Creating Signature Stories: Strategic Messaging that Energizes, Persuades and Inspires by David Aaker

David Aaker is a Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, is the Vice Chairman of Prophet is the creator of the Aaker Model™, and has published more than 100 articles and 17 books that have sold well over 1 million copies and been translated into 18 languages, including his recent book Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles That Drive Success.

Prior to that book, he authored Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, which was cited by Advertising Age as being among the “Ten Marketing Books You Should Have Read” and was named one of the top 3 marketing books of the year by Strategy and Business.

The Host’s Perspective:

Have you ever wondered why you can remember stories but you struggle to remember facts?

Or why you’d rather listen to a story than a recitation of facts?

There’s quite a bit of brain science behind why that happens but basically, the human brain is hard-wired to process stories, not facts.

That’s why many authoritative research studies have concluded that if you can convey information in a story, it has a much greater chance (by an order of magnitude) of being noticed, understood and believed.

And stories can be dramatically more effective at persuading people. As the adage goes, “Facts tell, stories sell.”

But storytelling in business is much more difficult than spewing facts. You really need to know what you’re doing.

The author reminds us about how powerful stories can be, which is why if you have facts to communicate, your best strategy is to find or create a story that allows your message to emerge and be heard.

And in this digital age where content is king and attention has to be earned, stories are the key to content. Your social media audience is not passive and will only involve itself in your message if it’s intrigued by your content.

But, here’s the kicker – communicating a strategic message through storytelling is extremely difficult. That is, if you don’t know what you’re doing.

And that’s where this gem of a book helps you better understand the very misunderstood nature of business storytelling and how a number of organizations, big and small, are now effectively using strategic storytelling to get known, liked and trusted.  

Listen to the Interview:

Show Notes

Creating Signature Stories: Strategic Messaging that Energizes, Persuades and Inspires by David Aaker

Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance by Louis. V. Gerstner

The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google by Scott Galloway

David Aaker’s Website (Davidaaker.com)

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