跟营销大师学习讲故事
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本文是吉姆•斯登格为财富网站撰写的系列文章中的第五部分。斯登格曾经担任宝洁公司（Procter & Gamble）首席营销官，同时也是《增长力：如何打造世界顶级品牌》（Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies）一书的作者。在本篇及下一篇亦即最后一篇客座文章中，吉姆探究了那些最好的理想驱动型公司的最佳实践，同时还探讨了它们在竞争中脱颖而出的秘诀。 踏入这个温控仓库，感觉就像是来到了棒球界不朽巨人们的面前。 我们走进的是Louisville Slugger公司的圣殿：这里存放着各种棒球棒模型，每一杆都是根据一名专业球员的规格度身定制的。这些模型摆满靠墙排列的水平陈列架。走到一个标记有“R43”的格子时，营销副总裁凯尔•施莱格尔虔诚地取下其中一把。他小声说：“这是贝比•鲁斯（美国19世纪20、30年代著名职业棒球运动员）所有球棒的模版。” 富有传奇色彩的Louisville Slugger公司诞生于1884年。相传，当年一名17岁的棒球迷将一位大联盟球手请到了自己父亲的木工作坊。这位路易维尔日蚀队（即现在的路易维尔上校队）球星正处于职业生涯的低估，而且还把球棒打折了。年轻人便按照这位球员的规格手工制作了一根新球棒。 Louisville Slugger的品牌理念，或者说品牌目的，是“成就伟大的球手”。听着可能像是吹牛，但围绕这个品牌的故事却让它显得朴素实在。大多数受理念驱动的公司都是如此。故事会让理念生生不息。 故事在营销与管理中的重要性已经得到大量论证，但要论故事所扮演的角色之重，莫过于在理念驱动型企业之中。他们将理念加以定义、给予认证并赋予生命。它们启发并引导理念在实践中的应用。它们一再肯定当初的路线，将叙事贯穿始终。 我们用了一年时间拜访由理念驱动的公司，其间我们发现，两种类型的故事最能滋养理想议程。其中一种故事被《赢得讲故事之战》（Winning the Story Wars）一书的作者约拿•萨克斯称为“创世纪故事”。 创世纪故事展现了品牌或公司创立之初的动机。正如那位棒球迷为球员打磨球棒的故事一样，每一家伟大的公司都是对某个真实存在的特定顾客需求的响应。而创世纪故事正是理清了这一点。 联合利华（Unilever）创世纪故事为CEO保罗•波尔曼提供着灵感和指引。他在2009年接掌公司前的几个月里研读了联合利华的创始历程。身为一名空降CEO，他自觉自愿地承担起了一向责任，比大多数人都深入地了解公司的传承。 故事缘起于19世纪90年代，故事的主人公是威廉•赫斯基思•利华，他尝试用自己新推出的Sunlight（“阳光”）牌肥皂“使清洁成为家常便饭”，同时缓解英国维多利亚时期泛滥成灾的卫生问题。20世纪后叶的英国，每两个新生儿中就有一个活不过第一年。 |
This is Part 5 of a series for Fortune.com by Jim Stengel, former global CMO of Procter & Gamble and author of Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies. In today's Guest Post and his final Guest Post next Friday, Jim digs into the best practices of the best ideal-based companies and explores how they outgrow their competition. Stepping into the temperature-controlled vault, we felt like we were in the presence of baseball's immortal greats. We were inside a hallowed sanctum at Louisville Slugger: an archive of bat models, each custom-designed to the specifications of a pro. The models fill horizontal racks that line the walls. Reaching to a slot marked R43, Marketing VP Kyle Schlegel reverently withdrew one. "This was the template for all of Babe Ruth's bats," he whispered. According to legend, the iconic Louisville Slugger bat was born in 1884, when a 17-year-old baseball fan invited a major league player to his father's woodworking shop. The star of the Louisville Eclipse was mired in a hitting slump and had broken his bat. The teen handcrafted a new bat to the player's specifications. The next day the Louisville star got three hits. The Brand Ideal, or Purpose, of Louisville Slugger is "to make players great." That statement could sound like puffery, except that the stories surrounding the brand make it plain and true. This is the case for most Ideal-driven businesses. Stories make the Ideal wheel spin. Much has been written about the importance of storytelling in marketing and management, but nowhere do tales have a taller order than inside the walls of Ideal-driven companies. They bring definition to the Ideal. They authenticate it and animate it. They inspire and direct its activation. They reaffirm the course and perpetuate the narrative. In our year-long journey visiting Ideal-driven companies, we uncovered two types of stories that are particularly nutritive to the Ideal agenda. The first is what Jonah Sachs, author of Winning the Story Wars, calls "genesis stories." Genesis stories illuminate the motivation behind the brand or the company at its founding. Like the baseball fan milling a bat for a pro, every great business is a response to a real and specific customer need. And the genesis story clarifies this. At Unilever, the genesis story provides inspiration and direction for CEO Paul Polman. In the months before he took charge in 2009, he studied Unilever's genesis. As an outside hire, he made it his business to know the heritage story better than most anyone else. That story began in the 1890s with William Hesketh Lever, who sought to use his new Sunlight brand soap to "make cleanliness commonplace" and mitigate hygiene-related problems that plagued Victorian England. In late 19th century Britain, one of every two babies would not survive their first year. |
