PBL 1 Storytelling

Learning objectives:

1. What is corporate communication and why is storytelling used there?
2. What makes for successful storytelling in corporate communications?
3. Case studies and real world examples.


Companies communicate their values to stakeholders via storytelling.

Here is a wonderful example with the message "Believe in Good" from Thai Life Insurance

 This story is highly emotional and appeals to everyone. It brings philosophical questions. It doesn't feel as a commercial.

And a similar one from the Thai bank. There is nothing about bank's services, just a story how a dog helps a guy meet a girl. This story illustrates the message "Simple investment, return beyond expectation". The story is funny and again emotional.

Paul A.Argenti : "Many large companies are perceived as being faceless, unfeeling organizations, an impression that is only reinforced when no upward communication exists from employees to management."

A nationwide survey of over 5,000 employees in US showed that employees tend to critisize their Company in case of lacking upward and downward communication. (Corporate Communication, chap.7) Employees' morale and overall corporate culture depends on communication.

Corporate storytelling is how the most successful companies use marketing and communications to move their businesses ahead.

Corporate storytelling is about winning...

• Acceptance of a new product, service or idea
• Higher revenues and shareholder returns
• Clear understanding of your value proposition
• Premium pricing

It's about getting to the core of an organization's value proposition, and developing narratives that simply and compellingly relate "the story" to customers, prospects, investors, media, employees and others in a way that motivates them to think or act favorably.
And it's about developing focused, cost-effective programs that enable companies to reinforce the story (and differentiate themselves) through every communication they produce and action they take.
Corporate storytelling relies on facts, never fiction, and is grounded in meticulous competitive and market research.

“Storytelling is the most powerful force in our communication. From the moment we were hairy, hideous cavemen, we’ve used stories to pass on information, share values, evoke emotions and entertain one another around the campfire cooking woolly mammoth (before the advent of the vegan diet, apparently). Stories are the emotional glue that connect you with your adoring audience. They help frame your brand in a memorable and favorable light, aligning you with the shared values of your customer." (http://www.iacquire.com/blog/brand-storytelling)

According to Jennifer Aaker, there are 4 characteristics of an effective story :

1) goal - why are you telling the story in the first place?

2) grab attention - why would the audience wanna listen?

3) engage - why would the audience care?

4) enable action - why would the audience wanna share the story?


The five Ws of journalism lay a solid foundation to build a story.

1. Who is your story about? Know your characters and your subject. Is your story about the brand, or about someone using the product? Is your story a history of a company or a history of the company founder? It makes a difference.
2. What happens in your story? This one seems obvious, but if you’re going to describe action and tell a story, you should understand what’s going to happen. More on plot and story structure later.
3. When does your story take place? Is it set in the present, the future or the past? This will dictate verb tense, point of view, and who knows what and when.
4. Where does your story take place? Can you see the setting in your head? Are you telling an intercontinental tale or one that happens in a subway station in the Bronx? A sense of place helps your audience put actions in context, juggling in a circus tent seems normal; juggling in a chemistry lab does not.
5. Why did your story happen? What were the motivating factors, and what set your story in motion? If man drowned on the Great Barrier Reef, why was he there? What motivated him to take up diving? Why didn’t anyone save him?

Some advocate the addition of the H, “How did it happen?” at the end of your five Ws.
Source: Kelly Law's article on Linkedin.

Storytelling gone wrong:

The way Virgin Galactic moved from hero to villain in the space of less than a week after the tragic test-flight crash. The story flipped, from Sir Richard Branson flying out to the accident in the Mojave desert, giving a moving, vision-rich speech and answering all the tough questions the morning after the crash … to the company praising the surviving pilot but blaming the dead pilot not a week later as the search for a scapegoat – in this case one that couldn’t answer back – intensified. Not to mention Branson claiming he’d never met the dead pilot, when archive footage tells a very different tale. (Sam Knowles, the founder of storytelling agency)