In a previous post we discussed brand stories.  The stories people share about their experience with your company, your people or your products.  So what stories are being told about your company and how can you influence that? 

You can do this through a ‘Push Pull Story Strategy’ to borrow from a common marketing term. 

Pull stories are the organic stories people narrate about their interactions with your organisation.  While traveling in Sydney we always use the same private taxi service. Recently I got off a plane late at night and there was a bottle of water waiting for me in the back of the taxi, exactly what I needed.  Another time, I arrived early one morning into Sydney.  My meeting was delayed.  The taxi driver carefully checked my coffee preference and then bought me a coffee from the taxi drivers’ café at Sydney airport.   A hidden gem and perhaps the best coffee in town.  I often share these taxi service stories with friends and colleagues. These stories that customers like me share, collectively build the taxi company’s brand.  How many positive stories are your customers sharing about your company?

The other option is push stories.  Authentic stories that are strategically found and shared through various mediums.  Stories that are shared between employees and customers, shared by the CEO at AGMs and profit announcements, shared by Corporate Affairs and Marketing through all the formal internal and external mediums.  There is one significant factor though…the most critical success factor…and that is the stories need to be authentic.  They cannot be marketing spin, or inaccessible corporate jargon. They have to be real stories from the coal face, not fabricated.

The pull stories are usually more powerful than the push stories because they come from the coal face and there is an unmistakable authenticity about them.  So think about the pull stories that are being generated everyday but also think of other stories that you can strategically harvest and put out there.