Story is the Strategy: How Purpose-Driven Brands Use Their Story

Woden’s first book is the tool you need to write your story and put it to work

 

Story: it’s the business buzzword of recent years. From public relations experts to digital marketers, and from retailers to influencers, everyone is eager to position themselves as a “storyteller.” They’re right, of course—all people are naturally storytellers.

In many instances, story has become synonymous with marketing or the small narratives each person shares in their daily interactions. The Internet is littered with blogs admonishing all businesspeople to become better storytellers. But story isn’t about marketing, and it’s far more than a clever anecdote to communicate a broader point.

Story is strategy.

An effective storyteller has something to say. A group of storytellers need a consistent framework to align their messages. Organizations must be able to define why their brand exists in the first place, and craft that into a strategic story that guides everything from customer experience to sales to culture to, yes, marketing.

Woden is the pioneer in this holistic approach to brand narrative. Over more than 200 engagements, the Woden team has observed the transformational nature of a strategic brand story and witnessed how it fuels the individual storytellers in an organization—employees, customers, partners, and investors—to be more effective in their own interactions.

Readers of the Woden blog know this. In just three years, Wodenworkers have crafted more than 120 original articles illustrating the value of this approach. Each has been a carefully researched, lengthy piece designed to lay out the opportunities to accelerate growth, align teams, and engage customers through story.

Woden is excited to announce its first book, Story is the Strategy. If story is going to be defined strategically and applied holistically, leaders need a view of how to develop and implement a story in that way, all in a single place. Story is the Strategy provides readers with a blueprint for how to effectively craft their brand’s story, and suggests how to apply it across five different areas of a business:

• Defining Purpose
• Fueling Growth
• Team Alignment
• Customer Engagement
• Long-term Strategy

In addition to the overall guide in how to craft a brand story, each area includes specific recommendations and strategies developed by the Woden team: practical advice, real-world examples, and common mistakes that pull brands off-track. It’s a comprehensive guide to making any brand story-driven.

Woden is founded on the belief that all to thrive, all organizations require a clear articulation of purpose—and must align all they do behind that. Story is the Strategy is a tool for all brands to achieve this aim, whether or not they engage Woden.

That purpose is why the physical copies of the book are available at cost and a digital version is free to download. Woden believes this approach can be transformative to every organization, and that teams and clients deserve to be connected to and passionate about the brands they love. Story is the Strategy empowers brands to define, craft, and tell their story in a manner more powerful than ever before.