LOYALTY STARTS WITH GREAT STORIES
JAN CALLEBAUT
29 January 2013
Basic purpose:
Establish relationships
Communicationmanager = relationship builder
Decisions are driven by
psycho-logics
Not by objective logic
• Your basic life decisions ?
• Did you first fall in love or did you first made a study of the antecedents of the “candidates”?
In marketing we call this:
Product-centric versus people-centric
From a product-centric vision towards a people-centric vision
Product-Centric Features & Benefits
Brand-Centric Personality
People-Centric Engagement
Orientation
Unique product
offer PUSH YOUR VISION
Unique sales
proposition PULL people
Unique Satisfaction
proposition CONNECT people
Source of
distinction Focus & Starting point
CONNECT
UNIQUE SATISFACTION PROPOSITION
What has changed?
10
UNIQUE EXPERIENCE
• Today
– Hidden, not obvious
– Authentic, real
– People
– Individual
– Complexity of subjective ideas
and truths
– Subjective, hazy
– Consumption is an engaged
decision
– The consumer is an active co-
creator of relevant meaning.
– Variable, changing
– Respect for the individual
IMPOSED VALUES
• Yesterday
– Factual seen, obvious
– Created
– Consumers
– Target
– 1 objective truth
– Objective, fixed
– Consumption is a normative, receptive act
– Consumer is a passive receiver.
– Consistent, stable
– Respect for the brand
Emotional branding – Marc Gobé
The Value of storytelling
Storytelling helps to sharpen skills of imagination and visualization.
(based on collins and cooper)
The Value of storytelling
• Storytelling introduces brands and words in context, helping customers…
– To develop an appreciation of the range, beauty, and rhythm of the brands and services involved
– To understand unfamiliar concepts
– To increase their own vocabulary
The Value of storytelling
• Storytelling allows users to share product experiences and feelings:
– To interact with co-users on a personal level
– To refine their product usage and enhance their user-experience
– To co-create their own stories
The Value of storytelling
• Storytelling helps people improve their listening skills
– Sparking an interest
– Helping them understand meaning, draw inferences, and interpret the information
– Helping them to see product info as a reflection of human experiences
– Encouraging them to look at various info to find a story they want to share or to find stories that have been meaningful to them
The Value of storytelling
• Storytelling facilitates problem solving
– Stories with riddles or problems to solve
can enhance critical and creative users skills
– Sharing stories of their (users) culture helps people understand their own and others' current problems
(based on collins and cooper)
A HANDBAG IS NOT JUST A HANDBAG
FREITAG
EXAMPLE: HOW REORIENT VRT
FROM A BRANDS ORIENTED COMPANY TO A SERVICE ORIENTED COMPANY
1995
• VRT has problems as a stand alone brand
• Every mistake = TOTAL FAILURE OF THE COMPANY
Building up brand portfolio
= rediscovery of
STRENGHTS
2012
• NEW COMPETITION
• BRAND PORTFOLIO IS NOT LONGER THE ANSWER
• QUALITY BRANDS COPIED BY OTHERS
• THEREFORE:
CHANGE TO CLIENT CENTERED SERVICE LOGIC
Understand, Support, Experience, Connectivity
VRT AND ITS AUDIENCE AS CO-CREATORS OF VALUE
VRT BRANDS = TOOLS
AUDIENCES AS ACTIVE
PARTICIPANTS VRT
EXPERIENCE
FLANDERS AS CONTRACTOR
AND BENEFICIOR
PERSONAL CURRENCY
ECONOMIC(AUDIOMETRIC) CURRENCY
CONTINUOUS INSPIRATION
EXPERIENCE VALUE
SOCIAL CURRENCY
Structure
• Subjective stories
– Touch us
– Easily find a place in our emotional register
• Metaphors
• Archetypes
– Help us make the story useful
Rock Werchter
It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.“ Native American saying