Corporate storytelling – creating and spreading the story of your company – has gained relevance with the spread of the technology. As we know through successful viral campaigns, a good story replants itself, and people naturally want to spread and retell great stories. An example is Rovio Mobile Ltd. The tiny Finnish gaming company, which is best known as the creators of Angry Birds, a smartphone game, was able to spark huge online interest for their game through cocky Youtube videos on ‘conflict management’.

But storytelling is much bigger than viral advertisements. Corporate storytelling can provide a tool for articulating and focusing a company’s vision and reason for being. Corporate stories provide a vehicle for brand building and communication, both internally within an organization and externally to customers, business partners and investors.

Take Sandvik Mining and Construction, a global construction and machinery equipment maker with its headquarters in Sandviken, Sweden. Sandvik Mining and Construction recently organized a series of storytelling workshops for its China employees with an aim of sharing moments “when we help our customer build their business” based on Sandviks corporate brand values. Through the exercise – which Springtime’s China team helped to organize – Sandvik Mining and Construction was able to gather some truly moving stories of when their China sales staff went the extra mile to solve their customers’ problems.

In one workshop, an employee retold the story of his colleague who flew straight from a business trip in Italy to rural China when his customer ran into trouble. He later spent all night in the customer’s workshop fixing some equipment that had malfunctioned. He left the workshop in the early morning, with a working machine, a happy customer and smile; despite a thick layer of workshop grease and oil covering his new, Italian leather shoes.

Stories, including narratives, myths, and fables, constitute a uniquely powerful currency in human relationships. Stories speak to both parts of the human mind – its reason and emotion.  Indeed, psychologists have proven that three times as much information can be transmitted and stored in the listener if it is told as an anecdote, fable or story than if the facts are presented.  As the case of Sandvik Mining and Construction shows, while talking about solving a customer’s problem in abstract terms is nice.  Being able to tell a story about it is often much more powerful and will build a strong image of the Sandvik brand.

As stories are easily retold, they provide great value. As is often said in branding, a brand is not only a logo. It’s “what someone says about you when you’re not in the room.”

Katarina Wendt Englund is a recognized expert in branding and communication. She recently talked about branding and storytelling “The story of your brand: how good stories build great brands” an event which Springtime hosted in Shanghai on March 17th. To share your story, or talk to Springtime about corporate storytelling, contact us.

Yvonne Säll is the latest addition to Springtime’s Beijing office. She brings key experience from the financial industry, where she has spent the major part of her career in China, Hong Kong, Sweden and Switzerland – most recently at a recruitment firm focused on clients in the financial sector.

Yvonne will work to support Springtime’s corporate clients with communications targeting the Chinese market, and to develop our offering in Financial Communication and Investor Relations.

What is Springtime known for in China – or what could we be recognised for?

In Beijing, Springtime is not considered a large agency, and I believe this makes it easier for us to stand out, with a clear identity. I hope we can also use this to make a difference, and to create value. The competition is tough, so we need to offer something that we can be really good at.

Can you share some of your early impressions of Springtime?

One thing is that people are intellectually very active, which I appreciate. It also seems that Springtime, where many come from a political background, has a ’campaigning’ mindset: you believe in something and you make it happen. 

If you look ahead one or two years, can you give an example of something you hope to have achieved while at Springtime?

I look forward to guiding and supporting Swedish companies and financial institutions as they enter the Chinese Capital Market and to work with Chinese companies to build their financial and corporate communications excellence. The Chinese economy and Capital Market is seeing unprecedented growth and development and I am very excited to be working with it.

Springtime har tillsammans med Futurniture, Tengbom och Eastwei Relations varit ansvariga för design, gestaltning och produktion av uställningen i den svenska paviljongen. Springtime har även tagit fram berättelsen och temat (Spirit of Innovation) för den svenska Expo-satsningen.

Mer information hittar du i pressreleasen från Svenska Expo-kommittén

”Physical or virtual, word-of-mouth is an essential brand-building tool for companies in China. Sixty per cent of Chinese consumers say friends and family members (F&F) are a major source of product information, based on which they make purchase decisions.”

Att döma av de närvarande företagen ligger det nära till hands att säga nej…

Till skillnad från schweiziska urmakare, eller italienska skomakare har kinesiska varumärken de senaste årtiondena haft svårt att kapitalisera på traditionella hantverk . Kina har 5000 års kulturhistoria, men har inte riktigt lyckats marknadsföra ett traditionellt hantverk under ett varumärke. Fråga hur många längs med Rivieran som vill spendera en förmögenhet på en jättestaty i jade, till exempel.

De närvarande företrädarna för Kinas inhemska lyxindustri skyllde problemet på utlänningarna.

”De får alla de bästa lokalerna och slipper betala för det. Vi kineser har svårt att bygga våra varumärken”. Egentligen ligger det största problemet i att man inte lyckats etablera egna varumärken som lockar kommers i samma utsträckning som etablerade européer och därför får man inga prime locations.

Det mest framgångsrika Kinesiska lyxmärket, Shanghai Tang räknas inte. Det är grundat i Hong Kong.

Nej, den största utmaningen ligger troligen i insikten att byggandet av ett premiumvarumärke kräver stora investeringar i kommunikation och PR. Kinas entreprenörer har en utmaning framför sig som består i att öva på att öppna plånboken för ”mjukare” investeringar. Investeringar som inte är direkt rör produktion eller försäljning, utan på lång sikt verkar för att bygga ett åtråvärt och värdefullt varumärke.

Martin Stenberg – slå mig en signal vettja! +86 1580 1477490

Shanghai är billigt, men dyrt för oss män. Som en kinesisk vän sa.

Så när Häagen-Dazs började pumpa ut sin glass ( några skopor kostar ungefär lika mycket som 10 luncher för en arbetare) gjorde man glassen till ett uttryck för kärlek. Hur mycket älskar du din flickvän? Älskar du henne tillräckligt mycket för att bränna en hundring på glass? Jo då, många gjorde det. Och om nu kärlek kan mätas i gräddglass så finns det många lyckliga par i Shanghai.

Häagen-Dasz är idag ett av många verktyg för att vinna extra ”ansikte” för både män och kvinnor. Så här mycket kan jag spendera, och så här mycket är jag värd.

Martin Stenberg – slå mig gärna en signal om du vill prata varumärken och Kina +86 1580 1477490