Why All Companies Need a Story

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By Cidnee Stephen | Published 02/9/2009 | Positioning , Referrals , Marketing Strategy | Unrated

Cidnee Stephen

Cidnee Stephen is a high energy and accomplished marketing professional. Born to market, she showed her creative side at a very young ago when she started marketing greeting cards and good ol’ lemonade in elementary school. To anyone that knew her, it was no surprise then that she chose marketing as her focus at University over 20 years ago. Of course most of the marketing principles she learned way back then suited large corporations. So when she was thrown into small business marketing years later, she found she needed to come up with some new approaches. Her techniques served her well and she continuously has been a top producer for the companies she has worked with. Having worked in Canada and Europe, Cidnee has called Calgary her home since the late 1990’s.

She started Strategies for Success in 1999 www.strategiesforsuccess.ca. Since then she has worked with over 100 entrepreneurs and small businesses to build sound marketing systems that get results! Cidnee is a sought after speaker on the elements of small business marketing. She speaks regularly in Calgary, as well as at national conferences and corporate functions. She also has written articles for magazines and corporate newsletters sharing her savvy marketing tips. She publishes the Marketing Excel-erator and will be launching her new book in 2008 "If You Aren't Getting the Business, You Don't Deserve It"

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Why All Companies Need a Story

Think about the last time you and a friend raved about a product or a service. Did you talk about the company's motto or its whole product line? Of course not, more than likely you told a story about your experience with that company. You might have had a personal anecdote about the person you dealt with or their stellar service. Maybe you found their product out of this world!

Stories capture our attention quickly. They are more entertaining than straight facts and allow us to take a complicated topic and explain it in such a way that it is appealing to a listener.

So why does a company need to tell a story? Simply put, it gives you control over what and how people talk about you, your products and services.

A story:

•   helps you to build credibility and trust
•   simplifies a product, service or a process
•   builds a case with the emotional buyer
•   differentiates you from your competition

Choosing your story

In his latest bestseller "All Marketers Are Liars," Seth Godin talks about choosing a commonly held viewpoint in the marketplace and then aligning your story to that viewpoint. Your story MUST be consistent with what you can realistically deliver.

If you can relate with a commonly held viewpoint and then deliver on that viewpoint, your story will be successful. When your story is successful your audience will embrace it and spread the good news by word of mouth.

While having a story is important for all businesses, it is doubly important for the small business. Stories and testimonials are your two strongest ways to build trust and credibility affordably.

Recommended Reading

This is a book about doing what consumers demand— painting vivid pictures that they choose to believe. Every organization must understand that the rules have changed again. In an economy where the richest have an infinite number of choices (and no time to make them), every organization is a marketer and all marketing is about telling stories.

Our Review
Seth Godin's book is an easy and entertaining read. While it focuses mostly on business-to- consumer marketing, the principles are very similar for business-to-business products and services.

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