“Tell me a story…” Anyone with kids or who is used to being around children, has heard this request repeatedly, I’m sure.
We never really grow out of the “tell-me-a-story” stage. We like stories because they’re a way to convey information, understand one another, entertain, educate, influence, and simply pass time.
Storytelling is at the root of everything we do. When we’re looking for a job, we tell our future employer a story about where we’ve been, how we’ve accomplished so much, and what we plan to do for their company. When we return an item to a store, we tell our story about why the product didn’t work for us–maybe even how it could be better. When we go to the doctor, we tell our story about how we’re feeling, why we need medication and what we’d like to see develop in our lives in the future. When we meet someone, we tell our story about who we are and how our life has unfolded.
The business of storytelling is critical to companies too. It’s the one outlet that allows a direct connection to the consumer using an age-old style. This isn’t outright marketing; it’s telling the story of your company to have a direct impact on your target audience. It’s informing rather than flat-out selling. It’s educating in order to provide knowledge that helps your targeted consumers make educated choices.
Storytelling is the future for branding
Many credit Larry Light, McDonald’s Chief Marketing Officer (2004) with creating the term “brand journalism” but if you look back even further, you’ll see that the manufacturer of agriculture machinery, John Deere, was publishing content in a magazine format that was definitely brand journalism.
The goal was to help his target audience better understand the industry that used the products he manufactured. So, Deere started a publication in 1895 called “The Furrow” for farmers. It now reaches two million people across the world.
Sometimes the story isn’t even about a company’s brand. It’s about something related to it. For instance, in the 1900’s, the tire company, Michelin, published a guide to help drivers understand the best ways to maintain their cars. It also featured lodging suggestions for those traveling abroad. Also, in the 1900s, Jello released a recipe book that used its product and gave away copies of the book, which ultimately boosted its sales to $1 million in just two years after the book was published.
The government has used storytelling to inform the public. In 1959, using Life Magazine and World Book Science Services as the vehicles for what was essentially brand journalism, and media collaboration, NASA allowed exclusive reporting on the personal stories of its astronauts and their families to help create goodwill toward NASA projects like selling the public on a trip to the moon which cost the public 4 percent of the national budget (in some years) to send 12 astronauts to the moon’s surface.
In a recent article by Forbes, authors David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek of the new book, “Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program”, talk about a brand journalism, public relations (PR) strategy that helped ensure public support for NASA. The authors call the effort the most important marketing and PR campaign in history. Here’s an excerpt from the article.
“How important was NASA’s decision to employ former journalists to “report” its news?
Jurek: Absolutely critical. By having journalists work as the conduits for NASA to the outside world, NASA was perfectly positioned to deliver news and information content that could be quickly assimilated into the news streams of the day.
Scott: NASA relied extensively on the public relations and marketing staffs of the contractors that worked on Apollo at companies like Raytheon, Boeing, and IBM. Making these professionals part of the way the story was communicated meant that a relatively small NASA public affairs staff swelled to more than a thousand people helping to get the word out.”
Today, mainstream companies such as Wells Fargo, Cleveland Clinic, Coca Cola, and websites like MakeUp.com, (which appears at first to be just an online magazine blog about beauty in general but it’s actually part of the L’Oreal Groupe) are developing online relationships with consumers by offering quality informative content that their consumers are interested in.
Storytelling isn’t just about writing a factual article and covering the who, what, when, where, why, and how about a story. It’s about crafting an intriguing story that uses journalistic techniques. For instance, if it’s a video story, natural sound or ambience of a scene can add an enticing quality to the overall storyline. Using news angles that aren’t the typical marketing pitch is also the work of a creative brand journalist. For example, a story about a former Vet-turned-pastry-chef who used the Post 9/11 GI-Bill to fund her baking education, makes a great Veteran’s Day story for a culinary company.
Storytelling through brand journalism is an opportunity to share information beyond the everyday features and benefits of a product. It’s about getting to the the consumer through sharing a relevant story about the industry the company resides in, but ultimately with the most important goal being the sharing of a story that will impact consumers’ lives.
Storytelling helps consumers make better choices.
Five Tips To Create Winning Brand Journalism Content
1. Focus on the end user, the consumer. Tell a story that the consumer wants to see.
2. Establish credibility by using a journalistic style. Find the newsworthy angle. Ask probing questions from your expert interviewees. Answer questions that the end user has by doing your research on your target audience.
3. Recognize that brand journalism in itself is only part of the strategy. Storytelling creates a space for community involvement. You must have both aspects to be successful with this strategy. When you release stories you must create the community forum and provide the opportunity for engagement with your brand and company. Through your company’s blog and social media platforms, encourage conversations about your brand journalism stories. Foster relationships with your current, past, and future consumers.
4. Keep a level of transparency. Brand journalism is not intended to fool the consumer. It’s meant to tell your company’s story from the inside out from a perspective that the consumer may not otherwise see. Large organizations are setting up newsroom sites on their brands; it’s important to have a link and connection to the founding company and brand.
5. Use articles, photos, and videos to create brand journalism content. Multiple forms of content will create greater opportunity to share your information in numerous social media platforms. Circulate your content using new media marketing and traditional sources. Consult with an expert in the field of brand journalism to help you craft a strategy and campaign.
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