Controlling the Narrative… A Mugs Game

History is written by the victors, as Winston Churchill once pointed out.

The trouble is, the victors are eventually defeated. It is the inevitable, slow, irresistible force of cause and effect. The oppressed become the oppressors, the winners the losers, and we descend into endless cycles of tit-for-tat attempts at controlling the new narrative over the old, or trying to maintain the old over the new.

Now, having the narrative controlled by someone to whom we have given permission, like in a fantastic book, an awesome computer game or a great TV series, is different. We want to be entertained, we want an adventure, but one defined for us, so we can relax and explore.

But when it comes to our engagement with Governments and Brands, the controlled narrative becomes a very tenuous thing. It’s all good and well creating PR and brand campaigns that speak to how wonderful an organisation is, but are we delivering on that narrative, that promise?

When we have been on hold for 30 minutes after speaking to seven different call centre agents who cannot assist us, the brand promise of efficiency starts to ring very, very hollow, and the narrative of we are the fastest, most efficient blah blah flies out the window. Not only that, if we, as disgruntled consumers, then take to a public channel to complain, and there is a canned, aggressive or empty response, the controlled narrative is definitely no longer controlled, next stop investigative journalists and industry regulators.

So, how do we as marketers solve this problem of the narrative, when we know that, often, marketing and operations don’t always match, and probably don’t even speak to each other, except at the annual end of year function?

Well, in my experience, the brands that have dealt with this best are the ones that acknowledge they cannot control the narrative, but they can participate and facilitate it. To do this you really have to both want to listen to the dialogue coming back from your consumers, and at the same time be willing to embrace and act on the feedback they are giving you.

We should all know by now that if someone is silencing journalists or censoring platforms of communication there is something wrong. Those are the warning bells of every despotic attempt at a controlled narrative of the last few centuries. But, even if you’re only a hobbyist historian as I am, we should also know by now that strangling and controlling the narrative only ever ends in regime change and failure.

Why?

Because we humans speak to each other, we share. And, even if our channels of communication are fraught with gatekeepers and censors, we will find a way to share our perceptions and thoughts, we will break a false narrative, eventually.

So, my suggestion, be part of the conversation, don’t try and dominate it if you can’t guarantee 100% that what you are saying about your brand is always, always, always going to be true, and none of us can do that.

Speak, listen, internalise, adapt and repeat.