Creating a Winning Culture

Over the past few years the concept of “storytelling,” from a marketing and branding perspective, has gained tremendous momentum. To someone like me, I see that as a good thing — for both consumers and organizations, alike. You see, as Chief Executive Storyteller of a marketing firm, I have long believed that one of the keys to success for any service-based brand lies in its ability to make an emotional connection with its audience. And stories are one of the most powerful and effective ways of connecting with someone, at an emotional level.

To clarify, your “story” isn’t so much your history, though it’s certainly part of the narrative; it’s a combination of your brand’s evolution: what it stands for, what you can rely on it for, and what sets it apart. It’s the part of your business that gives people a reason to want to do business with you AND to work alongside you. And when you share your story in a compelling way, people want to be a part of its evolution.

Though many brands have now started sharing their stories, most of them tend to do so only with their customers and potential customers — and not their internal audiences: supply partners, investors, internal stakeholders and/or staff. Given the fact that it’s the customer that makes the purchase and, thus, has a direct and immediate impact on revenue, it’s understandable why so many brands focus so heavily on their external audiences. What’s interesting to note, though, is that the iconic, customer-centric brands that we tend to reference time and time again — like Starbucks, Nordstrom’s, Whole Foods and Southwest Airlines — make the effort to connect on an emotional level with both their external AND internal audiences.

So what’s the benefit of connecting with your internal audience?

Well, let me ask you this: when was the last time you had an interaction with one of the brands mentioned above and came across an employee that seemed as if they didn’t really want to be there? Probably never. Instead, these highly engaged employees have, most likely at one time or another, done something to make your experience a memorable one. This passionate commitment is a direct result of an organization whose internal audience thoroughly buys into their corporate vision.

But having a story and having the ability and wherewithal to articulate it effectively are two different things. Once you define your story, how you tell it determines who will listen.

Let me digress for a minute and share a little story with you. About a decade ago, we were hired by a large franchise organization to develop a marketing strategy and campaign to attract their end-users (customers). We went about our business and developed the campaign. Soon thereafter, the same company confided that their franchisee compliance was low and they were looking for a way to improve their franchisee buy-in. They wanted us to choose tactics to improve franchisee morale and to get everyone on the same proverbial “page.” As we rolled out this second campaign, it became obvious that the story — or at least the principles and values of the story — which we were communicating with the franchisees, were the same as the ones we used to develop our original campaign — for their customers. But there were, of course, specific changes: to the words, the delivery, and the tactics employed to get the franchisor’s message across.

The point is that the story didn’t change, just the way we told it did.

You may have heard or seen this statement before: There is no more B2B or B2C; there is only Human to Human (H2H). I like it because it illustrates my point. Regardless of who your audience is, it’s your job to share your brand story in a human-to-human kind-of-way. Because at the end of the day, your audience (regardless of who it is) wants to know why doing business with you is “okay” with them on a subconscious level. They want to relate to you and to know that your value system is in alignment with theirs. And sadly, many companies forget that their internal audiences deserve to have the same emotional connection with their brands (as their customers do), so that they, too, want to be a part of it.

Knowing that you need to make an emotional connection with your customers in order to effectively grow your brand is only the first step. Evolving that way of thinking to extend to your internal audience is your missing link to a fully developed brand. If you want your supply partners, investors, internal stakeholders and/or staff to truly buy-in to your brand and create a culture that lives and breathes it, then you need to tell your story and share your vision in a way that has them wanting to contribute and be a part of it.

Because at the end of the day, we’re all human.