Definitions:
Storytelling: definition
in the book (Storytelling organizations by David M Boje): storytelling
is used for emotional engagement with consumers through narratives and stories.
So rather than trying to sell your products with rational engagement like low
prices, high quality or fast delivery, companies try to connect with consumers
on an emotional level to build a relationship.
Brand story: According to Bernadette Jiwa, who is
apparently a recognized global authority of the of story in business. A
definition of brand story is as follows:
“A brand story is more than a narrative. The story
goes beyond the copy on your website, the text in a brochure, or the
presentation used to pitch to investors. Your story isn’t just what you tell
people. It’s what they believe about you based on the signals your brand sends.
The story is a complete picture made up of facts, feelings, and
interpretations, which means that part of your story isn’t even told by you.Everything you do, from the colours and texture of your packaging to the staff you hire, is part of your brand story, and every element of it should reflect the truth about your brand back to your audience.
Community management: I couldn’t find a clear definition on
Community management but most articles I read about community management agreed
that community management is different for each type of company (non-profit,
agencies or corporations) but there were some basic ways to describe community
management:
- Build relationships within the community
- Create value for members who participate in
the community
- Be the liaison between the community and
the company behind it all
What is a brand story and what makes a good brand story?
Brand story: According to Bernadette Jiwa, who is
apparently a recognized global authority of the of story in business. A
definition of brand story is as follows:
“A brand story is more than a narrative. The story
goes beyond the copy on your website, the text in a brochure, or the
presentation used to pitch to investors. Your story isn’t just what you tell
people. It’s what they believe about you based on the signals your brand sends.
The story is a complete picture made up of facts, feelings, and
interpretations, which means that part of your story isn’t even told by you.Everything you do, from the colours and texture of your packaging to the staff you hire, is part of your brand story, and every element of it should reflect the truth about your brand back to your audience.
What makes a
good brand story? I found an article written by Hung-Chang Chiu, Yi-Ching Hsieh
and Yi-Chu Kou that was published in the journal of retailing in 2012 and they
gathered results from researches about storytelling and they created a table
with the most important aspects of a good story.
Table in the
article:
Storytelling: definition
in the book (Storytelling organizations by David M Boje): storytelling
is used for emotional engagement with consumers through narratives and stories.
So rather than trying to sell your products with rational engagement like low
prices, high quality or fast delivery, companies try to connect with consumers
on an emotional level to build a relationship.
Gerard Danford
who teaches the course Internationalization of a firm. Gave 5 stages of
storytelling which should be included in your company’s story.
Stage 1 Exposition
The exposition is the initial part of the story
in which the stage is set for the main action. Early questions are answered
here, including where and when the story is set. The main characters
(exporter) who will be involved in the story may also be introduced, with their
basic life being painted.
The exposition also introduces the point of
view, the position from which the story is being told (often an objective third
person).
Stage
2 Rising Action
After the relative calm of the exposition,
there is a gradual raising of the tension in the story using danger,
hazard, conflict and other devices. The protagonist is usually deeply involved
in this, struggling with others and their own ability to handle the
tension. All stories contains sequences of rising action and climax,
creating a saw-tooth pattern of tension and the resolution
of closure at the final climax. The skillful development of
rising action is like playing to the crowd, with changes in the rate of rise and
periods of respite. The overall direction, though, is always upwards towards
the grand climax when all tensions will be resolved.
Stage
3 Climax
After the long and steady rising action within
a story or sub-plot, at last things come to a head in the climax of the story.
The climax is often the most exciting part of the story, where a lot of major
action happens. In movies, it’s the most expensive bit, with lots of special
effects. Stories can have several climaxes as sub-plots
reach smaller conclusions before the grand climax near the end of the story.
The climax leads to a point of closure that resolves much of
the tension in the story (although not necessarily all of it).
False climaxes can also be used to increase tension further. The storyline may indicate
that the main climax is about to be reached, but something happens and the real
climax does not occur
Stage
4 Falling Action
After the excitement of the climax, the
story may not yet be complete and there can still be unresolved and
outstanding tensions that are waiting for closure. These are
largely resolved in the falling action stage, as the last few issues are mopped
up. After the excitement of the climax, the falling action can seem something
of an anti-climax, and so most authors keep this relatively short, using it to
tidy up the loose ends and bring things to a satisfying completion in the final
resolution.
Stage
5 Resolution
After the excitement of the action and climax
within story, the final scenes tie off all remaining loose ends and bring the
story to a satisfying and final resolution. When we remember a story,
the recency effect means that we are particularly affected by the
ending. It is thus important to ensure that the story is tidied up such that
the resolution of the story gives us a sense of final satisfaction with the
whole situation. In classic stories, comedies end with the hero being rewarded
or villains punished, while tragedies end in catastrophe, where the hero ends
up worse off and villains may, if they are lucky, escape punishment.
I found a good
example of storytelling from Nike. One of their campaigns involved storytelling
and that campaign is called Equality. They had several videos on social media
and on tv where they were telling a story about how people wearing Nike are
connected to each other and that there is no difference between the people from
different heritages. Nike tries to position itself as the binding factor
between people.
Link to video:
What is the role of community management
in brand building and how to engage customers?
Community management: I couldn’t find a clear definition on
Community management but most articles I read about community management agreed
that community management is different for each type of company (non-profit,
agencies or corporations) but there were some basic ways to describe community
management:
- Build relationships within the community
- Create value for members who participate in
the community
- Be the liaison between the community and
the company behind it all
I think
community management nowadays is mostly on social media. Almost all companies
have Facebook pages and they can communicate with their costumers via those Facebook pages.
I found a few
tips online on how to engage with your customers online:
1.
Segment your social
audience
If you have a
wide audience you should consider splitting it into different communities. This
way, you can have an overview of all your different customers and it is also
easier for your costumers to find people with the same interests/problems.
My source
named Sega as an example. Sega created multiple videogames so they decided to
create a facebook page for each game aswell as a facebook page for the sega
brand in general and even facebook pages for the merchandise.
2. Know how to
communicate with your customers
My source gave
a few tips on how to talk to your customers and solve their issues
·
“Hey Mike” – using the customer’s name is the most
efficient way to part-personalise a generic message
·
“we’re really sorry to see this” – expresses empathy
without directly apologising to the customer. Sneaky!
·
“that’s not right” – when the customer provides
compelling evidence to back up their complaint (i.e. that photo of a
mangled-looking burger), it’s important to let them know that you understand
they’re in the right
·
“Would you mind logging full details at […] please?” –
funnels the interaction into a private customer service channel, potentially
preventing further public negativity
·
“ASAP” – assures the customer that the issue is being
treated urgently, without giving any specific guarantees
Another
development I would like to discuss is UGC (user generated content)
Definition: User-generated content
(UGC) refers to content relating to your brand that’s made by members of your
audience, rather than by your marketing team.
Example: Marc Jacobs won
big by offering their audience something huge: the opportunity to become a Marc
Jacobs model. Entering was simple: just upload a hash-tagged selfie to Instagram.
Within
24 hours of the campaign’s launch, the hashtag #CastMeMarc had been
Instagrammed over 12,000 times – and in time that figure would rise to well
over 100,000. Considering the combined reach of all those participants, that’s
an awesome result. For Marc Jacobs, incentivising the brand’s social community
to post UGC online has yielded immense visibility.
Analyse or design a brand story for a
chosen company.
I took Jack
Daniels as an example
Their brand
story focuses deeply on heritage and tradition. They called it bar stories
Being a brand
from the south of the US. They developed Jack barbeque apps for their costumers
to use and to promote the idea of drinking Jack Daniels while barbequing. The
website tries to give off a cool vibe with a lot of dark colors and a few
photos of cool celebrities drinking jack (like Frank Sinatra), They have a
timeline on their website with videos telling about the heritage and history of Jack Daniels. They promote the idea of taking your time, relax with a drink
because age is good( older whiskeys and such)
They also have
videos of interviews with long time employees of Jack Daniels, creating the
idea of one big family.
How could the chosen company build the brand in social media?
I scanned the
facebook page of Jack Daniels and I noticed that they only really focus on the
different kind of bottles they are selling. Maybe the company could show their
fans that they care about them by posting more Facebook posts about responsible
drinking and how you can still have fun. I also noticed on a few festivals that
there are special Jack Daniels tents where you can only buy Jack Daniels
products but I can't find anything about that on social media so maybe they
could put more emphasis on that to let their fans know that they support the
festivals or events they love.
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