Story is an emergent communication tool that taps into the experiences of your customer. This is crucial in retail. When you share a story with your customer, you will spark a story in their mind. A story that has your customer thinking, “I see myself in this brand!” Or, better yet, has them aspiring to experience something similar, imagining, “I’ll be a hero when I use this product!”
As the Story Goes
If “People want to be engaged, not told; serviced, not sold,” then story – the sharing of an experience – is a communication tool in deep service to your omnichannel retail strategy. Through story, you’re inviting your customers to understand, experience, and resonate with your brand. You’re enabling them to feel confident about the decision they’re going to make to buy your product. You’re helping your customers become the hero.
An increasing number of companies are adding “Chief Storyteller” roles to their C-suite rosters. Glassdoor currently lists 156 “Chief Storyteller” jobs, and LinkedIn lists 167. Although the roles vary in responsibility, they incorporate elements typically found in the areas of brand, marketing, merchandising, communications, public relations, media relations, and sales.
Having a Chief of Storytelling is an attractive proposition: we all love a good raconteur. And we crave clarity instead of chaos. Retail (and life) is moving so fast that people may feel confused about the story they’re navigating. Having one person confidently state the parameters in which we’re to operate can be reassuring. And as we’re already overloaded with information and increasingly grappling with artificial intelligence, we’re craving authentic communication. Story brings things closer to a human scale.
In addition to Chief Storyteller, another popular trend is the buzzy “brand narrative.” Although overused and misunderstood, the truth is that brand narratives are constructed from distinct stories. A useful analogy is one of a mosaic, which is made up of individual tiles to form a whole image. Or a constellation, which is made up of stars. In this analogy, your stories are the stars, your narrative is a constellation (and your culture is the galaxy). The point is that myriad stories about products and people are joined in narratives to provide transmission of your business’s overarching values, underlying beliefs, and collective meaning in the marketplace. The greater the number of small stories you enable to be heard and understood, the richer, more authentic, and stronger your big narrative will be.
I’ll add a nuance that makes a remarkable difference in how you strategically communicate with your customers. As a professional communications coach, I prefer the term storysharing, rather than storytelling. “Telling” assumes a spectator and references an old economy in which brands maintained strict control over their messaging. “Sharing” is modern, inviting collaboration and engagement, plus it recognizes the truth of the marketplace. “Sharing” recognizes tactical communication that is both speaking and listening.
Effective retailing demands that we enable people to find, believe, and share their own stories. And to do so enthusiastically, without hesitation. They shouldn’t have to face distrust and wait for vetting by a Chief Storyteller.
Storysharers
The role of a Chief Storyteller was first embodied by Nelson Farris at Nike back in the 1990s. Farris attempted to humanize the company, making its rich heritage relevant to the larger corporate culture. “Our stories are not about extraordinary business plans or financial manipulations,” he said. “They’re about people getting things done.”
Today, however, Farris has long retired, and the function is dispersed throughout the company. As it should be. The most resonant, highest-impact stories emerge only when story is woven throughout a retail culture, not siloed in one C-suite executive.
Story should be democratized. Everyone involved in your retail business — customers, vendors, teams, and other partners – is already sharing stories about you. In a decentralized, polyvocal retail space, brands aren’t telling stories; people are telling stories about brands.
This means acknowledging today’s co-creative marketplace and thinking beyond testimonials, social listening, and contrived advertising campaigns featuring user-generated content. You want to fully support the organic sharing of stories. Not squash it. After all, people are the new media. People believe their own stories, and word of mouth is the most persuasive communication of all. Add to that, people trust most what they’ve heard from multiple sources.
Storytelling Redefined
Effective retailing demands that we enable people (including our frontline sales ambassadors) to find, believe, and share their own stories. And to do so enthusiastically and without hesitation. They shouldn’t have to face distrust and wait for vetting by a Chief Storyteller. If, as author Patti Digh said, “the shortest distance between two people is a story,” triangulating through a Chief Storyteller creates great separation. Stories, in fact, scale at little to no cost. Think of the seminal Nordstrom Tire Story, in which the customer service-centric retailer accepted the return of tires even though they didn’t sell them, repeated now for nearly five decades.
Stories from your people and your customers are your inclusive and exclusive content and bring significant competitive advantages. Because the stories are coming from your customers, you know they will resonate with your customers. One person, even with a team, cannot surface, listen to, and amplify the sheer volume of stories likely being generated about your retail business. This is another reason why the siloing of story is a terrible idea. The elicitation and sharing of stories should be normalized and made accessible throughout your retail business.
Even (especially) small stories can have profound meaning and deep impact. Small stories – think of pebbles and colorful sea glass instead of diamonds – offer colorful glimpses into the meaning of your brand and the daily lives of your customers and team members. Small stories are more likely to resonate and be compelling to customers, prompting them to engage with your brand and products.
Authentic Brand Stories
When I first started working with Kiehl’s, I attended a charity gala and told the gentleman sitting next to me about my new client. He replied, “I know one thing about Kiehl’s. And that’s that whenever I get my wife a gift from Kiehl’s, it’s a winner!” That story bubbled up and out and was often efficiently shared with shoppers by Kiehl’s Customer Representatives.
You want stories to percolate throughout your retail business. For example, your leadership team needs to share stories that make strategy tangible. They must connect the stories of the past, present, and future to create meaning. Your HR team needs to listen to stories to create a people-first organization centering on connection and trust. Junior staff need to see themselves as part of the story and make it their own, adding to and internalizing the culture. Think of the annual Zappos Culture Book, filled with employee stories.
People are telling stories all the time. Rather than subduing this innate skill, it should be more fully developed. Rather than isolating the skill in one hierarchical Chief – or even in your CEO — your retail business should be developing the narrative intelligence of all your team members. From buying, logistics, merchandising and operations to the sales floor and customer service, explain, prove and leverage the power of story through expert workshops. Coach leaders in finding, refining, and sharing their stories. Coach them, too, in asking for and listening to stories from each other and from customers.
Your CEO should model narrative intelligence as a core, equally distributed organizational commitment. This means recognizing stories, sharing stories, asking for stories, and creating the spaciousness necessary to listen to stories. It’s as easy as asking, “Tell me about a time a customer made you smile.” And “Tell me about a time YOU made a customer smile.” Ask and listen to stories about when people have felt most connected your brand. Also ask about moments when people felt disconnected.
Narrative Intelligence is a competency, and storytelling is not a department. If you want to create a culture rich in stories and foster narrative alignment, you need to invite everyone, not anoint someone.
