More on Storytelling

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

The more I read about storytelling, the more fascinated I am on the use of this technique in place branding. I recently completed a book entitled “*Personality Not Included” authored by Rohit Bhargava. The focus is on why companies lose their authenticity, and how the ones that are great brands get it back. There are a number of important lessons with reapplication potential to place branding. For example, the notion of “getting your best Ambassadors to do the work for you” is one every community can leverage to their advantage. The key is to identify them and enable their success. There is also a great discussion on how to be unique. This book is well worth a complete read.

The section I want to focus on though is the “Lessons From Storytellers”. Rohit provides a great overview of the concepts used by storytellers to effectively communicate. These concepts can, and I believe should, be used by place marketers to help set their communities apart in the minds of potential capital investors.

Rohit talks about the importance of a good well articulated backstory. This is the story of your community’s history. The goal of a backstory is to establish a foundation of credibility. It explains why you are in a position to make compelling claims about what investing capital in your community can deliver. It is not the “sell”, just the set-up. Rohit’s analogy is that a backstory is the appetizer to the main course of your community benefits story. In a backstory you want to establish an emotional connection with your audience quickly, you want colorful characters and a way of telling it that creates an image in people’s minds. In short, you want to bring your community history to life in a memorable way. For example, rather than simply identifying the top companies in a given industry located in your community, tell the story of how the industry evolved to its current strength. Talk about the trials and tribulations, the visionaries that never gave up, and the notable success that was achieved. Then talk about your current assets and expectations for future industry growth. The backstory helps provide context, and a good one sets the audience up to want to learn more.

The other idea Rohit puts forward is that there are five primary backstory types told by companies. Each is relevant for communities as well. I’ve taken Rohit’s descriptions and modified them for place branding.

1. The Passionate Enthusiast. This is the story of a driven individual who takes personal passion and directs it into building a successful business that becomes the foundation upon which the community grows.
2. The Inspired Inventor. A tireless inventor creates something new and different by not giving up on his or her vision, and as a consequence reshapes the community.
3. The Smart Listener. A new company is created by listening to customers, partners and others. It becomes so successful that it is the seed corn for a new industry.
4. The Likeable Hero. A dedicated individual overcomes all odds to make his or her idea work. The success inspires like-minded individuals to locate in the community and creates a strong industry capability.
5. The Little Guy versus The Big Guy. The classic David versus Goliath story where a company takes on insurmountable odds and finds a way to win; thereby, creating a vibrant economic base for the community.

For most communities, the backstory can be told by selecting one of the five models. You will want to slect the one that makes telling your community backstory easy. Then, you need to ensure you think through 5 elements – characters, challenge, vision, conflict and triumph. Each of these elements is important for a successful backstory.

Think about the backstory of Brand America. It is told as the story of a group of patriots who were victorious over a much better resourced opponent and in the aftermath created a country where all individuals can pursue life, liberty and happiness. A story of freedom that has endured the test of time.

A good place to start defining your community’s backstory is by visiting your local historical society or museum and studying the business history. You might be amazed at the colorful past and intriguing characters at the heart of today’s success.

I believe every community has a backstory that can be told. But, it does take some work to figure it out and then tell it in a memorable way. Backstories speak to the “right brain” of your audience. They engage the emotion. Your primary “sell” will speak to the “left brain” and be laden with facts and figures. To ensure your community story stands out and is remembered, it is important to engage the “right brain” of your audience. A great backstory will help you do that successfully.

For more on storytelling, read my previous blog posts – “Every Community has a Story, What’s Yours?” and “Creating Memorable Experiences”.

What has your experience been in using storytelling to promote your community? Leave a comment on what you found worked and what didn’t work.

One Plan to Make Brand America More Competitive for FDI Attraction

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

My last blog post on barriers to foreign direct investment in Brand America led to some great feedback. Virtually everybody who contacted me reinforced the importance of becoming more competitive for FDI inflow attraction. They liked the idea of having a robust market research study to better understand what potential foreign direct investors like and dislike about Brand America. The benefit of creating a “product development” plan (i.e. public policy reforms, infrastructure investment, asset creation) based on the data felt intuitively right to them. So much so, that the post catalyzed discussion around creating a consortium to pursue fielding a robust market research project to secure these data.

In addition, I received a copy of recent supplemental testimony by Rick Weddle to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy, submitted on December 19, 2009.

Rick is a remarkable economic development expert with a notable track record of leadership and success. He is President and CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, owner and developer of The Research Triangle Park. Rick’s biography is an inspiring read.

Rick basically informed the Subcommittee that Brand America is at risk of being out marketed and the situation needs to be addressed. Rick’s testimony has some interesting data compiled by the IEDC that helps illustrate the challenge. I am going to share a couple of his charts with you, but I really want you to read his entire testimony for a full understanding of his recommendation.

Share of global FDI dollars have declined from a peak of roughly 45% to about 20%. In part this reflects other countries developing into profitable markets that attract multinational company investment to build capability and capacity to serve a growing middle class with increasing disposable income. It also reflects remarkable changes in telecommunications, reductions material weight and improved transportation options making it easier and cost effective to service U.S. consumer demand from international locations. This trend is likely to continue and arguably accelerate over the foreseeable planning horizon. Competition for foreign direct investment is and will continue to increase. When I talk about this in presentations, I point out that whenever I was faced with a business situation where total category dollar growth was stagnant (or declining) and competitive options were increasing the solution was always to differentiate your product and support it with an effective branding effort. I believe the solution for Brand America’s declining FDI inflow share challenge is no different.

Another sobering set of data Rick shared with the Subcommittee was the targeted investment being made by countries competing with Brand America. Many countries have well conceived and well funded initiatives to convince potential foreign direct investors that their location is the best choice to do business from. In the U.S. we do not have a comparably funded effort.

On a positive note though, Rick identifies the Invest in America program as a capability that can potentially be leveraged for Brand America to become even more competitive. I am a fan of the Invest in America program and believe Rick is definitely on target in his thinking.

I have no doubt the Subcommittee was impressed with Rick and that they listened carefully to his perspective and recommendation. Hopefully they will be in a position to take action and will work diligently to resource a strategically focused effort to help Brand America become even more competitive. Reversing the declining FDI inflow share trend will have a positive effect on economic recovery and vitality.

You can download a copy of Rick’s testimony. I encourage you to read it. I know you will be impressed.

I’d like to think it is easy to get people to believe that better marketing Brand America is a right thing to do. But, it is only a first step. To create a sustainable solution, there also needs to be an effective product development component that further differentiates Brand America from the competition. And, the focus of the product development effort needs to be informed by data identifying the most important improvement opportunities as seen through the eyes of the foreign direct investor community. If the coalition I mentioned earlier takes shape, perhaps the data needed will become available and further encourage the Subcommittee to take action on Rick’s recommendation.

Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Barriers to U.S. FDI Inflow Share Growth

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Understanding the competition, and having an effective product development plan are critical to long-term share growth for any product. Place brands are no exception. Understanding what the underlying dynamics of the global economy and the implications for your location competitiveness, which countries represent true competition for your FDI inflow attraction efforts, and recognizing your location’s strengths and weaknesses as seen by the foreign capital investor are critical to your community’s long-term FDI inflow dollar share growth.

The easiest way to understand the barriers to investment is to ask the question of people with an informed opinion. To do so, I reached out to LinkedIn members in relevant Groups and ran a short survey asking a few probing questions. I would like to give my personal thanks to those who were kind enough to respond.

In the spirit of proper characterization, I would not position the results of this simple survey as reliably predictable, but rather as a directional conversation starter. More rigorous and robust market research would be required to develop a reliable understanding of the challenges Brand America faces. None-the-less, I believe the results were interesting and worth sharing. Hopefully, the comments will be educational and carry the discussion forward.

First, the perfunctory respondent data –

The respondent mix suggests the data primarily reflect the perception of Brand America from outside the United States. That is a good thing since we want to better understand how potential foreign direct investors perceive Brand America. On the downside, the responders are mostly economic development professionals so they may or may not accurately reflect the opinion of foreign direct investors.

The first thing I wanted to know is which countries are seen as competitors to Brand America. The respondents had to prioritize their choices as #1, #2 or #3. Consequently, it is possible for a given country to appear in each position in the final tabulation. It simply means three respondents each ranked the country in different positions.

I found the list pretty interesting. China and India represent emerging markets where the potential for profit is driven by a rapidly growing middle class with increasing disposable income, and a governmental need for basic infrastructure investment. For the foreseeable future, multi-national corporations will likely continue to invest in building capability and capacity to service these high population markets. I did find the inclusion of Canada and Mexico as a healthy reminder that Brand America continues to compete with our NAFTA partners. We definitely need to work hard an make certain the business climate in the United States remains highly competitive in our own backyard and that Brand America is in a position to win when competing with our neighbors.

The next thing I wanted to better understand is what the key barriers are to FDI attraction for Brand America. I used the same type of question to get answers.

The citing of regulation fear and politics reminded me of the importance business executives place on predictability. There is enough variables that are extremely difficult to control when managing a company, that unpredictable public policy can become a real competitive disadvantage.

I also think economic optimism or conversely pessimism can impact the capital investment decision. Most respondents felt the business climate in the U.S. was declining slightly in attractiveness for foreign direct investment inflow.

Decline Greatly – 18%
Decline Slightly – 53%
No Change – 6%
Improve Slightly – 23%
Improve Greatly – 0%

Perception is often reality, so clearly pessimism about Brand America is not helpful. Of course, the best way to address this is with positive economic performance.

I was a little surprised that when asked what direction they thought foreign direct investment inflow to the U.S. was going to take, the pessimism didn’t translate directly in their prediction. The opinion was split about equally. Maybe this is a reflection that all countries were negatively affected by the economic meltdown.

Decline Greatly – 12%
Decline Slightly – 41%
No Change – 6%
Improve Slightly – 41%
Improve Greatly – 0%

Finally, I wanted to know what one thing they would recommend focusing on changing to help make Brand America more competitive for FDI inflow. I was genuinely surprised at how the responses varied dramatically. I think it reflects the complexity of the FDI choice.

Here is a representative sample of verbatim answers.

1. Get the boys back home from hot spots
2. Main problem is the shrinking consumer market
3. Change peoples’ attitudes that FDI is good for the US, and not a bad thing
4. Fed strategy
5. See concrete steps toward dealing with US deficit / US trade
6. Standard appraisal and evaluation methods
7. Easier Visas
8. Improve corporate tax system
9. Access to market
10. The view that U.S is a part of the world, not the world
11. Protectionist Policies should be limited
12. More money for innovative start-ups
13. Review plans for more regulation and more taxes
14. Lower taxes

This study provides an interesting perspective on the possible areas of improvement for Brand America. It illustrates the kind of study you could implement to better understand the opportunities for improving the competitiveness of your location for FDI. Of course you would want to make it more robust (projectable) and ensure the respondents were potential foreign direct investors.

The intent of this survey is to stimulate discussion on the opportunities for Brand America to be more competitive for FDI inflow dollars. In that spirit, I’d appreciate it if you would share links to additional resources that address the topic and would share your thoughts by leaving a comment. If there is one thing you would improve to make Brand America more competitive, what would it be?

To get the ball rolling, here is a link to a white paper of FDI that you may find interesting – http://www.vcc.columbia.edu/pubs/documents/KekicPerspective-Final.pdf

A second is the section on how to improve competitiveness in the “Assessing Trends and Policies of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States” report that can be found at – http://www.investamerica.gov/iia_main_019689.asp

7 Key Criteria of a Great Advertisement

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Given my career history I am often asked for my opinion on what makes a good advertisement? My usual answer is “business results”. Nothing validates great advertising better than exceeding your business objectives.

However, I appreciate that while valid, the answer may not be very helpful. So, I have compiled a few key characteristics I feel are important to creating great advertising. The list is not a fail-safe formula. But, if your advertisement delivers on these characteristics, there is a very good chance it will help you exceed your community capital attraction, retention or expansion objectives as well.

7 Key Characteristics

Reward your target
Investing time to engage with your advertising and learn more about your community is a precious gift. It is important your advertising gives something back to your target so he/she feels the time was not wasted.

Design matters
All elements in your advertising must work synergistically to create a positive impression and experience for your target audience. Copy and visuals should serve to create drama to engage the mind and emotion to capture the heart.

Simplicity is key
The net take-away must be a simple thought. This can be achieved by leveraging simplicity in strategy, idea and drama. Your target audience won’t work too hard to understand your message.

Benefit focus
The advertising idea transforms the strategic benefit into a mind and heart opening executional idea.

Drama
You must capture and hold attention and create an emotional reaction.

Clear reinforcement of your place promise
The advertising must reinforce the strategic equity for your brand.

Visualize the benefit
You should use clear, provocative visuals that support the your community’s core promise.

Great advertising is as much art as science, luck as skill. But the above characteristics will help you judge the potential impact of your advertising before you invest too much money in placing it.

What are examples of great place advertisements you feel meet most or all of the above criteria? I doubt the list is comprehensive. Do you have an additional criterion that should be added? Leave a comment.

Every Community Has A Story – What’s Yours?

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Over the last few years, I have become fascinated with the relationship between story telling and branding. It started with watching Bill Moyer’s interview of Joseph Campbell on the power of myth, and has grown from there.

I believe story telling is key to great place promotion. For perspective, there is a growing body of literature focused on corporate storytelling that can be particularly reapplied to place branding. The books and articles will help you better understand storytelling as a process. They share proven story constructs that can be used to frame your community story.

Equally important, is to appreciate the cornerstones of great brands – relevance, competitiveness and authenticity – are also critical elements of a great story as well.

There is a formula or recipe to a great story. Learn and follow the steps and you can become a good storyteller. In their book “Storytelling: Art and Technique”, Baker and Greene define seven key characteristics of a good story.

• A single theme, clearly defined
• A well developed plot
• Style: vivid word pictures, pleasing sounds and rhythm
• Characterization
• Faithful to source
• Dramatic appeal
• Appropriateness to listeners

To create a good story for your community, you need to understand its heart and soul. In my experience, the best place to begin your journey of understanding is to listen to the stories people in your community tell you about what they love about living and working there. After a few stories you will notice a rhythm and pattern to what you are hearing. That is the heartbeat of your community you are hearing. It is the authentic story and you will want to figure out how to tell in a mind and heart opening way.

Too often, economic development professionals focus only on communicating facts and figures about their community. But, this approach is more like reading an owner’s manual to somebody rather than telling a story. Facts and figures are void of emotion. They speak to the head but offer no connection to the heart. There is not plot, no appeal, no drama, nothing memorable.

Melinda Partin understands this difference. In her article titled “Brand Storytelling: Connecting With Your Audience”, she wrote “At its very core, marketing is storytelling. The best advertising campaigns take us on an emotional journey–appealing to our wants, needs and desires–while at the same time telling us about a product or service. A brand’s story comes from the company’s own information, and if successful, it is accepted and integrated into the consumer’s story. You must understand how your brand emotionally resonates with customers and then position your message in the right place to tell the right story at just the right time.”

An emotional journey is such a wonderful description for what you want to accomplish to create a connection with your community that can serve as a foundation for a productive relationship that ideally leads to capital investment.

Telling great stories is part science and part art. There is a process to creating and then telling a story effectively. It is something you can learn to do. If you are interested in better understanding the mechanics of how to be a good storyteller, watch the following video – Storytelling Theory and Practice video.

Take the first step on your journey to discover the heart song of your community. As one of my colleagues was fond of saying – “There is 30 cm between the brain and heart. Take the journey it is worth it.” Learning to tell your community’s story will help you close the 30 cm gap.