By Mandy Nelson
We love to create stuff that is in advance of popular culture. Our own brand promise, developed about five years ago, is: ‘We bring your story to life’. We are modestly chuffed to confirm that we were ahead of the pack on recognising storytelling as a marketing tool. Our brand promise remains relevant today and concisely encompasses everything we do.
In detail, that means G&A Creative Agency provides a complete range of marketing services, from sourcing research through to producing a live website, print promotion or newsworthy original event, by providing the creative talent, technical skills and network needed to build and bring that product or organisation’s unique story to life for their target market.
We love the symbolism of storytelling since it is similtaneously cross-cultural, ancient and contemporary. Stories have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, communication and instilling moral values. The art of storytelling predates writing yet stories can be written; stories can incorporate imagery, costume and music, flow through every medium and stimulate every sensory organ. Yes, even those ones.
We think there are several stories that should be told at different stages of your customer’s life-cycle as you work through your organisation’s customer touchpoint programme.
1) Your brand story. This is the legend your must build first around your product, service or organisation based on its values and unique marketable point of difference. It is not something your customer will typically see: however, it will underpin every promotional campaign you create and must be authentic.
2) Your creative campaign story – the most visible story. You need highly original stories for each promotional campaign that support your brand and values and belong together like a family, and are distributed through appropriate marketing channels: i.e. highway billboard versus free public lecture versus social media campaign or YouTube video.
3) Your customer relationship story. You might benefit from writing the story of your ideal or typical customer’s journey through your touchpoint programme from initial awareness to advocacy. Don’t forget to record conflict and how you resolved it; work through the aging process if relevant and its implications on your customer; and consider whether the user of your product is the same person who actually makes the decision or purchases under instruction.