MASTER NARRATIVE EXPERTISE
MASTER NARRATIVE MWW EXPERTISE
“What does your company do, exactly?” Can you answer that question in the time it takes for the elevator to reach the lobby? Is there a difference between what you’re known AS today and what you want to be known FOR? If you asked employees, executives and consumers these questions, would you get three different answers? Is your company’s strategy clearly understood by all of your stakeholders? Are you getting the credit you deserve for all that you do beyond the numbers? The answers to these questions begin with a carefully crafted master narrative. Your master narrative is the core story that shapes all other communications. When done well, it can be a company’s most powerful communications tool. It echoes your brand promise and reason for existing, underscores why you’re different and why that difference matters. It helps to bring your strategy to life and rally employees, customers, prospects, communities and shareholders around a unified vision. It ensures that everyone who tells your story does so with a common and purposeful vernacular, and those who hear your story have a shared understanding of your Company’s mission, purpose and accomplishments. Your story begins in the same place that your business did: with a big idea, a long-term vision, and a promise to add value. “BEHIND EVERY GREAT BUSINESS IS A GREAT STORY . . . IT’S A GRIPPING BLEND OF BUSINESS STRATEGY, BRAND ESSENCE, EXECUTION AND MESSAGE.” – DAVID REIMER “WHEN ORGANIZATIONS EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE THE BUSINESS STRATEGY, THEIR MARKET-TO-BOOK RATIO IS 43 PERCENT HIGHER THAN THOSE ORGANIZATIONS THAT DO NOT.” – DELOITTE & TOUCHE
POINT OF VIEW: If you don’t proactively tell your story, others will write it for you. While there is no substitute for performance, companies that communicate a consistent and clear message about their business, or point of view about their industry, build greater trust with employees, customers and investors. A master narrative should be a filter by which all decisions are made and communicated, so whether you are talking to Wall Street, Main Street or employees, you are speaking a universal language that makes it easier to achieve alignment and the benefit of the doubt –even when the going gets tough.
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MWW, a full-service public relations, public affairs and marketing firm, has more than 25 years experience helping companies to build eminence, strengthen employee engagement and build, manage and protect their reputations. Our total stakeholder approach ensures that we are reaching your key influencers with the right messages across digital, social, and traditional channels. As an independent agency, we have the freedom to customize individual strategies to each client’s needs and objectives. Because we’re the largest of the mid-size agencies, we combine the resources and comprehensive services of a large shop with the entrepreneurial spirit, agility and senior-level engagement of a boutique firm.
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MASTER NARRATIVE EXPERTISE
THE PROCESS CLIENT INTERVIEWS
DEFINE STAKEHOLDERS
MESSAGE WORKSHOP
RESEARCH & MESSAGE TESTING
WHAT IS OUR UNIQUE STORY?
EVALUATE EXTERNAL ECOSYSTEM
DEFINE SUCCESS: THINK SAY DO
CREDIBILITY CHECK
PRIORITIZE STAKEHOLDERS
KEY MESSAGES
CURRENT PERCEPTIONS
EXTERNAL RESEARCH PRIMARY AND/OR SECONDARY
UNDERSTAND SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
KEEP IT SIMPLE. Can your employees and customers easily recite the core differentiators that reflect your values and make you stand out? Does your leadership team agree on what those core principles are? While it’s tempting to try to convey every last detail about your business and point of view, the most compelling narratives are not the most ornate. They are simple and focused, and help to convey the purpose behind why your employees come to work every day, why customers will go out of their way to come to you versus a competitor and why shareholders will invest their money in your future.
APPROACH MWW employs a proven approach to developing a company’s narrative. It begins by gathering input from all key stakeholders about their perceptions
of the business, challenges and opportunities in the marketplace, and aspirations for where they see the business headed. This information is compared against our own research and insights into the market and competitive landscape. We then take that information, analyze it and put it through our “litmus test” where we determine what is ownable, rings true to your business and mission, is relevant across stakeholders and what has staying power…because whether you’re a start-up or a blue-chip, a narrative should be both elastic enough to evolve with your business and meaningful enough to make an impact on tomorrow.
umbrella theme. From these platforms, we help you to craft a set of key messages that focus on how you’re living up to that value promise, with an eye to the future. Then, we tease out the anecdotes that compel your various stakeholders to action.
HOW WE USE THE MASTER NARRATIVE Your master narrative provides the framework for all corporate communications. From press documents to earnings reports, CEO speeches to employee town hall meetings, your master narrative is how you relate the story of who you are, and why you matter.
We help companies distill their assets, points of differentiation and aspirations down to three to five memorable and compelling platforms that support the narrative and all ladder up to an
For more information, please contact:
Carreen Winters
EVP/Reputation Management | 201.507.9500 | cwinters@mww.com | www.mww.com
Dawn Lauer
Vice President | 212.827.3744 | dlauer@mww.com | www.mww.com
© MWW, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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