Now if you’re still not convinced that one of today’s aggressive forms of marketing comes in the form of Storytelling…you haven’t been paying even the slightest bit of attention to your surroundings.

In Part 1, I introduced one of the biggest Fast Food icons who used such a strategy, KFC. Turns out that many other corporate companies have been telling stories all this while. Though they all preach and stand proudly with the impeccable quality that their products represent, they all illustrate this using different stories from different sources.

For KFC, the story goes that Colonel Sanders himself peddled his home-cooked fried chicken, believng in his creation so much he never once compromised it for other people’s preferences.

There is another example that I’d like to bring up and that is the World’s Famous Coffee Brand. Make a guess. Did I hear Illy?. You got this one right. One of the stories which use to be famously circulated was how the Director of the company at that time ( Who was the son of the founder for Illy coffees ) visited a small cafe which served Illy coffees. After placing his order, the young man behind the bar apologetically explained that the coffee maker was not working quite right that morning and that he’d rather not serve the coffee at all if its going to taste different.

What great story material! Notice the differences in the 2 stories now? In KFC, the story originated from the founder himself. In the Illy story, the story came from an unknown young man, the employee, the very people you trust to uphold the visions of the company.

What are your other sources of company stories?

Think about everyone involved in the company. And I mean, EVERYONE.

How can you miss the people who gives your products the most credibility?!? Your CUSTOMERS!

And there are countless examples of companies using their customers as the source of their stories.

One example: Starbucks launched a nationwide storytelling competition in the US encouraging people to write in their stories around a particular theme. That theme has got to do with finding their partners/love or some even spouses in any Starbucks outlet. ( Forget SDU, head down to your nearest outlet now! ). And you should be there to see the response! ( Not that I was there..)

If your products or services that you offer are THAT good, there is bound to be some appreciative customers who will write a lovely note or letter praising the organization. Hence, your customer stories can even come to you!

So now we’ve solve the first problem, which is getting our stories. Now that you’ve got them, how do you craft them?

We already know that EVERY STORY has these basic elements: PLOT, CHARACTERS, CONFLICT, MESSAGE
And EVERY STORY has a..standard set of characters: Hero, Villain, Hero Support, Damsel In Distress. Of course these are used metaphorically. The damsel in distress may not actually be a damse..nevermind.

Easy. Identify all these characers in the story you are crafting. Who’s the Hero? ( Eg, My Boss ) Why is he the Hero? How has he contributed to the story that entitles him to become the Hero?

Once you’ve clarified their roles in the story, it becomes way easier now!

Another note on the other basic element: CONFLICT.

Yes, conflicts are the driving force of the story, but remember. Absolute chaos is as dull as Total Harmony. Introduce one conflict. Can you imagine if the Illy Story had more than 1 problem. Instead of just the coffee maker breaking down, your cafe’s water supply got shut + all the bottled water were stolen the night before + …irritated already?

Go ahead, get writing and share with me!

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

P.S. This is a continuation of Telling Stories…In a Business Suit (Part 1) Read that for the full post for Corporate Storytelling

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