Actionable Messaging Playbook™ | Chapter 8

This is the 8th chapter in an ongoing series about developing your Actionable Messaging Playbook™. This content was originally posted at Motive3.com. If you never want to miss a post, sign up for my newsletter at https://motive3.com/newsletter.

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One of the biggest mistakes we see marketing leaders make after they’ve done their classic marketing process is go straight to implementation (sometimes called go-to-market (GTM)). But here’s what all the big brands know. There’s a hidden step before GTM, and that’s building a master narrative that will guide how the companies tell their stories across channels, formats, and so on.

I remember the first time I heard “story” and “brand” in the same context.

In 2014, I was doing a consulting engagement for Infinity Insurance and my client asked me to read Jonah Sachs book "Winning the Story Wars". They wanted me to develop a story for them to appeal to Latino drivers. I read the book. I went deep on the Hero’s Journey. And I learned how to use the elements of the hero’s journey to inform how to engage customers well beyond marketing communications.

Today Infinity Insurance is a household name among Hispanics. Nearly half of Infinity Insurance's team is Hispanic (according to published articles on the net), and they offer bilingual services and extensive Spanish-language resources. They’ve culturally adapted and translated all of their consumer-facing information and marketing. And they tout themselves as “car insurance for Hispanics, by Hispanics” due to their high ratio of Hispanic agents. All this despite not being Hispanic Owned.

What Infinity Insurance did differently, is they drove the entire business with the narrative we developed. That’s the power of story when it reaches the market from within.

The experience with Infinity Insurance was a turning point in my understanding of the power of a master narrative. It highlighted that a well-crafted story isn’t just a marketing tool—it’s a strategic asset that can transform an entire organization. By embedding the narrative into every aspect of their business, from hiring to customer service to product design, Infinity Insurance created a cohesive and authentic brand experience that resonated deeply with their target audience.

This alignment between narrative and business operations not only attracted and retained customers but also fostered a strong, unified company culture.

This is the often-overlooked step that distinguishes successful brands: the integration of a compelling core narrative that guides all communications and aligns with the company's mission and values.

So how do you do it? Well, if you've read the previous chapters, you have all the ingredients.

Writing You Core Narrative

The key to building a compelling master narrative lies in understanding and articulating the core stories that define your brand—purpose, value, and origin stories. These narratives not only communicate what your company does but also why it matters, how it benefits your customers, the journey that brought it to life. Once you have those, it’s easy to both mine, and create additional stories that reinforce the core stores. For example, a company can min real-world impact it has on its users to demonstrate social proof.

By weaving these stories into every facet of your business, from marketing campaigns to internal operations, you create a consistent and powerful message that resonates deeply with your audience, fosters emotional connections, and drives long-term loyalty. This holistic approach ensures that your brand’s story is not just told but lived, guiding every action and decision to align with the overarching narrative.

The Value Story

A clear and compelling value story is essential because it demonstrates how your product or service enhances your customers' lives. According to storytelling expert Kindra Hall (who I've drawn extensive inspiration from), a value story should highlight the tangible benefits your customers receive, addressing their needs and solving their problems. When we work with clients, we write all our mini-stories as simple storyboards. It’s probably a byproduct of my entertainment background, but it’s a tried and true method. And to make the process even easier (and help you avoid being over-precious about creating your story), we do it with six 3 x 3 sticky notes.

Here’s how we do it.

• Panel 1 | The Person & Prize: This panel sets up the current situation, including the hero of the story (the buyer), their quest (what they seek), and why they seek it (motivation).
• Panel 2 | The Problem: This panel outlines the persistent problems and pains that your target deals with.
• Panel 3 | The Promise: Here you demonstrate you understand the pain, and surface your solution to that problem in the form of a promise
• Panel 4 | The Path or Process: In this panel you summarize the journey to the promised land.
• Panel 5 | The Price and Provocation: Here’s where you invite the hero (your target) to take the step toward the solution with you.
• Panel 6 | The Protections: And finally, here you’ll give one last reason to trust the path you’ve outlined.

When I’m teaching my workshops, I use this little doodle drawing to simplify things..

1. It starts out with a person and a prize they seek (the hero & their quest).
2. But wait, there’s a problem. There’s a big chasm of fire between them and their prize (the obstacle or problems).
3. Then you appear. You’re the guide, and you’ve been down this road before and know how to get across (the promise).
4. You have a magical fire retardant bridge that will take them to the prize (the path).
5. You invite your hero to use your bridge so they can reach their prize.
6. And you assure them the bridge is safe. You’ve helped many others cross this very same chasm of fire.

The trick here is not to overthink it. At least not yet. For example, here’s how we did it for one client in the retail operations space. (Note the name of the company has been anonymized).

Here’s how that would work as simple elevator speech:

1. Retailers strive to deliver great customer service to improve sales and capture bigger margins.
2. But for large retail operations, store staff are often overwhelmed with tasks that prevent them from engaging with customers.
3. You shouldn’t need secret shoppers to spy on your stores and find out what’s really happening. AcmeApp is a retail enablement app that reveals what your staff are really focused on, and why.
4. AcmeApp 1) captures photos, videos and other reporting metrics 2) it shows you real-time data and insights on a store dashboard, and 3) is backed by enterprise-level expertise and support.
5. Our team of experts make implementation dead-simple. The app is so easy almost no training is required. Let us show you how in a demo.
6. We have over 20 years of industry experience. We have 25 store brands and over 1500 stores using our app already.

Do you see how easily it flows? When you have a tiny story you can share with your entire team, you have the power to turn every employee into an ambassador.

Once you have your value story, it’s really just a matter of adjusting your perspective a bit to write your purpose and origin story.

The Purpose Story

Your purpose story is your bigger WHY story. It offers team members a reason to show up each day. It inspires them to commit, to cooperate, and to accomplish something as a team. It also explains to the wider world the deeper purpose and values that drive your organization. When you write your purpose story, you widen your lens beyond your niche and signal to the industry in general what you’re all about.

Here’s how we use the same general storyboard, but shift the perspective to achieve a purpose story .

• Panel 1 | The Industry/Category Purpose: Here, instead of focusing on the target, you focus on the category the company sits in. What is the overriding purpose of the category in general? What problem does it exist to solve?
• Panel 2 | The Problem: Next you surface what the industry category continues to struggle with.
• Panel 3 | The Promise: Here you explain how your company has a unique way of solving the problem. A different way of seeing things.
• Panel 4 | The Path or Process: In this panel you summarize the approach the company takes to fulfill its purpose.
• Panel 5 | The Payoff: Here’s where you detail the impact on customers, and the industry as well.
• Panel 6 | The Proof: And finally, here’s where you provide a rallying cry and explain how your company proves it’s advancing the mission.

Here’s an example from a company we worked with that is in the fin-tech space, providing compliance solutions to global cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Origin Story

And finally, you’ll want to document your origin story. Chances are you’ve been telling this story informally since the very beginning, but now’s the chance to sharpen its focus. The origin story is used to increase stakeholder faith in the people who created the company, and their reasons for doing it. This story is about the spark that started your company’s journey.

Here’s how to do that. Once again, we’ll use the 6-panel framework.

1. Triggering Event or Problem: What inspired the founder(s) to start the business? This could be a problem they faced, an insight they gained, or an experience that motivated them.
2. Market Context: The state of the industry or market at the time of founding.
3. The Epiphany: What was the breakthrough that led to the solution the company built?
4. The Solution: What is the solution to the problem that was found?
5. Impact: The positive impact the business has had on customers, the industry, or society.
6. Future Vision: The vision for the future and the legacy they hope to create.

As an example, I’ll use our Actionable Messaging Playbook and process.

1. Almost 15 years into running a small marketing consultancy, the biggest mistake I continued to see with my clients was messaging “drift”.
2. It happened every single time - the messaging started out strong and focused. The problem was that there weren’t systems in place to enforce messaging consistency as the company scaled, employees churned, and competition came and went. The bigger the company got, or the more time that passed—the more the message drifted and diluted.
3. Out of frustration, we started developing little printed playbooks they could hand out to their teams so everyone could be clear on the target, the value proposition, and the key messaging pillars.
4. We realized that there was a missing link between a company's Mission/Vision/Values and their Brand Guidelines. Companies needed a way to keep the message on track — and the Actionable Messaging Playbook was born. It’s the tool that guides how companies consistently communicate their value to the market.
5. Armed with an Actionable Messaging Playbook™ and the AMP process we developed to support it, we started to see our clients get real traction. They started to be known for something—something they intended. Now, they’re in the best position they’ve ever been in to scale their message.
6. With the explosion of AI, now we’re taking our playbook to the next level, developing custom GPTs and prompts for businesses of any size to use an Actionable Messaging Playbook to unify and scale how they communicate their advantage.

Once you have established your core narratives, the next critical step is to map these stories to the different stages of the buyer journey. This involves identifying key touch points where your audience interacts with your brand and ensuring that each interaction reinforces your master narrative.

Mapping the Buyer Journey

Once you have your core narratives—value, purpose, and origin stories—it's essential to align them with the buyer journey. This involves understanding the different stages a customer goes through before making a purchase and ensuring your narratives address their needs at each touchpoint.

With your core stories in hand, you may want to modify them along the buyer journey. By mapping your stories to the awareness, consideration, and decision stages, you can create a cohesive and compelling experience that guides potential customers smoothly through their journey, enhancing engagement and conversion rates. For example, a purpose story might attract initial interest during the awareness stage, a value story could demonstrate benefits during the consideration stage, and telling a customer story (see below) might provide the final reassurance needed to close the deal during the decision stage.

Story Mining

To continually fuel your narratives, develop techniques for uncovering and creating compelling stories within your organization. Story mining involves actively seeking out and documenting real-world examples, customer testimonials, employee experiences, and company milestones. Encourage your team to share anecdotes and insights that highlight your brand’s impact, values, and unique attributes. This practice not only enriches your narrative library but also ensures your stories remain authentic and relatable. Techniques such as conducting interviews, sending out surveys, and holding story-sharing sessions can help uncover valuable content.

Another easy example? At the start of your weekly meetings, invite staff members to share a story that aligns with your brand promise, personality or messaging pillars.

Patagonia: A Well-Known Brand with a Strong Purpose Story

Patagonia is an excellent example of a brand with a strong purpose story. Their commitment to environmental sustainability is woven into every aspect of their business, from product design to corporate activism. This purpose-driven narrative not only attracts environmentally conscious consumers but also inspires loyalty and advocacy, reinforcing Patagonia’s position as a leader in sustainable business practices. Their stories about repairing worn-out products and donating a portion of profits to environmental causes resonate deeply with their audience and underscore their commitment to the planet.

Slack: A Company Using Customer Stories Effectively

Slack effectively uses customer stories to showcase its value proposition. By highlighting testimonials and case studies from diverse industries, Slack demonstrates how its platform enhances productivity and collaboration. These customer stories provide social proof and relatable scenarios that potential users can identify with, making Slack’s benefits more tangible and compelling. For instance, a case study detailing how a specific company improved its communication and project management using Slack offers potential customers a clear picture of what they can achieve.

Key Reader Takeaways

• Understand the different types of core narratives and their importance: Grasp how value, purpose, and origin stories shape your brand’s identity and communication strategy. Your Value Story demonstrates how your product or service enhances your customers' lives. Your Purpose Story offers team members a reason to show up each day. It inspires them to commit, cooperate and accomplish something as a team. Your Origin Story increases stakeholder faith in the people who created the company, and their reasons for doing it.
• Map stories to the buyer journey: Adapt your narratives to address customer needs at every stage, enhancing their experience and guiding them towards a purchase decision.
• Recognize the techniques for discovering and developing impactful stories: Implement story mining practices to continually enrich your narrative library with authentic, relatable content.

With your core narratives in place, you now have the tools to create a powerful brand story.

Next, we'll explore how to integrate these narratives across all departments to ensure a unified brand voice and message. By weaving these stories into every facet of your business, you create a consistent and powerful message that resonates deeply with your audience, fosters emotional connections, and drives long-term loyalty. This holistic approach ensures that your brand’s story is not just told but lived, guiding every action and decision to align with the overarching narrative.

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