Put Your Brand Narrative to Work

Even though you poured all that time, sweat, and tears into your company’s core narrative, it’s not a precious thing you should keep under wraps like a Maserati preserved under a cover in a garage. A narrative needs to be road tested and then taken out for a spin on every occasion — and you should go back and fine-tune it after each use and service it at regular intervals.

Often it turns out there’s a gap between the vision captured by the document you created and how it shows up in the real world. So instead of storing it in some random folder you stumble on once a year during that big cleanout, here are 3 simple ways to put your narrative to work immediately.

1. Untether it from the narrative structure by turning it into bulleted speaking points for your spokespeople. We’ve used bulleted narratives as the springboard for media interviews. In fact, one client used it so well, the resulting article looked like it had been lifted from the narrative.We tend to create our narratives in grids to segment out information into what’s wrong with in your customer’s world today (also referred to as “why we exist”), how your company fixes it, and the transformation your company makes for the people it touches or in the world overall. We also split out the messaging supported by each section. While it makes for easy understanding, it doesn’t translate directly into speakable language. Spending the time it takes to write the human-speak version of the narrative gives it another opportunity to live outside your laptop.
2. Hijack supporting data points, case studies, and anecdotes and blow them out into stories and posts to go into your social media mix. Like the content team at University of California Press, who created a recurring book review blog feature called Weekend Armchair to showcase the utter bookishness not just of its editorial team, but of the entire staff. Every person at this scholarly publisher is an avid reader — from the marketing assistant to the operations director.
3. Create copy blocks that tag to each section and key thought in the narrative. Even before your team sets out to create copy blocks for your website or create an explainer video script, you can look for and find immediate ways to express your narrative. For example, one client of ours started dropping phrases into sales pitches and internal presentations before we even hit save.

Those are 3 low-hanging-fruit ideas. With a strong brand narrative, though, you’ll have countless ways to bring the story to life, so don’t hesitate to get that well-oiled engine into the real world.