As you’ve been reading in our blog, Strategic Narrative Marketing is an entirely new approach to what some folks refer to as “storytelling” or traditional “positioning and messaging.”
Strategic Narrative Marketing elevates both of these to a much higher industry level that gets companies out of talking about themselves, their products, services, bits and bytes, and instead focuses on important issues taking place in their industries. It is a way for companies to not only be the ultimate thought leader, but, to help spawn entirely new market categories for them to own and drive.
How do we do this?
It isn’t really complicated, but it does take a certain skill. You need to be able to focus a roomful of executives into concentrating on their industry vs. their company, first and foremost. Second, you need to ask the right questions. Questions that will draw out meaningful answers and, most importantly, insights into what the perceptions/misperceptions/issues/trends/disruptions/etc. are taking place in their industry. Then, you need to distill meaningful themes and an overall narrative that will be:
1) Compelling
2) Different – than what the rest of a company’s industry peers are saying
3) Simple and easy to understand – for even the layman who may not be in that industry.
Catapult does this through a one-day workshop that we have developed and refined over the years. Because we have focused on tech since our founding, we have learned a LOT about how to take very complicated stories and boil them down into simple, understandable and provocative content that engages, enlightens and positions companies of every size. We took what we learned from that process and came up with a formula for the questions, the audience and the resulting narrative we deliver and packaged it up all neatly into a one day workshop.
No kidding . . . .every time we go through this process with clients, there is an “ah ha!” moment that resounds. Once clients see and understand what we are driving toward, there is immense excitement, passion and energy that abound. Think about it. . . it’s exciting to think about creating your own market category and then shaping it to the rest of your industry, yes?
Does it take a lot of work or prep on the client’s side? Nope. All they need is to gather the key executives and line managers within their organizations (usually this includes the CEO and all levels of the C-team), plus maybe the top sales person, HR leader (for internal perceptions), Customer Service Manager (for external perceptions). They just need to show up and keep an open mind about following the process – because it works!
Catapult does all the rest.
It’s actually fun and invigorating for almost all companies – once they see where we are going and what the possible end results might be.
Then, we come back with a whole narrative for the company that almost always includes a new market category or service framework that they can own, define and drive. We show how it can be used. In fact, the entire deliverable we provide is really almost an outline of a positioning paper we or the company can write and deliver to their marketplace that explains exactly what the market category is, what it means, why it is needed and how it can benefit their entire industry.
You can read more about Strategic Narrative Marketing and the workshop framework in our new book, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing.” It’s available here .
Or just pick up the phone and give us a call (303-581-7760). We’d be happy to answer any questions you have.
If you struggle with your story and how you can set your company apart, this is a sure-fire way to set take your company to an entirely new and much sought after level – from customers, partners, investors and stakeholders of all kinds.
Stay tuned for more upcoming info. We have lots coming up. In the meantime, we’d love to hear if you have a strategic narrative and how you created it. There’s always more to learn!
