As businesses continue to take baby steps toward embracing
social media, they're discovering a demand for short stories - that
is, describing themselves within the limits imposed by social media
profiles and/or convention (see blog posted 26 January).
This is certainly nothing new. Organisations have been
distilling out the essence of what they're about for a very long
time. Mottos have existed since heraldry was invented to
distinguish one knight from the next, and slogans since commodities
turned into brands.
But how useful is this sort of snappy shorthand for businesses
wishing to influence increasingly unimpressionable consumers, to
sell to other hard-nosed businesses or to impress relentlessly
rational investors?
Well, I think they have a place. A great strapline - whomever
it's intended to influence - captures perfectly concisely what
makes that business different and compelling - a hook that draws
people into the bigger story. Over time this can become a virtuous
circle, with the shorthand proposition triggering the richer
narrative and helping make it stick in the mind.
So, why is it then that, according to our research into how
FTSE100 companies tell their stories, less than a quarter of them
use anything you could describe as a strapline?
Could it be that they just don't believe that straplines work?
That, by definition, they lack gravitas? That they see them as too
glib, too tricksy or just plain false? That they've tried - and
failed - to find the one that everybody agrees on?
Or, perhaps more likely, it's because they haven't yet decided
what their business stands for: they haven't identified anything
that is remotely focused enough to be transformed into a few
memorable words.
We are currently working on this year's 'What's the story?'
report, analysing how FTSE100 businesses describe themselves. It
will be launched in London on 22 May and in Amsterdam on 15 June.