We are the stories we tell.
They are a natural tether to our values, our vision of where we fit in the world, and our business aspirations.
They are the thread that binds teams together. The thing that touches the dynamics of people who should care about what we do. The amped up juice for market momentum. And most important, the thing that bridges the gap between what you are selling and what people feel about what they are buying.
Language is always of course, an approximation.
We try to be precise but all too often close off the ambiguity of the underlying emotions on both sides.
We try to put ourselves in the space of the listener, but all too commonly lose the thread that binds underneath a myriad of personal interpretations.
But there is always an underlying market narrative, a conversation as a platform for connection. Something fluid that pushes forward and makes iteration an ongoing motion, not a waffling or a stall. Always the hear and now of what is important to those who are part of it.
When we find success, there is invariably an origin story that somehow falls into place to draw a picture of the why of it. Where the storyteller is replaced with the listener as a character. Where corporate intent becomes someone’s personal story.
Our narratives are the wrappers of our brands, embedded in our product. An icon of belief in a product of use and even in the most practical of applications, somehow a basis for community.
Sometimes the very best narratives, the truest to what is trying to be done, simply fail of course.
But the most articulate idea or disruptive product, without a great market narrative is stacking the deck against itself.
What’s fascinating is that narratives are more a pulse and less a campaign. When they are fluid, they have no hard edges just ebbs and flows. When they become forced as companies become more obsessed with growth, you can almost see the friction in the market itself.
I’m obsessed with process of creating and iterating these market narratives.
Sitting down and ferreting out a story that binds. Internally as well as externally. Using it as the raw material to drive the channels we all use to build our reach and deepen our connections.
To insure that it is the truth behind our social drivers. That it is a loose outline that let’s content go wide with still a center of gravity. That it presents a unifying way to listen and respond at the point of sale or within contentious situations.
Rarely in my dozen plus years of blogging and my nine years as an independent advisor and consultant, have ever pitched myself in this blog.
I’m making an exception here as I’m so drawn to the value of this for companies and my excitement in crafting them.
More than any other time in my history of building markets and communities, has it ever been harder to get this narrative right, more critical to overall company success, and more powerful a flywheel when it is set into motion.
Never before has the core value of a company played so much a part in the markets belief and buy in that a company can actually make it happen and deserves our support
And never have the incredibly powerful tools for parsing data and hypercharging connections been so dependent on the very same narrative to be effective.
So—
Take a look at your company and brand, no matter how early you are in the process. If you are hiring people and building an early community of users and partners, you are telling a tale and building a brand nonetheless.
Step outside of yourself and look at how it resounds—or doesn’t—and how you can change it.
Don’t question your values or beliefs, but look to whether the story itself, is inclusive to the market drivers, opinions and engagement you need.
And whether you have the skills to pull this together and create a lingua franca for the team to adopt as their own.
If so, great.
If not, find a storyteller, to figure this out, craft it together and be part of your team moving forward.
Prioritize this early. It needs to grow with you from day one, not layered in later as an afterthought.
