Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Hi, Dominik.

This question should most likely be moved to the "Student" section because it's not about a real world situation in business so much as it's about your thesis.

Storytelling, also called "testimonials" has been used for decades. But, as you have found, not much literature is available to analyze the topic. Every marketer knows that a few testimonies from satisfied customers goes a long ways to convince prospects that the promises of the brand are legitimate. But I haven’t been able to find much on why, precisely. I think the topic needs to be decomposed into bite-sized parts:

First, there are psychology questions:

Why are people affected by testimony? What styles and verbal images work and which don’t? Who can come across as “real” and who can’t?

Simplistically, we’re all trained to “ask for references” in many major decisions. For instance, if I am contracting a person for home repairs, I diligently seek three to five estimates and then ask each for references. I call references and listen to their stories of their experience. Tone and choice of words support the story. The story is convincing if I detect that this “satisfied customers enthusiastically supports the craftsman and even more so by how willing they are to go out of their way to help him get another project.

Conversely, the actor Ed Asner advertising life insurance on a TV ad – well, I can’t picture dear old Ed as a “real person” in any fashion and worried about life insurance. He uses the right tones and comes up with good images, but he isn’t believable given his background.

So, tone, imagery, enthusiasm, and credibility of the testifier are key parameters….what is the psychology behind this? I believe you can find ample material in psychology journals to pull together much of this angle.

Next, what are some alternatives to storytelling to reinforce the “brand” and what are their strengths and weaknesses?

For instance, advertisement in the form of posters and slogans. Or how about contests and give-aways. Internal newsletters. How else can you promote the organizational values? How and why are they effective by themselves or in combination? What is the cost of these? A possibility for study is to look at cost and ease of implementation of all of the alternatives versus the effectiveness.

Another area of research is in employee motivation and company values. In human resource journals, I’m sure you will find literature abound on this topic. What are the recommended methods to motivate employees and to drive in corporate values? How can you reframe these human resource theories in a marketing branding context? How would testimonials fit into the marketing campaign?

I hope this gives you some ideas to play with and expand on. Good luck!

Wayde

Thank you very much for your help. I got some very useful hints about that topic.
But Storytelling still has some more facets. According to Stephen Denning, seven objectives where storytelling in organizations can be used are identified. These are: Sparking action, Communicating who you are, Transmitting values, Fostering Collaboration, Taming the grapevine, Sharing knowledge and Leading people into the future. When I think about the underlying research fields of these practical application I can identifiy; Leadership, Knowledge Management and Organizational Communication. Therefore I will start identifying the importance of storytelling in these fields and will then apply the storytelling method for internal branding purposes.
Do you think this concept is reasonable?