Heard the one about the broker, the barista and the memory-stick maker?

Corporate narrative can be bland , unmemorable and flat as a worn carpet-tile.  Brand Stories add depth, humour and humanity.  They clarify and codify, engage and inspire. 

 LLP’s Brand Stories reach the places other methods can’t reach.’

WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves form our identity, our Brand Story.

An organisation’s Brand Story needs to be strong, positive, coherent and engaging.  If it is not, everybody suffers.  This is particularly pertinent in the wake of what we might call corporate trauma; when an organisation encounters loss or major restructuring or negative coverage in the media. 

Major change and upheaval can lead to a weakening sense of identity.  This, in turn, effects performance, clouds strategy and leads to conflict, stress, loss of motivation and innovation, fragmented communication and instabliity.

Repeated attempts at rebranding via advertising campaigns and conventional marketing strategies are not always enough.  A call to name brand values and live by them is often received with cinicism by staff and clients/customers alike and has limited benefits.  Many well-intentioned and costly interventions just don’t go deep enough.

The mythology surrounding a brand is hugely influential and hard to change. Great if you are Virgin, or Apple, or Innocent.  Not so good if your brand story is less than heroic.  And worse if your organisation is cast as a villain or a fool by the media.

The good news is that every organisation has a positive brand story waiting to be discovered.  Every brand has a heritage to celebrate.  Every brand has brand heros at every level with transformational stories to tell.

Brand Story needs to be unearthed and told.  And then told again and again at the water cooler, in the Board Room, lift and bedroom, and through every form of internal and external communication.  Until it becomes so much part of the infrastructure that you don’t notice it any more.

LLP BRAND STORY PROCESS

PHASE 1 – CRAFTING THE STORY

{C}ü     Targeted interviews with key staff at every level.

{C}ü     Writing and selection of Individual Brand Stories via live storytelling events.

{C}ü     First Draft of Master Brand Story.

PHASE 2 – CASCADING THE STORY

{C}ü     Coaching of the leadership to tell the Master Brand Story  and Indiivdual Brand Stories

{C}ü     Identifying existing communications channels to carry the story.

{C}ü     Creating new communications channels to carry the story.

PHASE 3 – EMBEDDING THE STORY

{C}ü     Second draft of Master Brand Story, taking feedback and amendments onboard.

{C}ü     Traditional and digital communication channel audit

{C}ü     Writing and dissemination  of Tweetable Tales and Facebook Fables

{C}ü     Leadership equipped with examples of the story inpiring action and positive outcomes.

PHASE 4 – LIVING THE STORY

{C}ü     Annual live storytelling event to enrich the Master Brand Story

{C}ü     Story champions identified and rewarded

LLP SUCCESS STORIES

{C}v    We served as storyteller for BT Global Services, humanising the tangled spaghetti of technology talk that surrounds major account management and IT outsourcing deals.

{C}v    When morale was at rock bottom at a NHS trust that had been slammed in a TV documentary, Lunar Lemon lifted morale and key performance stats.

{C}v    Starbucks needed to turn their business plan into more than numbers. Lunar Lemon injected a hot shot of story to bring shared understanding and motivation that the leadership team could cascade to front-line staff.

{C}v    Coutts had been badly damaged by the financial crisis and needed to re-connect staff and clients with its 300 year old story of overcoming obstacles. 'Coutts - The Next Chapter', a touring storytelling roadshow turned the page for all the people who attended. The happy ending... loyalty and long-term investments.

{C}v    RBS Global Banking & Markets needed an essential story. Something that could be told by anyone working for the bank to anyone; lift, pub, boardroom, bedroom. Lunar Lemon crafted a hundred word essential story on the 'beauty of a billion dollar bond'.

{C}v    InterContinental Hotels had created a set of 'Winning Ways', values that the whole organisation could live by and grow with globally. Lunar Lemon brought meaning, feeling and momentum to each winning way by crafting a master story to humanise each two word

To hear the one about your organisation, call Lunar Lemon.

Hotel Gossip No 1 - The Savoy Bullet

We've just placed a Christmas private dinner at the Savoy Grill. Tanya Pemberton, who is Gordon Ramsay's Event's person, promised to tell the tale of the Savoy Bullet. At the end of a dull contractural email, she did! Here's Tanya's tale:

When the Savoy was first opened in 1889 the D’Oyly Carte Room used to be a jewellery shop. At the time there was many “firsts” happening; this was the only building in London at the time which was lit by electricity throughout the building, Savoy was the first hotel in the world that had toilets, showers and hot running water in every room, the American Bar was the first bar where they allowed ladies and gentleman to sit together in the same room and was also the first bar where they start mixing spirits and made a cocktail.

So the American owner of the jewellery shop brought over these bullet proof glasses from USA to install for the very first time in the UK. As there was no such thing seen before, no one believed him that a glass can catch a bullet. Later in the years there was very small and unsuccessful armed robbery during which, the shop’s own security guard fired a shot indoors and that shot left the mark on that glass window that overlooks the forecourt. After that, the owner never changed the glass proving to everyone that it is a bullet proof glass. Then the story become so famous and the government now knew where the first bullet proof glass was installed in the UK, this glass become 1st degree listed property in 1998.

That’s the reason it was not changed during the last refurbishment.

Bill's

Bill's is brilliant - Lewes & Brighton rock... but how good is the Bill's experience in Horsham? Or London for that matter? How do you bottle the spirit of a great place and scale it....?