Magnetic Stories

DEFINE : KNOW WHAT YOUR BRAND IS (AND ISN'T)

Before any company starts thinking about the stories they could share with others, they first need to be clear on what messages they want to communicate. What stories do you want people sharing about you when you are not in the room? What do you want your brand to be? (Remember, your brand is your purpose, values and behaviours.)

When I conduct brand storytelling workshops with individuals, I ask them to do some pre-work. Firstly, I ask them to think about what they want their desired brand to be. I ask them to think of five words or phrases that they would be happy with if people used these to describe them. It has to be authentic … this isn't about you pretending to be someone else. It also has to be realistic, but can include room for growth and evolution. It's not a wish list.

Once they have completed that first step, they then need to go away and actually ask five people that they have regular interactions with to list five words or phrases they would use to describe them. It's important to ask a diverse set of people that they currently deal with. It could be their manager, some of their team, co-workers, clients, or suppliers. It's also important that they ask people who will give them honest descriptors.

I then get them to compare how they'd like to be described with how they are actually described. This determines how aligned you currently are with your brand. A wide and deep variation could indicate a challenge. For example, ...