marketing approach. Read the news below: Industry framework establishes a unique platform for CorSource to address employee management challenges in tech with concrete steps to improve the Talent Economy. Here’s the news release: BOULDER, Colo., April 17, 2018 – Catapult PR-IR (www.catapultpr-ir.com), a Strategic Narrative communications agency, today announced it helped CorSource develop and launch,

Christin Jeffers April 17, 2018

Strategic Narrative

The Rise of Strategic Narrative In Marketing

The following is an excerpt from an article published in Forbes by Guy Murrel It’s no secret that a person who talks endlessly about themselves is a bore. For years, businesses have been guilty of this “look at me” approach when it comes to positioning and messaging. Mission statements, inward value manifestos and the overuse of self-serving superlatives result in a dead end of unfocused and uninspiring brand messaging. But the use of narrative in

Guy Murrel March 29, 2018

Market Leadership

Time for CEOs to do Some Spring Cleaning

And Strategic Narrative Marketing is Blooming. . . Ahhh, Springtime. The grass is starting to turn green, the birds are chirping, and tulips and daffodils are popping up through the dirt to greet the sun. You’re probably even thinking about golf, vacations and scheduling a few outings with your friends and family. That’s the familiar narrative we are all accustomed to when we think about Spring. Now, apply that to what your company does each

Terri Douglas March 28, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Introducing the Strategic Narrative Assessment

Today we are excited to announce the launch of our Strategic Narrative Assessment that is now available on Catapult’s new and improved homepage. The assessment looks at a company’s core messaging and offers feedback and a scorecard detailing how it translates to the market, stacks up to competitors and addresses industry mega-trends and leadership. And, it’s completely free of charge! Here’s what our co-founder Terri Douglas shared about the assessment: “Strategic Narrative Marketing helps companies change

Christin Jeffers March 14, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing in Forbes

We are excited to see Strategic Narrative Marketing featured in a recent Forbes post about creative ideas for driving an organization’s brand. We believe that every company can benefit from Strategic Narrative Marketing, and that adoption of the approach creates industry leaders and category owners. Read the full article here. Strategic Narrative Marketing challenges companies to look higher than what they do or offer, and focus on the industry. By following the approach, a company

Christin Jeffers March 1, 2018

Market Leadership

Narrative Spotlight: How Apple Dominated the Resolution Conversation with Retina Display

Catapult has recently been shining the spotlight on companies that understand how to lead the market by creating industry narratives and vision. These are companies that have hit the narrative mark. This means their communications follow the principles of Strategic Narrative Marketing. We started with a post on Patagonia, outdoor adventure retailer, and its move over the last couple of years to take a political stance and align the company around advocacy for public lands.

Laura Balboni February 22, 2018

Market Leadership

Narrative Spotlight: Mavenlink

The narrative movement is gaining traction among industry leaders. An industry narrative is higher-level than storytelling and that alone forces companies to think differently. By participating in this movement, companies have the opportunity to offer a unique voice and contribute to the overall betterment of the industry. What we’re talking about rises above products and services. It is the essence of who a company is and its vision for the industry. Many companies that have

Christin Jeffers February 14, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Narrative Spotlight: Patagonia

Welcome to the first in our Narrative Spotlight blog series, dedicated to recognizing organizations that we believe have hit the narrative mark! So, what does it mean to hit the mark? This is all based on how well a company’s current messaging matches with the principles of Strategic Narrative Marketing. This approach gets organizations to stop talking about themselves and instead address industry trends and challenges head-on to create a unique, industry-nurturing and inclusive narrative.

Christin Jeffers February 7, 2018

Market Leadership

Selfless Marketing is a Thing (Let me Explain …)

Believe it or not, a company’s messaging does not have to be self-centered. Stay with me for a moment and let me explain what I mean. I know, I know the very word “marketing” means promoting and selling. So how can marketing be selfless? Isn’t the purpose of marketing always to increase the bottom line? Shouldn’t a B2B company focus on advertising and promoting its solutions? Sure, those activities matter and good marketing will end

Laura Balboni January 29, 2018

The Goldilocks Method of Collaboration

Slack. Google Docs. SharePoint. Dropbox. Add in calls, texts, emails and any of the other dozens of possible collaboration tools available today, and even the most mindful can be fraught with anxiety. In reality, we – the world of business and technology – got what we asked for. No more playing phone tag with remote workers, a reduction in trite emails and always-updated documents living in the Cloud safe from the accidental deletion or a

Olivia Heel January 16, 2018

Uncategorized

Boost Your Content Pipeline with an Industry Narrative in 2018

As we dive into a New Year, many of us face the challenge of realigning our efforts to reach new goals over the next 12 months. If content is your specialty, you’ve probably crafted a new content marketing plan and have built (or are in the process of building) a 2018 content calendar. You might even have a documented strategy for content — but is your content supported by a narrative that delivers a unique

Christin Jeffers January 10, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narratives Reach Beyond Marketing

As we head into 2018, so many of us look back and reflect on the year (and what a year it was!). At Catapult, we helped more than a dozen B-2-B high tech firms create an industry narrative to define a new category space. Our category building framework – Strategic Narrative Marketing – is a new marketing category that helps organizations build a new category. It sounds kind of like a riddle, but when we

Guy Murrel December 21, 2017

Strategic Narrative

That’s a Wrap! DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco 2017 Musings

It’s hard to believe the fourth installment of DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco (DOES17) is complete! We are honored to be partners with IT Revolution and Electric Cloud to support what we believe is one of the best (if not THE best) DevOps conferences out there. Every year seems to be better than the next, and it’s safe to say that DOES17 was the best yet. DOES has been selling out every year since it

Olivia Heel November 29, 2017

Strategic Narrative

It’s Budget Time. . . .

And you know what that means. Looking at what you spent last year and seeing what worked, what didn’t (and why) Investigating ways to streamline resources, budget, yet get more impact Seeing where to invest to ‘move the needle’ so your organization/company can get more sales, be acquired, raise more money Let’s be honest. It’s stressful. Boards want justification for the money you (your company) spent and why. Investors want the same, but, they want

Terri Douglas November 20, 2017

Strategic Narrative

“Stranger Things” in Public Relations

Public relations can expose some interesting, challenging and even spooky situations. Oftentimes, PR professionals can feel lost when it comes to delivering (and measuring) results for their clientele. Unless specific goals and key performance indicators are set and understood from the start, trouble can arise. Additionally, the call to quantify public relations’ value for the boardroom can seem never-ending. Many are even starting to eliminate some (or all) of the PR line item from budgets

Jeremy Douglas November 15, 2017

Market Leadership

How an Industry Narrative Prevents Your Content from Becoming Spam

Content marketing standards might be at an all-time low. Many business-to-business companies are outsourcing content creation, often to “jack-of-all-trades”-content farms who do not have a deep understanding of the businesses they are writing about. Also, we are seeing automated content and the use of robots or AI for content creation grow in popularity. Heck, even journalism organizations like the Associated Press are using robots to write stories, so why not? But is all of this

Laura Balboni November 2, 2017

Thought Leadership

Starting My Career in the PR Industry: What I Did That Helped & What I Wish I Would Have Known

Well, I’m straight out of college and have my first job in the public relations industry. Catapult PR gave me a home after graduation, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Now that first week jitters have come and gone it’s the perfect time to reflect on my thoughts from this past couple of weeks. Arriving at Catapult on my first day wasn’t at all bad. I had met everyone throughout the interview process, so seeing

Megan Scharf October 3, 2017

Market Leadership

TechDay LA Recap

For a boutique PR firm like Catapult, the tradeshow/conference circuit is a bit off the beaten path. We work with clients all over the country, and we’ve been fortunate enough that the reputation we’ve developed throughout the tech industry often leads to referral-based client relationships. When we decided to attend TechDay LA, we recognized it as a great opportunity to push our boundaries, engage with a whole new sector of the industry, and continue to

Charles Trowbridge September 21, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Find us Today at TechDay LA

We are thrilled to join more than 300 hundred startups and 12,000 attendees for a whirlwind, one-day event – TechDay LA! Our very own Guy Murrel, co-founder and principal, and Charles Trowbridge, senior account executive, are manning the Catapult PR table. At 2:40 p.m. PDT, Guy will take the general stage for a three-minute demonstration on Strategic Narrative Marketing, a ground-breaking new approach to company messaging that aims to build category owners and establish true

Christin Jeffers September 14, 2017

Thought Leadership

Practicing DevOps with Your Public Relations Agency: Tips for a Successful Relationship

Let’s face it – in today’s digital world, you are probably working for an organization that runs on software in some way. Even if you aren’t working directly with the software part of your business, there is a chance that you have heard the term “DevOps” buzzing around over the past several years. Not ringing any bells? DevOps, while many may dispute a concrete definition, is a term used in the software delivery industry to

Olivia Heel September 12, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Content Marketing – Too Much of a Good Thing?

Most B2B marketing practitioners understand the value of good content. The “2017 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends, North America” report states that 89 percent of B2B marketers practice content marketing. As a result, this is driving a big chunk of marketing budgets as organizations glom onto content marketing’s promises for lead gen, ROI and tangible results. This is all good –at Catapult we firmly believe in the power of content. In fact, content

Christin Jeffers August 31, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Catapult Wins TWO National Industry Awards for Strategic Narrative Marketing

We are honored to share that we recently received two national awards for our Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) messaging framework that helps organizations define and own categories. We are now the proud owners of a Gold Stevie Award for PR Innovation in the 2017 American Business Awards™, and Silver for New Products and Services in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations in the 2017 Golden Bridge Awards. “This is a big milestone for Catapult as we work

Christin Jeffers August 18, 2017

Market Leadership

50 Quotes on “Narrative” that Change the Way we look at Storytelling

While a picture may be worth a thousand words, the narrative itself is priceless. As PR and marketing pros, we strive to develop (and nurture) a strategic narrative that will help our clients leapfrog their competition and win in the marketplace. While this is not an easy feat, taking the time and making the effort to create a powerful narrative (at the industry level) helps establish thought leadership and the opportunity to “influence the influencers.”

Jeremy Douglas July 18, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Five Things You Need to Know From Digital Summit Denver

Last week I attended the Digital Summit Denver and soaked up fresh knowledge from some of the brightest minds in the digital world. This was my second Digital Summit experience and what I find most impressive is the quality of speakers each year. It’s hard to pick one session when there are five concurrent sessions all with juicy, enticing titles. The good news is that I left fired up and filled to the brim with

Christin Jeffers July 7, 2017

Strategic Narrative

An Industry Narrative Helps CEO’s Align Company Culture Around a Common Goal

A company that finds its voice and truly leads an industry often changes the world with new innovations and new ways of thinking. By blazing a path through unknown territory and beckoning others to follow, true industry leaders shape the future. It’s these brands that we remember through the decades, whose products become household names. Not only do organizations that achieve this kind of success provide good products or services, they offer a new way

Laura Balboni June 30, 2017

Strategic Narrative

The More You Give, the More You Get

I generally find that the saying “the more you give the more you get” holds true when applied in life and business. In life, the rewards of giving are more intangible and somewhat spiritual – feeling good inside, aligned and centered, and riding the wave of a positive force. It’s more of a karma thing. But what about in business? How much should you give and share with the market, even competitors? When I look

Guy Murrel June 22, 2017

Market Leadership

Takeaways from DevOps Enterprise Summit London 2017

DevOps Enterprise Summit London 2017 (DOES17) is a wrap! We (Catapult PR) were proud to partner with IT Revolution to help make the second year of the London conference come to life. DOES17 took place in the amazing Queen Elizabeth II Centre in the heart of London from June 5-6, 2017. Nearly 700 software delivery practitioners, business leaders and DevOps luminaries from around the world joined us for two jam-packed days of programmatic learning featuring

Olivia Heel June 15, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Join our Webinar: Finding Your Narrative in a Crowded Content World

We are teaming up with Chief Marketer to present a webinar on our new messaging approach – Strategic Narrative Marketing. Join us to learn how to create industry-level messaging that is 100 percent unique, helps align organizations toward a higher, singular cause, and serves to lead the advancement and success of the overall industry. This approach can be leveraged to drive content development, social media, and general PR/marketing. “Finding Your Narrative in a Crowded Content World,” will

Christin Jeffers June 5, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing 101: What is a ‘Messaging Space?’

We (Catapult PR) talk a lot about our unique approach to positioning and messaging called Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM). The approach defies traditional company-centric messaging because it challenges a company to look at messaging from a higher-level and focus on the industry. When this is done correctly, the company has an opportunity to be more strategic and develop a narrative that is unique, compelling and actually means something to the industry. When we share tips

Guy Murrel June 1, 2017

Strategic Narrative

News: Rogue Wave Software Taps Strategic Narrative!

Today, we’re very happy to announce that our second Strategic Narrative messaging project is completed with our valued partner from Louisville, Colorado — Rogue Wave Software (www.roguewave.com/). Rogue Wave is a leader in software development tools, components, and platforms for mission-critical applications. Together, we dove into a full-day Strategic Narrative discovery workshop and subsequent messaging framework that blends an industry narrative with company positioning and messaging to help Rogue Wave align around a common, higher purpose. “We re-engaged

Jeremy Douglas May 16, 2017

Market Leadership

How a CrowdChat Can Bring Your Industry (and Narrative) Together

In the world of PR and marketing, it’s always crucial to keep a pulse on the latest and greatest tools and technologies. Why? These present new and innovative ways to help bring your client’s or your company’s messages and strategies to market. If you’re a Twitter person, like me, perhaps you’ve stumbled onto an application called CrowdChat – a social chat platform where a crowd creates the content through engaging conversations and a gamified experience.

Jeremy Douglas May 4, 2017

Market Leadership

The (Only) Three Questions to Ask Your PR Firm

After being in the PR business for more than 30 years, it’s been an interesting ride to see how it’s evolved, morphed and changed. Yet, while PR has been around for a while, it still is a mystery for many CEOs, CMOs and marketing folks. Oftentimes, they don’t understand what kind of results they should expect and, if they are hiring a PR firm, how they operate. We often get asked the standard questions when

Terri Douglas May 1, 2017

Market Leadership

Strategically Targeting Analysts as Key Influencers: AR is a Two-Way Street

Analyst relations (AR) and public relations are usually closely paired within the marketing functions of today’s businesses. At Catapult, we run AR programs for most of our clients, in addition to PR. This makes sense because in some ways, analysts function like journalists—although more technical, specialized and usually with prior firsthand industry experience. Analysts formally report on the movements they see within particular markets. They evaluate and review vendors, provide recommendations and forecast future growth

Laura Balboni April 26, 2017

Market Leadership

Raise Your Brand Volume with Execution-as-a-Strategy

One of the best ways to beat your competition is to out execute them. This is especially true when it comes to PR and marketing. All too often companies get bogged down when it comes to PR cadence and frequency. Activities are done in fits and starts. Then, long lags in time occur as the company goes “quiet.” Meanwhile, the leaders in the market seem to be communication machines – frequently and consistently posting social

Guy Murrel April 21, 2017

Market Leadership

Social Media Marketing World: The Future of Social Marketing

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend Social Media Marketing World 2017 (SMMW) in sunny San Diego. Coming into the conference as an intermediate member of the social media world, I was excited to learn a lot. And, boy, did I learn! The conference covered just about every corner of social media marketing, including tracks specifically dedicated to blogging, vlogging, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, analytics and more. With more than 100 sessions lead

Olivia Heel April 13, 2017

Thought Leadership

Accelerate Your Career Path by Becoming a Messaging Expert

We (PR and marketing pros) have the freedom to create our own unique vision for success. As we pursue our individual careers, there’s a good chance we’ll have some big highlights to reflect upon when we reach retirement age. On the other hand, there may be seasons where we feel stuck or uninspired, when direction is murky and movement is limited. While we are creating our career paths, we’re also likely to run into stiff

Christin Jeffers April 4, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Why It’s Important to Use Industry Megatrends as Part of Your Messaging Strategy

Everyone has “that friend.” The one you dread meeting up with because you know that for every story or update you have, they will have one to match it. Everything you say somehow relates to them, and makes you want to (maybe not so) politely exit the conversation. While it’s often easy to tell when you are being like this type of person, it’s much more difficult to recognize this behavior on an organizational level.

Olivia Heel March 29, 2017

Strategic Narrative

How to Turn Industry Misperceptions into Education Opportunities

Turning lemons into lemonade is a skill that any PR or marketing agency should have. At the end of the day, any press is good press, right? As professionals in the lemonade-making business, the answer is yes – and no: ‘yes’ because press presents opportunities; ‘no’ because if you fail to capitalize on negative press – or a misperception being perpetuated – the effects are typically not positive. For companies playing in industries constrained by

Charles Trowbridge March 24, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Demand Grows for Strategic Narrative Marketing Services

Today Catapult PR announced strong momentum for our new Strategic Narrative Marketing services after launching our book, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing.” Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) is a new approach to market positioning that focuses on higher-level industry vision and category-building, giving organizations unique, compelling and useful messaging to communicate to the market. Read the full press release here to learn more. To learn more about the SNM Workshop, visit: https://www.catapultpr-ir.com/strategic-narrative-messaging-workshop/

Guy Murrel March 21, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Championing a Narrative in the On-Demand Economy

The ability to have immediate access to goods and services through a digital marketplace is in turn causing radical, disruptive effects on businesses across the world. What’s more? My generation (Millennial) and the generations hereafter are starting to (almost) exclusively use on-demand services for numerous facets of our lives – from shopping and transportation to news and entertainment. Previous generations are making the migration as well. So, how are businesses leveraging public relations in the

Jeremy Douglas March 17, 2017

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