strategic narrative Archives

Market Leadership

20 Quotes on Category Building to Sharpen your Messaging Strategy

The concept of category building enables organizations to differentiate themselves and redefine market landscapes, while opening creative and thoughtful conversations internally. Startup founders, business executives, and marketing gurus face an important question at some point in their careers: Are you trying to define (and own) a new or existing market category? The answer to this question will inevitably transform the way you communicate with external and internal stakeholders. To dive deeper into the purpose of

Guy Murrel April 18, 2023

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

Christin Jeffers April 21, 2022

Strategic Narrative

Three Realistic Reasons to Focus on Category Building

It’s no secret that category building has become a popular positioning and marketing strategy during the past few years. Companies that lead categories have an envious position. They clearly stand out, are more attractive to customers, are loved by media and analyst influencers, and, at the highest level, have the highest market valuation. Who raises the most money, gets acquired and reaches the promised land of startups — an IPO? Category leaders Let’s look at

Guy Murrel September 16, 2021

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

Guy Murrel September 1, 2021

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

Guy Murrel June 10, 2020

Market Leadership

Three Reasons You Need a Strategic Narrative Messaging Assessment

It can be hard to get out of your own head. In business, we are all so close to our company messaging that we sometimes miss the flaws or opportunities for a better narrative. At Catapult, we’ve talked to dozens of CEOs who are unsatisfied with their company narrative but unsure how to go about improving it. When you’re busy running a business or leading teams, you tend to be inwardly focused on your products

Christin Jeffers April 23, 2020

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

Christin Jeffers April 10, 2020

Market Leadership

How to Achieve Narrative Authenticity in 2020 and Beyond

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” – Aristotle What separates an ordinary business from a market driver that propels an industry forward? It’s not just about the company’s products and/or services and it goes beyond being ‘cool’ or ‘edgy.’ You have to look a little closer and see what is woven into the fabric of these organizations. Simply put, these companies are all about narrative authenticity. They stay true to who they are

Christin Jeffers February 4, 2020

Strategic Narrative

Elements of Strategic Narrative Marketing for Category Leadership

‘Strategic Narrative Marketing’ elevates company positioning and messaging to help B2B organizations become category winners through their industry narrative BOULDER, Colo., June 12, 2019 — Catapult PR-IR (www.catapultpr-ir.com), a high-tech public relations and Strategic Narrative Marketing agency, today released the four elements for building a strategic narrative focused on industry megatrends, insights, vision and category definition. The four elements help companies discover their narrative for the industry so they can tell a story that is

Christin Jeffers June 12, 2019

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

Guy Murrel April 16, 2019

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

Guy Murrel December 3, 2018

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

Guy Murrel November 14, 2018

Thought Leadership

Budgeting a Strategic Narrative: Why Your CEO Will Love It

It’s that time of year where the B-word is front and center. That’s right, the budget. Budget planning brings up mixed feelings and it can get a little intense. As marketers, it’s not always easy to get the CEO on board with certain budget items. Demonstrating value and ROI can be tricky – and the CEO wants to know that the investment is worth it. Unfortunately, marketing also tends to get a bad rap for

Christin Jeffers October 19, 2018

Strategic Narrative

We’re Celebrating Our 19th Anniversary as a High Tech PR Firm

Wow – it’s hard to believe that we’re celebrating 19 years in business. Time flies when you’re having fun – and boy do we know how to have fun. As we reflect over almost two decades of hard work and success, we can’t help but feel a sense of pride as we think about all the good work we’ve done to help our tech company friends build awareness, thought leadership and create attention-grabbing positioning and

Terri Douglas September 11, 2018

Market Leadership

Catapult Adds Zype to B2B High Tech Client Roster

We are pleased to announce that Catapult has been retained by Zype, a video content and distribution company out of New York, for PR and Strategic Narrative Marketing services. Through our Narrative Practice service offering, we will help position Zype as a market category owner in the rapidly growing direct-to-consumer streaming video market. Zype CEO, Ed Laczynski, shared his thoughts on this new partnership: “We’re excited to position Zype as an industry leader with Catapult’s narrative

Christin Jeffers August 30, 2018

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.

Guy Murrel August 28, 2018

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

Megan Scharf August 22, 2018

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

Laura Balboni July 23, 2018

Market Leadership

Anchor Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy with a Strategic Narrative

Your content is only as good as your B2B content marketing strategy. Evidence supports this theory in the Content Marketing Institute’s 2018 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report. According to the report, 91 percent of respondents use content marketing. However, similar to previous years’ reports, it’s the organizations with documented content marketing strategies who report higher levels of content marketing success. Yet, only 37 percent of respondents have a documented strategy. A top reason

Christin Jeffers July 16, 2018

Market Leadership

Narrative + PR = Category Winner

It’s harder than ever to stand out — with most companies saying the same thing as competitors. It’s even harder to seize the top spot within your given category. Despite all the digital automation and intelligence available to marketers, effective public relations still provides the most credible path to winning the market positioning battle, especially for startups and B2B tech firms. Don’t get me wrong… Growth hacking is great. As is paid digital marketing that

Guy Murrel June 27, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Achieve Strategic Company Alignment with a Strategic Narrative

Every business leader wants their company to be strategically aligned. It creates unity among teams and delivers a consistent, clear message of who the company is and what it stands for. Unfortunately, achieving this sort of alignment from the top down and across every facet of the organization is complicated because a lot of companies struggle with their positioning and messaging. What is strategic business alignment? Jonathan Trevor and Barry Varcoe do a great job

Christin Jeffers June 14, 2018

Strategic Narrative

30 Quotes on “Narrative” and its Impact on Storytelling

As stated in the previous “50 Quotes on Narrative that Change the Way we look at Storytelling” blog post – a picture may be worth a thousand words, but the narrative itself is priceless. As marketing and PR pros, we must unpack the truth in what makes a narrative resonate with our audience, thereby incentivizing our desired call to action. It takes time and dedication to create a powerful narrative – a constant drip of

Charles Trowbridge June 6, 2018

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

Laura Balboni May 29, 2018

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

Terri Douglas May 24, 2018

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

Guy Murrel April 30, 2018

Market Leadership

Narrative Spotlight: A Strategic Narrative Can Sweeten Social Media and Drive Real Change

In many respects, the social media narrative is souring as its worst qualities have come to light. Anyone who follows the news has seen countless stories about data breaches, election meddling, its addictive nature and even its impact on mental health – and studies back these claims. For instance, social media is now reportedly linked to depression in teens. A study completed by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK revealed that Instagram,

Christin Jeffers April 24, 2018

Market Leadership

Dear CMO, What’s Makes a Tasty Marketing Recipe?

There is no one correct way to make my favorite dish of all time – macaroni and cheese. With a plethora of options — from cheese selection to noodle type, in addition to different cooking methods involving butter, eggs or cream — the beautiful thing about making “mac and cheese” is that no matter what ingredients you use, the combination of pasta and cheese usually tastes good no matter what (though there are still ways

Jeremy Douglas April 19, 2018

Catapult PR and CorSource Develop and Launch ‘Staffing Lifecycle Management’ Through the Strategic Narrative Marketing Approach

Today we are excited to announce that we helped CorSource create and launch a new process framework through the Strategic Narrative Marketing approach. Read the news below: Industry framework establishes a unique platform for CorSource to address employee management challenges in tech with concrete steps to improve the Talent Economy. Here’s the news release: BOULDER, Colo., April 17, 2018 – Catapult PR-IR (www.catapultpr-ir.com), a Strategic Narrative communications agency, today announced it helped CorSource develop and launch,

Christin Jeffers April 17, 2018

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

Guy Murrel March 29, 2018

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

Terri Douglas March 28, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Introducing the Strategic Narrative Assessment

Today we are excited to announce the launch of our Strategic Narrative Assessment that is now available on Catapult’s new and improved homepage. The assessment looks at a company’s core messaging and offers feedback and a scorecard detailing how it translates to the market, stacks up to competitors and addresses industry mega-trends and leadership. And, it’s completely free of charge! Here’s what our co-founder Terri Douglas shared about the assessment: “Strategic Narrative Marketing helps companies change

Christin Jeffers March 14, 2018

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

Christin Jeffers March 1, 2018

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.

Laura Balboni February 22, 2018

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

Christin Jeffers February 14, 2018

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

Laura Balboni January 29, 2018

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

Christin Jeffers January 10, 2018

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

Guy Murrel December 21, 2017

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

Terri Douglas November 20, 2017

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

Jeremy Douglas November 15, 2017

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

Laura Balboni November 2, 2017

Market Leadership

TechDay LA Recap

For a boutique PR firm like Catapult, the tradeshow/conference circuit is a bit off the beaten path. We work with clients all over the country, and we’ve been fortunate enough that the reputation we’ve developed throughout the tech industry often leads to referral-based client relationships. When we decided to attend TechDay LA, we recognized it as a great opportunity to push our boundaries, engage with a whole new sector of the industry, and continue to

Charles Trowbridge September 21, 2017

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

Christin Jeffers August 31, 2017

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

Christin Jeffers August 18, 2017

Market Leadership

50 Quotes on “Narrative” that Change the Way we look at Storytelling

While a picture may be worth a thousand words, the narrative itself is priceless. As PR and marketing pros, we strive to develop (and nurture) a strategic narrative that will help our clients leapfrog their competition and win in the marketplace. While this is not an easy feat, taking the time and making the effort to create a powerful narrative (at the industry level) helps establish thought leadership and the opportunity to “influence the influencers.”

Jeremy Douglas July 18, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Five Things You Need to Know From Digital Summit Denver

Last week I attended the Digital Summit Denver and soaked up fresh knowledge from some of the brightest minds in the digital world. This was my second Digital Summit experience and what I find most impressive is the quality of speakers each year. It’s hard to pick one session when there are five concurrent sessions all with juicy, enticing titles. The good news is that I left fired up and filled to the brim with

Christin Jeffers July 7, 2017

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

Laura Balboni June 30, 2017

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

Guy Murrel June 22, 2017

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

Christin Jeffers June 5, 2017

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

Guy Murrel June 1, 2017

Strategic Narrative

News: Rogue Wave Software Taps Strategic Narrative!

Today, we’re very happy to announce that our second Strategic Narrative messaging project is completed with our valued partner from Louisville, Colorado — Rogue Wave Software (www.roguewave.com/). Rogue Wave is a leader in software development tools, components, and platforms for mission-critical applications. Together, we dove into a full-day Strategic Narrative discovery workshop and subsequent messaging framework that blends an industry narrative with company positioning and messaging to help Rogue Wave align around a common, higher purpose. “We re-engaged

Jeremy Douglas May 16, 2017

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