Strategic Narrative

Join Catapult for a Strategic Narrative Storytelling Panel

A compelling narrative sets a company apart from the competition. At Catapult, we’ve dedicated decades to helping companies tell a more meaningful story with an industry narrative. Next week, our Co-founder and Chief Narrative Officer, Guy Murrel, is partnering with SOFTWAREcolorado and local marketing leaders to discuss important insights around strategic narrative storytelling. Marketing leaders and CEOs will learn how an industry narrative can help their company stand out and create better alignment. You can

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category narrative
Thought Leadership

Use this Template to Create Your Category Narrative

Companies often adopt the Strategic Narrative Marketing approach because they want to lead markets, stand apart or define an industry category. The approach requires the development of an industry narrative to articulate your company’s vision and align it around a purpose-focused positioning statement. Sometimes, the narrative reveals uncomfortable truths. Perhaps an organization isn’t truly aligned with current trends that are impacting the future of the industry. Or, maybe the organization is aligned, but changes need

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industry narrative now
Strategic Narrative

There’s No Better Time Than Now to Adopt an Industry Narrative

As we transition into the ‘next normal’ for business, many marketers are re-evaluating their positioning and thinking about how to emerge as a leader in a changing and unpredictable world. We have long advocated for all companies to have an industry narrative, and if there was ever a time to adopt one it’s now. An industry narrative is the guiding light of an organization’s highest aspirations. It goes beyond what you ‘do’ and provides a

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Strategic Narrative

How Narrative Ties into the Customer Experience

Companies are more focused than ever on delivering a quality customer experience – especially in B2B tech. Part of that experience is how the company connects with the customer – on a human level. People want to work with companies who relate to their challenges, clarify industry misperceptions and know the industry trends that directly impact them. Many of the leading companies do an incredible job at this by articulating a focused industry narrative. Not

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messaging strategy
Strategic Narrative

Freshen Up Your Messaging Strategy: Spring Your Narrative Forward

Spring is in the air — and we are reminded of new beginnings. We see blossoming flowers, green growth on trees and longer days. In business, Springtime reminds us that the company messaging strategy also benefits from newness and growth.  So many companies suffer from stale, ineffective messaging with no significant changes for years. Or, internal efforts result in inward and narrow messaging that is ineffective and draining.  After repeated tries at differentiation and capturing

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industry narrative
Strategic Narrative

Four Essential Elements of an Industry Narrative

At Catapult, we have long advocated for the industry narrative.  Think about the digital world we live in. Narratives matter because stories spread like wildfire, especially on social media.  Every organization has the opportunity to leverage an industry narrative to lead and influence the direction of your industry.  You and your organization’s leaders know better than anyone what is impacting and changing your industry – and you should be talking about it! You can drive

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Market Leadership

Align Your Company with a Category-focused Strategic Narrative

A building is only as strong as its foundation. The same is true for relationships, education and business. One of the core foundational components of any successful business is organizational alignment. Organizations founded upon and aligned around a set of core values and a clear vision tend to lead industries. From our experience as a PR firm in the tech industry, alignment can be achieved through a strategic narrative that defines a new or existing

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2020
Market Leadership

Top Marketing Tips for a Strong 2020 from Forbes

A solid plan and fresh ideas are great ways to kick off a new year in business. Marketers have a lot to consider as they enter 2020. What are the marketing goals and are they aligned with the overall business strategy? What is the budget? What worked and what didn’t work in 2019? Forbes Communication Council shared tips from 15 marketing thought leaders – including Catapult’s chief narrative officer and principal, Guy Murrel – on how to

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DevOps Enterprise
Uncategorized

Live From DevOps Enterprise Summit Las Vegas

This week, the Catapult team traveled to Las Vegas to provide PR and social media support at the DevOps Enterprise Summit (#DOES19).  The DevOps Enterprise Summit is the premier industry conference where business and technology leaders gather to learn how to develop and deploy software faster and win in the marketplace. We absolutely love being a part of this event and we’ve had the honor of supporting it since its beginning in 2014. Over the

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Strategic Narrative Marketing
Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing: Four Lessons Learned

It has been a couple of years since we (Catapult) formally launched Strategic Narrative Marketing. What a roller coaster ride it has been to introduce something totally new to the PR market! If one thing is clear today- it’s that Strategic Narrative Marketing is our true differentiator as a PR firm. Along with our journey, we’ve had the opportunity to refine and adapt Strategic Narrative Marketing. If you’re new here, Strategic Narrative Marketing is an

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webinar
Thought Leadership

Webinar: Learn What Makes a Category Champion

As 2018 nears the end, many of us are busy planning and developing strategies to make 2019 an amazingly successful year.  On Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 at 11 a.m. PST/Noon MST, I will be hosting a webinar to help business leaders and marketers learn why industry category champions win in the marketplace. These are the companies that people want to hire, work for and invest in, and we’ll dive into why this is so important

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narrative
Market Leadership

The DevOps Industry Narrative Journey

Narrative leads every industry forward. For the software industry, two major movements — driven by narrative — has led to the rise of Agile, and more recently, DevOps, from concept to mainstream practice. From the Agile Manifesto (Feb., 2001) and Marc Andreessen’s famed 2011 WSJ column “Why Software is Eating the World,” to the much used motto “Building Better Software Faster,” narrative stories have helped lead both practitioners and vendors alike to collective benefit. Last

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brand leadership
Strategic Narrative

Brand Leadership And The Narrative Economy

The following is an excerpt from an article by Guy Murrel titled, “Brand Leadership and the Narrative Economy,” that was originally published on Forbes.com While just “words,” the power of narrative is now a force to be reckoned with — from politics and pop culture to social movements and business. All too often, we now see narrative take down the mighty and powerful and, at the same time, expose the once obscure to great fame.

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Top Quotes on PR and Narrative from Catapult

In a previous blog, I shared some tips on what I learned from my first couple of weeks in the PR industry. One thing I learned after joining the Catapult team is that, “Tips from co-workers are the best… if a co-worker gives you any information on how to make your time more productive or to make others in the office happier, take it. Many of my co-workers at Catapult have helped me with this.” Shouldn’t

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collaboration
Market Leadership

Collaboration: the Ultimate Win/Win for Everyone

Think about it. What is it about certain people or environments that make you enjoy your work more? You probably feel empowered, that there is an open exchange of ideas, and encouragement to express your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Whether it’s personal or in the business world, it is clear. The more collaboration, the greater the trust, learning, growth and innovation. According to Wikipedia, collaboration is “the process of two or more people or organizations

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Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative and Category Building are Front and Center for CEOs

Messaging and positioning are more than just marketing’s priorities These last few years I’ve seen Catapult go in and help organizations create strategic narrative messaging and execute PR efforts that lead markets and create new categories. In that time, I’ve noticed some patterns in the way that organizations 1) realize they need help with telling their story, 2) reach out to third parties to gain an outside perspective and, 3) involve executive leadership to implement

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Strategic Narrative

How Communications Pros can get the Whole Company Excited About Category Building

Communications and PR people get the importance of narrative. You don’t need to convince us, it’s the world we live in. Stories shape and redefine our companies, our clients, the industry we are in and the industries we represent.  Our day-to-day work involves digging up those narratives, editing them, analyzing them and acting with the story as the backbone of our activity. Therefore, when the marketing team creates a plan or the PR agency comes

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

Why You Shouldn’t Leave it up to the Industry Analysts to Define and Claim Your Market Category

If you are in the tech space, you are familiar with all the industry research firms who tout their worth and value when it comes to defining who your company is and where you fit within their various market categories. Companies pay a LOT of money to get on analysts’ radar screens and utilize their advice and services. There’s nothing really wrong with this approach. There is definitely certain value you get out of paid

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Market Leadership

Five Reasons why Category Building is Marketing Gold

True market leaders own, define and/or lead market categories. Think about the Apple’s, Netflix’s and Airbnb’s of the world. They disrupted competitive and dynamic markets, intentionally created new and innovative categories in markets where technology was forcing change – and the results have been extremely prosperous. Marketers should be REALLY excited about this because it’s not easy to stand out in crowded digital platforms – and it’s getting harder to bring new people in. Consumers

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Market Leadership

Women-in-Tech Narrative Aims to Empower and Inspire

This article is reposted from Business 2 Community. Read the original posting here: https://www.business2community.com/leadership/women-in-tech-narrative-aims-to-empower-and-inspire-02052220 An industry narrative presents a great opportunity for organizations of all types to stand for something higher than “what they do.” Crafting a narrative that aims to inspire industry change is the stuff that sets true market leaders apart and determines business winners and category champions. Sometimes it’s hard to grasp how a strategic narrative – not traditional messaging or storytelling – can

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Strategic Narrative

The Rise of Strategic Narrative In Marketing

The following is an excerpt from an article published in Forbes by Guy Murrel It’s no secret that a person who talks endlessly about themselves is a bore. For years, businesses have been guilty of this “look at me” approach when it comes to positioning and messaging. Mission statements, inward value manifestos and the overuse of self-serving superlatives result in a dead end of unfocused and uninspiring brand messaging. But the use of narrative in

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Market Leadership

Time for CEOs to do Some Spring Cleaning

And Strategic Narrative Marketing is Blooming. . . Ahhh, Springtime. The grass is starting to turn green, the birds are chirping, and tulips and daffodils are popping up through the dirt to greet the sun. You’re probably even thinking about golf, vacations and scheduling a few outings with your friends and family. That’s the familiar narrative we are all accustomed to when we think about Spring. Now, apply that to what your company does each

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Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing in Forbes

We are excited to see Strategic Narrative Marketing featured in a recent Forbes post about creative ideas for driving an organization’s brand. We believe that every company can benefit from Strategic Narrative Marketing, and that adoption of the approach creates industry leaders and category owners. Read the full article here. Strategic Narrative Marketing challenges companies to look higher than what they do or offer, and focus on the industry.  By following the approach, a company

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Market Leadership

Narrative Spotlight: How Apple Dominated the Resolution Conversation with Retina Display

Catapult has recently been shining the spotlight on companies that understand how to lead the market by creating industry narratives and vision. These are companies that have hit the narrative mark. This means their communications follow the principles of Strategic Narrative Marketing. We started with a post on Patagonia, outdoor adventure retailer, and its move over the last couple of years to take a political stance and align the company around advocacy for public lands.

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Market Leadership

Narrative Spotlight: Mavenlink

The narrative movement is gaining traction among industry leaders. An industry narrative is higher-level than storytelling and that alone forces companies to think differently. By participating in this movement, companies have the opportunity to offer a unique voice and contribute to the overall betterment of the industry. What we’re talking about rises above products and services. It is the essence of who a company is and its vision for the industry. Many companies that have

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Market Leadership

Selfless Marketing is a Thing (Let me Explain …)

Believe it or not, a company’s messaging does not have to be self-centered. Stay with me for a moment and let me explain what I mean. I know, I know the very word “marketing” means promoting and selling. So how can marketing be selfless? Isn’t the purpose of marketing always to increase the bottom line? Shouldn’t a B2B company focus on advertising and promoting its solutions? Sure, those activities matter and good marketing will end

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Uncategorized

Boost Your Content Pipeline with an Industry Narrative in 2018

As we dive into a New Year, many of us face the challenge of realigning our efforts to reach new goals over the next 12 months. If content is your specialty, you’ve probably crafted a new content marketing plan and have built (or are in the process of building) a 2018 content calendar. You might even have a documented strategy for content — but is your content supported by a narrative that delivers a unique

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Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narratives Reach Beyond Marketing

As we head into 2018, so many of us look back and reflect on the year (and what a year it was!). At Catapult, we helped more than a dozen B-2-B high tech firms create an industry narrative to define a new category space. Our category building framework – Strategic Narrative Marketing – is a new marketing category that helps organizations build a new category. It sounds kind of like a riddle, but when we

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Strategic Narrative

It’s Budget Time. . . .

And you know what that means. Looking at what you spent last year and seeing what worked, what didn’t (and why) Investigating ways to streamline resources, budget, yet get more impact Seeing where to invest to ‘move the needle’ so your organization/company can get more sales, be acquired, raise more money Let’s be honest. It’s stressful. Boards want justification for the money you (your company) spent and why. Investors want the same, but, they want

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stranger things in PR
Strategic Narrative

“Stranger Things” in Public Relations

Public relations can expose some interesting, challenging and even spooky situations. Oftentimes, PR professionals can feel lost when it comes to delivering (and measuring) results for their clientele. Unless specific goals and key performance indicators are set and understood from the start, trouble can arise. Additionally, the call to quantify public relations’ value for the boardroom can seem never-ending. Many are even starting to eliminate some (or all) of the PR line item from budgets

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Market Leadership

How an Industry Narrative Prevents Your Content from Becoming Spam

Content marketing standards might be at an all-time low. Many business-to-business companies are outsourcing content creation, often to “jack-of-all-trades”-content farms who do not have a deep understanding of the businesses they are writing about. Also, we are seeing automated content and the use of robots or AI for content creation grow in popularity. Heck, even journalism organizations like the Associated Press are using robots to write stories, so why not? But is all of this

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Strategic Narrative

Find us Today at TechDay LA

We are thrilled to join more than 300 hundred startups and 12,000 attendees for a whirlwind, one-day event –  TechDay LA! Our very own Guy Murrel, co-founder and principal, and Charles Trowbridge, senior account executive, are manning the Catapult PR table. At 2:40 p.m. PDT, Guy will take the general stage for a three-minute demonstration on Strategic Narrative Marketing, a ground-breaking new approach to company messaging that aims to build category owners and establish true

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Strategic Narrative

Content Marketing – Too Much of a Good Thing?

Most B2B marketing practitioners understand the value of good content. The “2017 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends, North America” report states that 89 percent of B2B marketers practice content marketing. As a result, this is driving a big chunk of marketing budgets as organizations glom onto content marketing’s promises for lead gen, ROI and tangible results. This is all good –at Catapult we firmly believe in the power of content. In fact, content

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Strategic Narrative

Catapult Wins TWO National Industry Awards for Strategic Narrative Marketing

We are honored to share that we recently received two national awards for our Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) messaging framework that helps organizations define and own categories. We are now the proud owners of a Gold Stevie Award for PR Innovation in the 2017 American Business Awards™, and Silver for New Products and Services in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations in the 2017 Golden Bridge Awards.  “This is a big milestone for Catapult as we work

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strategic narrative
Strategic Narrative

An Industry Narrative Helps CEO’s Align Company Culture Around a Common Goal

A company that finds its voice and truly leads an industry often changes the world with new innovations and new ways of thinking. By blazing a path through unknown territory and beckoning others to follow, true industry leaders shape the future. It’s these brands that we remember through the decades, whose products become household names. Not only do organizations that achieve this kind of success provide good products or services, they offer a new way

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Strategic Narrative

The More You Give, the More You Get

I generally find that the saying “the more you give the more you get” holds true when applied in life and business. In life, the rewards of giving are more intangible and somewhat spiritual – feeling good inside, aligned and centered, and riding the wave of a positive force. It’s more of a karma thing. But what about in business? How much should you give and share with the market, even competitors? When I look

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Strategic Narrative

Join our Webinar: Finding Your Narrative in a Crowded Content World

We are teaming up with Chief Marketer to present a webinar on our new messaging approach – Strategic Narrative Marketing. Join us to learn how to create industry-level messaging that is 100 percent unique, helps align organizations toward a higher, singular cause, and serves to lead the advancement and success of the overall industry. This approach can be leveraged to drive content development, social media, and general PR/marketing. “Finding Your Narrative in a Crowded Content World,” will

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Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing 101: What is a ‘Messaging Space?’

We (Catapult PR) talk a lot about our unique approach to positioning and messaging called Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM). The approach defies traditional company-centric messaging because it challenges a company to look at messaging from a higher-level and focus on the industry. When this is done correctly, the company has an opportunity to be more strategic and develop a narrative that is unique, compelling and actually means something to the industry. When we share tips

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Market Leadership

How a CrowdChat Can Bring Your Industry (and Narrative) Together

In the world of PR and marketing, it’s always crucial to keep a pulse on the latest and greatest tools and technologies. Why? These present new and innovative ways to help bring your client’s or your company’s messages and strategies to market. If you’re a Twitter person, like me, perhaps you’ve stumbled onto an application called CrowdChat – a social chat platform where a crowd creates the content through engaging conversations and a gamified experience.

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Strategic Narrative

How to Turn Industry Misperceptions into Education Opportunities

Turning lemons into lemonade is a skill that any PR or marketing agency should have. At the end of the day, any press is good press, right? As professionals in the lemonade-making business, the answer is yes – and no: ‘yes’ because press presents opportunities; ‘no’ because if you fail to capitalize on negative press – or a misperception being perpetuated – the effects are typically not positive. For companies playing in industries constrained by

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Market Leadership

Drive Content Marketing Success with an Industry Narrative

Content marketing costs 62 percent less than outbound marketing, but generates more than three times as many leads (Content Marketing Institute). Marketers recognize the value of leveraging good content and most companies today use some form of content marketing. We see evidence of this on social media, blogs and other online content distribution sources. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of material that companies are constantly pushing out has reached spam-like levels. Without the right content strategy,

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Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Marketing from Launch to Adoption | Part 12

Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) is a new approach to company positioning and messaging. If you’ve been tracking along with our blog series, you probably have a decent grasp on what it’s all about (newcomers – start with Part 1). You’ve learned how to truly think and act like a leader in your industry and perhaps you are considering developing and launching a market category or framework for your organization. Recently, the series covered how to

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Strategic Narrative

Long-Form Category Building| Part 10

The Strategic Narrative Marketing Series continues as we explain the next step in the narrative development process. Previously we discussed developing Power Point slides that will serve as the basis of your narrative. Today we will explore long-form category definition through the development of a white paper or positioning document. If you’re just jumping into this Series now, check out our first blog which explains what Strategic Narrative Marketing is all about. You can then

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Strategic Narrative
Market Leadership

The New Standard for Quality Content

My son, a kindergartner, is learning how to read and write. He tends to rush through his assignments so he can move on to more important things, like recess. His teacher, on the other hand, is a big proponent of “quality work.” She encourages him to take his time. My husband and I (also supporters of quality work), make him slow down when we practice with him outside of school but, he doesn’t quite get

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Development: Elements of Success |Part 7

In our previous Strategic Narrative Marketing Series post, we discussed the value of conducting a discovery workshop to uncover raw, honest insights into your company’s view and vision for the industry. Without having any experience, these discovery sessions can be difficult to conduct and it’s easy to fall off course. We highly recommend looking into an expert third party to conduct the workshop for you. But, if you are determined to go at it alone,

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

Differentiating Yourself From the Crowd Without Fake News

The more we look around the current tech landscape, the more we see examples of just how important a strategic narrative is in differentiating yourself from the crowd. Take, for instance, the latest controversy surrounding Facebook and its “fake news” problem. Facebook has long positioned itself as a data collection company masquerading as a social networking organization. However, with its move into live broadcasting and, apparently, news curation, it’s clear that the company has moved

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Strategic Narrative
Market Leadership

The DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco Was Everything We Hoped For and More!

We (Catapult PR) just returned from an action-packed three days at the 2016 DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco (DOES16) where 1,300 DevOps luminaries, business leaders and practitioners united to unpack current DevOps trends and predictions, share success stories and collaborate for the betterment of Dev and Ops practices at large, complex organizations. The conference featured a jam-packed schedule including speakers from some of the world’s biggest brands, such as Target, Verizon and Disney, who shared

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Market Leadership

Unwrap Your Company’s Strategic Narrative | Part 6

If you’ve been following along with our Strategic Narrative Marketing blog series, you’ve learned how your organization has a unique opportunity to be heard in the face of today’s oversaturated content and digital marketing channels. You’ve learned how a Strategic Narrative can help elevate your organization above the competition with a higher-level, strategic approach to positioning and messaging. You’ve also learned some of the key building blocks of a Strategic Narrative – including tenets to

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strategic narrative marketing
Market Leadership

Get to Know the Mind Behind, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing”

A few weeks ago we announced a new book by Catapult co-founder and principal, Guy Murrel. The book, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing,” is a brief ‘how-to’ guide for those looking to lead their market and stand apart from competitors while embracing a new messaging strategy. I asked Guy a few questions this week to get his perspective on what Strategic Narrative Marketing is and what it means to the PR and marketing

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Themes: Creating Messaging that is New and Meaningful | Part 4

For the past several weeks we have been writing about key Strategic Narrative Marketing practices on our Catapult blog. We’ve looked at how you can find your company’s voice, think higher than a mission statement, and guide strategic direction with a strategic narrative. Today we look at creating entirely unique strategic narrative spaces and themes. What, exactly, do we mean by that? Let’s start with the common understand that to standout in the marketplace, you

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