mobites - ideas, inspiration, insight
ideas, inspiration, and insights from the folks at mobium
Nordstrom IV: Prologue
If you’ve read any of my last three blogs about my various Nordstrom interactions, you may be left wondering if I have a point.
Fair enough.
There is power in a story. They are informal, narrative and easy to understand. They make a point without being pointed. They are more credible than any self-promotion corporate-speak because they happen to you or someone you know or someone you know knows. And they are retold.
The snow tired story, whether or not it was true, made me believe that I would never have a unsatisfactory experience in a Nordstrom store, which is a big reason why I almost exclusively shop there. (Okay, and the convenience thing.) Because of this, it hurt worse when I had a negative experience. I wasn’t offended at all by my Macy’s interaction, though the salesgirl was very rude, because I do not have the same expectations of Macy’s. (Maybe I would have felt differently if it were still Marshall Field’s.) To further prove that point, I told very few people of my Macy’s experience and everyone who would listen about my negative Nordstrom interaction. Conversely, I also retold the tomato story, emphasizing my knight in shining armor’s stellar customer service.
For companies, it is important to understand what customers/prospects value, develop your brand around those things and share true or could-be-true stories that establish brand credibility. But that is only part of it. As did not happen in my Nordstrom example, it is crucial that all employees understand these stories and model his/her behavior around the ideas contained therein.
And the watch?
My friend had recently purchased a watch of the same brand and loaned me her receipt so I could finally have those two extra links removed.
At Macy’s.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Stories, schmories. Very cute. Very old-school. Very time-inefficient.
Take it from me, a professional business-to-business copywriter.
In today’s time-starved, ADD-addled world, the most powerful way to involve an audience with your selling “story” is bullet points. Little tidbits of here’s-what-we’re gonna-tell-you-about-us. Preferably delivered in Powerpoint. Also good printed on wallet cards for use in elevators and at cocktail parties.
They’re fast, tight, and you don’t even need to know whether to capitalize or punctuate them, because usually they’re not even sentences.
So instead of the old blah blah blah, every brand should focus on collecting, massaging and disseminating their bullet points. Accompanied by a messaging pyamid, because those are very powerful too. If you have those, you won’t need to rely on those so-called stories to make your differentiation seem real and believable.
They are the magic bullet, so to speak.
Take it from me. I do this for a living.