"Those who tell stories rule society," said Plato. Storytelling is at the core of human civilization. Our ability to imagine and weave a story in words or any form of art that captures people's fancy to invent, discover and innovate has been the force behind human progress. Storytelling is the best communication medium, combining information with emotions that leave a lasting impression. Stories and fables are so powerful that their messages are considered wisdom and truth.
Let me take you on a fantastic journey in a world where animals live like humans. We reach a place in the land far away where a smart Hare, a strategy consultant, has just read the Aesop fable, "The Hare and the Tortoise," and is disturbed as the story puts his great grand uncle Hare in a negative light. He reads the story one more time which goes like this. "A Hare is proud of his agility and mocks at the slow speed of a Tortoise. The Tortoise challenges the Hare to a race. The Hare has a head start and turns to see the Tortoise, who has hardly moved. The Hare gets bored, and he decides to take a nap. When he wakes up, he sees the Tortoise reaching the finishing line and rushes frantically but losses the race to the Tortoise. All the animals celebrate the success of the Tortoise, and the Hare is embarrassed for making tall claims." The Hare shrugs his head in disbelief as he ends the fable.
Our Hare (strategy consultant) reviews the story from a strategic perspective. The playing field, which was arable land, was the perfect 'where to play' choice for the racetrack, as Uncle could run at top speeds leveraging his core competencies of speed and agility. From a 'how to win' perspective, great grand uncle made a superiority claim of speed, supported by his ability to run at 70 km/h. He wanted a side-by-side demonstration with a slow-moving tortoise to capture superiority visually. The gathering of the animals to watch the race was the perfect marketing campaign to capture and commercialize the zero to 70 km/h acceleration by contrasting it with the near-still pace of the Tortoise. "We see, in contrast," thought Uncle and used the setting to bring it to life.
So far, so good. There is no problem. Yes, strategically selecting an animal not in its habitat or with a different core competency was not the best choice for comparison. But, bottom line, Uncle Hare had a clear competitive advantage; in financial terms, he had a sustainable moat that was nearly impossible to penetrate by the Tortoise. Why, then, despite the competitive advantage did things go so wrong?
He thought there must be more to the story than an urge to sleep in the middle of the race. Was Uncle Hare suffering from an ailment? Did he eat a shrub that caused drowsiness? Did he see a predator and take refuge in the bushes and could not come out in time? He thought there must be a logical explanation and agreed to investigate the event to get to the bottom of it.
He asked the older generation about the race, who told him, "We have also heard the story but had no evidence of the event taking place. So the story is an enigma and a run down for us." He then researched the possible times when the race could have happened to find any objective evidence, but there was nothing, simply a story passed on from generation to generation.
The strategic Hare wondered that it's incredible that an unplausible story that goes against all the competitive advantage theories and has no evidence is etched so deeply in people's minds. Instead, people think the message is so strong and life-changing that they pass the story for its moral and lesson to their kids. The Hare wonders if they would follow the story's moral, 'slow and steady wins the race'; they will be extinct as foxes and other predators would easily catch and consume them.
A thought raced through his mind, 'Maybe the race never took place; it was simply a narrative to make the Tortoise look smart. The story highlighted the core competency of Tortoise: slow and steady and used the stroke of narrative to wipe the competitive advantage of Hare in agility. The winning showcases victory against the most unbelievable odds. A triumph of spirit which touches the heart and emotions.' It was a eureka moment for the Hare, and he said, 'Yes, this makes sense. It's a narrative, and if you repeat it consistently, it becomes as true as a fact despite having no semblance to the truth.'
He then strategized, 'The story's message is not that the Tortoise beat our Uncle Hare. Instead, it is the power of a well-articulated narrative over facts. It signifies the importance of weaving heart-touching stories as a competitive advantage to win. A story that has provenance captures our imagination and appeals to our higher motives. A powerful tale of overcoming adversity, winning from a hopeless situation, adventure, and hope to rise.'
The Hare (strategy consultant) was now clear that such an event never happened and that the only way forward was a strong counter-narrative. He thought the Hares were better placed as they had facts like speed (70 km/h), ability (zig-zagging), and a strong heritage of agility.
So the Hares developed a counter-narrative in which they first accepted that such a race did take place to keep the base narrative alive that is entrenched in the minds of the people and animals and difficult to erase. They then decided to twist the story by adding a background to the event. The new narrative was that great grand Uncle Hare was building an inclusive community of animals and was finding the Tortoise unwilling, who thought of himself as too slow and unfitting in the community, where most members were agile. It was Uncle Hare's way of showing that Tortoise has steadfastness and wisdom, which are as important if not more than speed. He took the hit on his reputation to build an inclusive community. Strategic Hare came out with a more believable narrative that added an emotional touch to the story. It added nobility to great grand uncle Hare's actions.
A small change in the narrative made Uncle Hare a hero again. This is the power of storytelling and building strong narratives. There was a celebration in the Hare community, and they asked the Tortoise to provide the whole perspective of the case study in their business programs. The last we heard was that a team of high-powered Tortoises was thinking of a new narrative. For sure, they cannot let a perfectly working narrative for generations to fade into obscurity. But, on the other hand, Hares were looking for a master fable teller like Aesop to propel and commercialize their narrative.
So much for the fable. Now, coming to the real world, the story's moral is that 'Stories and the underlying message in it is an intangible asset that can raise the perceived value of the brand, event, or company. Differentiation is achieved not only by innovation, technology, quality, and cost but by crafting a compelling story that touches our emotions and is built on tenants of performance.' Carefully woven and emotionally touching stories can overcome competitive disadvantages to win, as a strong and compelling narrative is a competitive advantage. How beautifully the Hare and the Tortoise story nullifies all the competitive advantages of the Hare and makes the Tortoise the hero.
You may argue that it is just a fable. Yes, it is, but the same is true in real life. Let's take the example of Christopher Columbus and his presumed discovery that the earth is round. Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the New World continues to fascinate the people about the expedition's purpose to prove to his skeptics and contemporaries that the earth is round. Skeptics believed the earth was flat and one might sail off the edge. There is drama in the story of Columbus suggesting an expedition to travel through the West of Spain to reach India. How he convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella against the advice of experts and took a personal risk, and how he braved the frontiers of the unknown to discover the Americas instead of falling from the edge of the world. The story touches the heart, and emotions have a longer memorable shelf life.
The reality that the earth is an oblate spheroid instead of a sphere was known as far back as 350 BC. Scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians like Pythagoras and Aristotle proved that the earth was round. Yet, many people associate Christopher Columbus with his expedition as the discoverer. Interestingly, Christopher Columbus's expedition was in 1490, and the story of his expedition to prove his detractors was invented in 1828 when Washington Irving published The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Irving, a master storyteller who wrote books like Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, used the power of storytelling to create a powerful story that inspires the imagination of people to date.
The myth of Columbus' squashing the supposed flat earth theory is tempting: It casts the explorer's courageous journey in an even more daring light. It appeals to our sense of adventure and brings out the explorer in us. Imagine the adventure of rising tides, ferocious storms, vast unending oceans, navigation challenges, fear, and excitement of going beyond the frontiers of human limits to discover the new world. It's much more appealing than Aristotle's observation that during lunar eclipses, the Earth's shadow on the face of the sun is curved. Since this curved shape exists during all lunar eclipses, even though Earth is rotating, he intuited from this curved shadow that the Earth is curvy all around. How factual and boring. The worst would be just showing a satellite picture of the earth. Where is the adventure, where is the emotion, where are exploration and drama? This is to make a point for all the fact-loving scientific minds.
Conclusion
So, what does it mean for our brands and services? We know that the equation for value is Value = (Quality + Performance) / Cost. However, storytelling can add more value to enable the brands to charge a higher price. The equation, if we add a strong story to the brand, will become:
Value = (Quality + Performance + Perceived benefit) / cost.
The perceived benefit could be the association with a cause or community, uniqueness, experience, nobility, philanthropy, the feeling of importance, unparallel service, or just doing the right thing. The story is not just hyperbole. The best stories are built on facts and demonstrate proof of performance to establish loyalty. Building responsible brands that go beyond their functional benefits is the task of supreme leaders. Leadership is not about managing people but building the company, its brands, organizations, and communities on the power of purpose bound by stories that inspire imagination and living it every day despite the short-term losses or challenges. Courageous leaders build a strong narrative that aligns with the company's purpose and lives it in every action and decision.
Some ideas of narrative building:
1. Narrative should be built on the foundation of performance. There is no debate that stories are powerful and should be used by companies to differentiate their products and services. This is especially true for luxury fashion, where differentiation and emotional connection with the brand are the keys. Narratives should be supported by performance (quality, craftsmanship, sustainability, experience, fair practices, etc.), or the consumers/customers will be disappointed, hurting the brand. The best would be to integrate the brand with a purpose so strong that the lines between the two are blurred.
2. Build strong brand stories that connect with people to raise their willingness to pay. Pricing power increases when the brand's perceived value exceeds its functional benefit. It is not easy to craft a narrative that touches the people's hearts, and they associate with the brand as its ambassadors and are willing to pay more. However, it is worth the effort as it requires no capital, just thinking, and if done right, will enable a high ROI for the company. Many companies fight on cost and functional benefits, which make the products a commodity over time, and the price is the only differentiation. A sustainable outcome is if the company has a competitive cost advantage.
3. Repeat the compelling story consistently with proof of performance to gain a competitive advantage. The deluge of information and messaging through social media and advertising has reduced consumers' attention spans. A good story needs a well-articulated narrative along with an event or a social cause that highlights the brand's purpose without advertising. An example would be building communities of consumers behind a bigger purpose or benefit and demonstrating actions to bring the narrative to life. Sustainable brands create a community of people who want to protect the climate and identify with a brand that uses sustainable materials and contributes to the community and society.
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