“73% of the U.S. 12+ population (an estimated 209 million people) have listened to online audio in the last month, up from 68% in 2021”- Edison Research
“The audiobook market share shifted from 42% digital copy sales in 2009 to 87% digital copy sales in 2017”- Audio Publishers Association
“Employees have a deeper affiliation with the message through organizational storytelling due to aligning stories with their own experiences and understanding”- International Journal of Business and Social Science
“64% of Millennials consider a company’s social commitments when taking jobs and will not work for a company if they do not have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) values”- Cone Communications
“Storytelling that integrates a moral and spiritual component can transform an organizational culture so members of the organization begin to feel connected to a larger community and a higher purpose”- Journal of Business Ethics
“The most recent era in audio entertainment… users are asserting power over the medium to select particular content at particular times”- Mass Communication and Society Journal
“There is value in a story that is, designed to drive the simulation and to elicit the [employee’s] best performance”- Society for Human Resource Management
“Narrative presentation of corporate strategy, comparative advantage, is more effective at producing a consistent and confident choice of competitive advantage among an audience than a presentation of corporate strategy using a PowerPoint style, bulleted list approach”- Journal of Strategy and Management
“Millennials are more technologically advanced than any previous generation [and] survey data has shown a correlation between age and reading preferences [where] younger people listen to more audiobooks than older Americans”- State University of New York
“The majority (79%) of Millennials want to work for a company that cares about how it contributes to society and 69% would refuse to work for a company that is not socially responsible”- Journal of Education For Business
“Should produce positive effects on key audiences, such as increasingly positive attitudes toward the company and eventually behavioral intentions to support this company”- Public Relations Review
“19% [of Millennials] say they have paid in the last year for a subscription service for eBooks or audiobooks such as Kindle Unlimited or Audible”- American Press Institute
“83% of Millennials would be more loyal to a company that allows them to contribute to social and environmental issues”- Cone Communications
“Storytelling is essential to successful branding, since your brand is the sum of all your corporate behaviors and communications that inform your customers’ experiences with your product or company”- The Journal of Business Strategy
“Three uses for storytelling in organizations: (1) to motivate employees, (2) for education and (3) to consolidate corporate culture”- Journal of Marketing
“Maximizing success through onboarding by storytelling during orientations, [helps employees understand] the company's culture and values [and] its goals and history”- Society for Human Resource Management
“Audio narrative has recently benefited from profound cultural shifts in media consumption associated with on-demand television’s binge watching revolution and the advent of digital longform storytelling”- Journal of Radio & Audio Media
“Over 71 thousand audiobook titles (were) published in 2020, a 39% growth between previous years”- Statista
“The storytelling process yields positive impacts on internal and external stakeholder outcomes including increasing employees’ thriving and meaningful work, as well as the attitudes and trust of multiple external stakeholders”- Journal of Strategic Marketing
“A poor cultural fit is frequently cited as one of the main reasons [an employee] decides to leave an organization… defining the organization's culture through storytelling should start with branding of the organization and continue through the interview and onboarding process”- Physician Executive Communication Journal
“[the way employees are on-boarded] sets the tone for the culture of a place, the people, and the values of a new institution and can have a significant impact on employees’ sense of belonging”- Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education
“Story-telling is an important element… involving the sharing of experiences and creation of mental-maps of the environment in which people are motivated to perform to their full potential”- Leadership and Organization Development Journal
“Storytelling that starts with the persona allows us to tap into these deeper recesses, where the influence of attitudes and emotions is greater… loyalty and trust are found there”- Journal of Business Strategy
“Stories are a device… [that] provide managers with a form of social and intersubjective interaction that reflects belief systems, role expectations, interpersonal norms and conditions for work behavior”- International Journal of Management
“Audiobooks have had a big shift in popularity in 2018 where for the first time, “a full half of all Americans ages 12 and older have listened to an audiobook, up from 44% last year”- Forbes
“There are currently about 1000% more titles published since 2011”- Audio Publishers Association
“When it comes to digital storytelling for branding, there is, a more positive attitude towards the company when the employer branding message is using digital storytelling”- Management Dynamic in the Knowledge Economy Journal
“116% growth in spoken word listeners 13-34 years old in the past even years, with 18% growth in the last year”- National Public Radio Organization
“Spoken word audio listening is up 40% in the past seven years, and up 8% year over year”- National Public Radio Organization and Edison Research
“Online audio (podcasts, radio shows, music and audiobooks) has become more popular than ever before”- Publishing Research Quarterly
“Employees have a deeper affiliation with the message through organizational storytelling due to aligning stories with their own experiences and understanding”- International Journal of Business and Social Science
“A focus on social responsibility is particularly important to attract, retain, and increase the commitment and engagement of Millennial employees and talented women”- Center for Creative Leadership
“Corporate storytelling is suggested to help demonstrate the importance of the corporate brand to internal and external stakeholders… as well as help a firm to bond with its employees”- Product & Brand Management
“Researchers have shown that storytelling strengthens the connections consumers have to brands, so that to a great extent what a brand means to a consumer is based . . . on the narratives he or she has constructed that incorporate the brand.”- Journal of Business Strategy
“[onboarding] can also aid employees in identifying values congruence which is critical to career contentment and commitment which can significantly impact retention to both the field and the institution long-term” - Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education
“Brands can bring their CSR (corporate social responsibility) efforts to life through authentic storytelling [and] Millennials want to know what companies are doing to make the world a better place”- Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University
“As technology evolves, people have more options available to them, which may explain why [reports] found younger adults to be more likely to opt for audiobooks and the multi-tasking they enable”- Forbes
“The corporate world cannot ignore the demands and expectations of Millennials, who are devout in their desire to associate with companies aligned with their values”- Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University
“Audiobook sales revenue has been on a steep rise since 2018, reaching 1.3 billion USD in 2020”- Statista
“Audio platform superiority was about the desire to use an audio platform that is perceived to be superior to other audio alternatives, including on-demand convenience (time and place) and content (vari- ety and uniqueness)”- New Media and Society Journal
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So often we see great brands derailed. They seem to have lost track of their purpose and style, their principles and commitments. They often get watered down and diluted by corporate governance, standardization, and complacency. What happened?
They lost their spirit, that’s what happened! They degenerated from a passion to a label – simply another faucet to dump product into. But we are getting ahead of ourselves here.
Let’s go back to the inception of the brand. Let’s go back to the garage. Those were the days when the brand was the only brand the company had. Those were the days when it was obvious to everyone that sales was king …and queen. And if they didn’t make a sale today, they would have the lights turned off tomorrow. Those were the days when the founders had to look at the market differently and meet the needs of that growing population that wasn’t being recognized, addressed, or served.
They focused on that neglected market and committed themselves to satisfying it. But then, as time passed, something happened. Maybe it was through an acquisition. Maybe it was through merger. Or maybe it was through their own growth.
Specialization and division of labor slowly but surely replaced the folks who were wearing many hats but who understood how and why everything worked. Protocols and procedures with strict channels of communication replaced shouting across the crowded office to their coworkers. Physical walls separated co-workers who used to know everything that was going on – because they could hear every conversation. All this in the name of efficiency.
But at what price? Basically, the thrill is gone. People no longer identify with the brand in the way the founders did, and they may not even be there anymore. The results of their success is the loss of engagement and rapid turnover.
How can you keep the spirit of the brand alive? How can you get those specialists to focus on sales and customer service no matter what their job?
How about an audiobook performance that draws them in to those early days when the founder was risking everything on pleasing the customer? How about letting them listen to that story performed by actors, complete with sound effects, up-to-date interviews, and a musical score? And how about making it part of the regular on-boarding and orientation process?
Experiencing the original story of their company’s brand will give them more appreciation for the founder’s principles, goals, concepts, challenges, and solutions. Suddenly, it’s not just another place to work. Now it’s their company and a brand they identify with. And in doing so they are more likely to keep the brand on track and protect its legacy and its authenticity. Salespeople will have interesting stories to proudly share with prospects. Vendors will have more appreciation for the brand. And customers will be more engaged and loyal knowing the story behind the brand.
We are offering a solution to the increasingly common problem of brands becoming just labels by breathing life into the stories that define the brand and making those stories available to employees, vendors, and buyers alike.
The solution is presented in an entertaining and compelling Business Audio Theatre format that’s easy to use and is a one-time investment that pays off for decades, keeping your people and your brand on track!! We are here to help your company produce this innovative on-boarding tool. You can’t afford to let the founder’s spirit slip away just because your company is successful! Check us out.
