How to tell an effective ‘Challenge’ Story about your business
As any leader knows, all businesses go through ups and downs. Particularly at a time when a recession is looming and many are struggling to keep up, business is bound to fluctuate. However, it’s the way a business grows from these challenges and uses those stories that can make or break it.
And, importantly the storytelling a company employs can help pave the way to success.
Let’s look at the types of stories you should be telling when your business has been through (or is currently going through) a challenging time.
Change shapes THE way we should approach our storytelling strategy
There are three constants in the world: death, taxes, and change. I'd suggest the addition of storytelling, but I am obsessed.
“Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.” – James Baldwin
Now, here's the thing with change: It can bring about positives. Government regulations could change, or a competitor could go out of business, opening up new opportunities for your business.
Conversely, change can also negatively impact a business. For example, those same government regulation changes could make business more difficult and force you to seek help, or a competitor could be doing particularly well and put immense pressure on you.
Whether it’s positive or negative, change brings with it a set of challenges. Consider the above example: the government regulations changed — do you have enough staff? How are you going to handle the impact?
If you main competitor goes out of business — are you going to make the most of the new opportunity? Will you be able to serve all of your competitor's customers as well as your existing customers?
While not every business is in the midst of a challenge, there will be change in the future. Or maybe your past contains such a change that profoundly impacted your business. Regardless of where your business is right now, those changes impose challenges worthy of a story.
The risks of the wrong type of storytelling
Think of a story type like a theme for your story. As a business leader, you need to determine which of the seven universal business story types — the challenge, pivot, catalyst, innovation, improving experiences, changing perceptions, or growth mindset — is right for your company right now. Let’s explore the challenge story type!
The right story at the proper time is imperative to engagement and ensuring press releases do the right thing — unlike that of Silicon Valley Bank, for example, where awful storytelling managed to destroy not just an entire business but shake the biggest economy in the world to its very foundation.
Going back to the government regulation example, let’s say a regulation changed, imposing negative challenges on your business. As the CEO, you find yourself on stage at an event representing your company. If your storytelling doesn’t address this change the questions will come thick and fast. Your audience wants to know. They will see any attempt at telling a different story as an effort in deceit and deflection.
Sharing the right type of story gives your audience answers; you can use it as a theme throughout big reveals at events and in press releases and all the way into the stories that find themselves in your sales and marketing messaging.
How to determine the right ‘challenge story’
Tough times force us to adapt, which makes us better — and of course, makes for a good story. To determine the right challenge story for your business, ask yourself these questions:
Are we going through a major change?
Have we been dealing with major challenges recently?
Has something forced us to rethink things?
Consider whether everything has been going well in the business — maybe a recent failure, poor decision, struggle, marketing challenge, or adversity forced a difficult decision and led to change, and in dealing with that challenge, you’ve had to navigate how to improve and approach things.
What was it that pushed you to adapt to act faster or differently?
What were the burdens that forced you into a situation where the type of story that makes sense for you is that of a challenge story?
All of these elements are authentic. They will stoke the fires of empathy in the hearts and minds of your customers, and in doing so, attracts them to you
Unlock your business’s storytelling using past experiences, both good and bad
A challenge story could have been expressed externally, such as with the competition and regulation examples we talked about earlier. However, it can also be an internal challenge. Don’t forget to look inside your company.
Identify internal challenges by asking:
Have we had challenges with processes?
Have you and your team been struggling to change old ideas to new ones?
Have you been striving for a new way or approach?
Once you’ve addressed these questions, go on the hunt for stories that represent the internal challenges of your company. When you’re confident that challenge storytelling makes sense for your organization, use it as a filter within those challenges you've identified. There are bound to be stories; by tapping into these authentic stories, businesses will find a rich, fertile bed of opportunities to build transparency and trust with customers.
But you don't have to stop there. As you think about that new marketing push or sales strategy, how can you weave in the concept of this challenge you managed to overcome? By overcoming a challenge, we learn things. It teaches us something. In your storytelling share that to inspire audiences and customers to also navigate their own challenges.
Leverage the power of your failures for authentic challenge-type storytelling
A company that fits the challenge story profile is BlackBerry. Formerly known as Research In Motion (RIM).
And unfortunately, to this day, they have failed to capitalize on this story. It would have been such a good story. Don’t even get me started on the lack of storytelling on their current website.
BlackBerry was once a dominant player in the smartphone market, particularly during the mid-2000s, thanks to its innovative devices with physical keyboards, secure messaging, and reliable email capabilities. The company's BlackBerry smartphones were especially popular among business professionals and government agencies.
However, with the introduction of Apple's iPhone in 2007 and the subsequent rise of Android smartphones, BlackBerry's market share began to decline rapidly. The company's devices failed to keep pace with the competition in terms of design, user experience, and app ecosystems. Additionally, the increasing consumer preference for touchscreens and versatile mobile operating systems put BlackBerry at a significant disadvantage.
In response to this adversity, BlackBerry made several attempts to reinvent itself, including the release of BlackBerry 10 OS in 2013, which aimed to compete with iOS and Android. Unfortunately, the new platform did not gain enough traction to reverse the company's fortunes.
Recognizing the need for a more drastic change, BlackBerry decided to pivot its business focus from hardware to software and services. In 2016, the company announced it would stop manufacturing smartphones and outsource its production to third parties. Instead, BlackBerry concentrated on developing secure software solutions.
I’d have liked to have seen a strategic narrative such as BlackBerry Reborn. Rebirth is a metanarrative we all instantly recognize. Their tagline could be: "Evolution Unleashed: Secure. Smart. Seamless."
Key narrative elements for a good story could be;
BlackBerry has evolved to become a provider of secure software solutions and services.
Trust BlackBerry's industry-leading security to protect your data and communications.
BlackBerry's seamless integration ensures a smooth transition for businesses and individuals
These are authentic elements that build on the challenge that forced their business to change. And are ripe for all sorts of storytelling.
By telling a challenge story BlackBerry could position itself as a leading provider of secure software solutions and services. In a way that highlights BlackBerry's authentic history and dedication to innovation, security, and seamless integration. The bonus? It would allow businesses and individuals to trust the company with their data and communications needs. And trust Blackberry for telling an authentic, good story. A challenge story type becomes a strong, consistent message that resonates with the target audience and helps to re-establish BlackBerry's position as a trusted brand in the tech industry.
Through the "BlackBerry Reborn" strategic narrative, the company could learn to successfully communicate its transformation and commitment to providing cutting-edge, secure solutions for its customers.
Instead of leaning into this, they ran away from it.
It’s not too late, Blackberry. If you work for Blackerry please reach out. We can help you learn to capitalize on this.
While the challenge story might not be the most dominant story for you to tell right now, heed my warning: At some point in the not-too-distant future, it may well be the right type of story to be telling. Keep this blog book marked to help when the time calls for it. However, you need to be the judge of whether or not the challenge is weighty enough to be the sort of good story you tell — or maybe changing perceptions with the market and customers, like in our last blog, wins out.
What challenges have you faced? Have you ever had the need to tell a challenge story? I'd love to hear from you.
When you reach out we can take you through our Business Story Type Assessment. Then we can show you how to tell the best possible story for your business.
Ready to find the right type of story to tell for your business now? Book a 20 min story assessment call with Go Narrative to learn how we can help you craft powerful stories and narratives about your brand.