Marketers often talk about story as if it is one thing. But brands with multiple stakeholders need to cater for different responses and priorities by streaming a range of stories to a range of audiences at different times.
Marketers and business writers have been talking for ages about disintermediation – cutting out the middle man or intermediary – in a bid to achieve more direct and economically efficient relationships. But the battle between Hachette and Amazon reminds us there are still very powerful players mediating between customer and producer.
So many companies build their brand around their business. They establish the tangible assets and processes and look to extrapolate the intangible value of that as brands for their buyers. They transit in other words from the physical to the emotive.
Some marketers like to work forwards. Advertisers for example often tell a story and then wait to gauge the reaction they get. Direct marketers on the other hand start by quantifying a reaction (in the form of a return) and then craft a story to generate that response.
At The Un-Conference in Miami, The Blake Project’s Chief Brand Storyteller Dr. Gerard Gibbons shared this wonderful insight: “Every day, brands make bets on human behavior”.
