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Whether you are branding your company, your product, your service, or yourself, learn to boost the power of your story and convey a compelling message in any setting by incorporating villains, victims, and heroes.
Compelling stories exalt, motivate, and acculturate every worker in an enterprise. They also attract customers and media alike. Imagine an elderly man, snowed in, unable to shop for groceries until a supermarket comes to the rescue and delivers his food. The story of this company going out of its way to help a customer in need will resonate not only with consumers but also with employees.
This book explains not just how to tell a captivating story, but also what elements-namely, villains, victims, and heroes-it should include in the first place. This approach is based on the notion that in business messaging, the villains may just be your best friends. The "villains" are simply any problems that cause pain, discomfort, or extra expense for customers, who are in effect the "victims." As for the "heroes," they are best illustrated by the supermarket going beyond expectations. Who in business wouldn't want to emulate that company?
If your products and services offer real solutions to customers' predicaments, there is nothing more powerful than communicating that message and making sure your potential customers remember it.
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part One: The Elements of Your StoryONE Why Bother with Storytelling? The Payoff Is Executive Presence
TWO Find the Villain to Uncover the Story and Make Your Company the "Hero"
THREE Travel to Your Islands: The Key Elements of Messages
FOUR Brand with the Heart: Because Consumers Often Think Products Have One
FIVE Why Stories Resonate: Neuroscience Meets Homer
SIX Examples of Great Business Stories: The Formulas in Action
Part Two: How to Tell Your StorySEVEN The Pictures Are Better on Radio or Podcasts: Especially with Sound Bites, Rhythm, and Brevity
EIGHT How to Compose a Compelling Story, in Person or on Video: A Dose of Dickens and a Splash of
CasablancaNINE Making Rhetoric Stick: Tips, Signs, and Lies
TEN Make Your Words March: Clichés, Writer's Block, and Plot Patterns
ELEVEN Body Language, Vocal Techniques, and Stage Fright: Your Body Speaks, Your Voice Gestures
TWELVE Social Media Relations: Printing Presses, Water Coolers, and Crises
THIRTEEN More Stories to Emulate: Prevail with a Tale
FOURTEEN The End of the Story: My Own Saga
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Greg Stone, founder of Stone Communications, is a highly sought after media strategist whose clients have included Fidelity, IBM, 3M, and Harvard University. He is author of Artful Business: 50 Lessons from Creative Geniuses.
