Telling a Good Story Well (Craig Douglass On Consumers)

Let me tell you a story.

Not too long ago a consumer company, flush with sales and rich with bottom-line success, decided to offer stock. It “went public.” And grew richer still. With new money, it upgraded its offices: bright colors, cool, plush furniture, luscious and inviting smells from the always-open staff kitchen and dining room called “The Roundabout.” Blue-jeaned and T-shirted employees’ twice-a-month paychecks grew fatter with raises; they enjoyed a few more benefits and were dubbed “success partners.” Not simply indulging itself, the company immediately invested in new, robot-inspired production, more efficient distribution with its own Volvo trucks with that green and blue stripe, and brand-building Amazon Prime and Facebook Live campaigns promoting customer benefits, while at the same time showing who and what the company stood for: quality, excellence, stewardship, friendship. Well into the company’s first year of being publicly held, sales topped out. The stock price, after inching up a bit, now remained flat.

“We’re doing everything right,” said the young CEO as he sat on the edge of his Eames-style chair. “Why aren’t we being rewarded by the market?” Investment analysts droned that the company’s product was filling a niche, but the niche wasn’t growing. The company’s own research showed the same.

So, it added products, or what marketers call “line extensions,” take-offs on the original idea. To fund the erstwhile expansion, the company reduced the quality of the original product, thus reducing cost, but increased its price and revamped the promotion strategy. A new promise. New wow!

The result? Over the next five years, there were lackluster sales and a sinking stock price. Then something happened. The original product’s sales chart started showing up arrows. More consumers were trying it. There was a definite surge in top-line sales.

It was, however, temporary. More research showed that new consumers were “growing into the market.” A new generation of consumers, younger customers, were trying the product, but, according to social media posts, it didn’t meet their needs.

The quality — texture, luster, long-lasting use — just wasn’t there. The company behind the product had lost its focus on excellence, stewardship, honesty and service. It wasn’t friends with its customers anymore. It had changed the product, changed the culture and missed the boat. The public company was only six years old. And it failed.

It seems the company had in the beginning a good product, a good story and an original idea new consumers were now catching up to. But the company changed the product, and with that, changed everything. It didn’t tell its true story, a story of the company, its people, their dedication to the product and the needs and desires of the customers they and it served.

Storytelling is compelling. So states the February issue of the Public Relations Society of America’s newsletter. It’s show and tell. But it’s really more show than tell. “Perhaps the true power of stories lies in how they can unite people who would otherwise have little in common.” That’s how Tracy Zampaglione puts it in her PRSA article on writing.

In consumer marketing, if you can unite a wide audience around your product or service through storytelling, you have a diverse market, a market that may protect the company from inevitable economic swings. A united market or audience, well understood, can help corporate leaders chart a course for long-term success.

Good storytelling comes from telling a story well. Defining characters. Describing circumstances, all in lush detail that engages the senses. As the PRSA advises, “It’s not a drink, but a martini, and not a flower, but a rose. You get the idea.” Perhaps most important is making sure the story talks about “them” and not “us.” Remember, one of the keys to consumer success is making sure customers knows what’s in it for them.

Well, you got this far, so I guess it was a pretty good story. Who was the company and what was the product? It didn’t exist. I made it up, and simply told a story.

Craig Douglass is a marketing and research consultant and serves as executive director of the Regional Recycling & Waste Reduction District in Pulaski County. Email him at Craig@CraigDouglass.com.