Reflection: Storytelling

Challenge & Selection  I work at an orthopaedics company that primarily distributes products. As a Design Engineer, I was  hired to establish the Design & Development department to create our own products rather than  distributing others’. Due to the single-use nature of medical products, the industry is inherently  wasteful. To combat this, I had designed a product manufactured from recycled plastic which  exceeded performance requirements whilst maintaining the low price-point demanded by our  customers. Incumbent in any new venture, I wear many hats in my role and I wanted to create a  marketing strategy to convey this environmental benefit to the consumer.

With patients being prescribed orthopaedic products and our sales being generated from health  services and clinicians (B2B), user needs are often overlooked as our company opts to promote our  products’ low-cost when marketing in a highly competitive industry. Further, Senior Management had  expressed concern with user perception of recycled materials potentially lacking the stability required  from orthopaedic products despite having completed extensive mechanical testing. My challenge was  therefore two-fold; to convince a relatively risk-averse Sr. Management team to adopt an alternative  tact in marketing an environmentally sustainable product and to convey the importance of this  message to the end user and customer. As this challenge involved human perception and values, I was  inspired by Gabriel Johnson’s video in Week 2 of the course to employ storytelling.  This tool would allow  me to inspire Sr. Management by painting a picture of an alternative future focussed on a larger cause  as well as conveying to users the value in the product so that they can take pride in it.

Application  To be successful in employing this tool, it was pivotal that I built empathy with my audience and  understood their needs so that I could tailor my story to them. With regards to my Managing Director,  this involved researching comparable products and companies that have adopted sustainable  practices so that I could demonstrate the significant impact that businesses can have on the  environment. I painted a picture of how many other initiatives the business could implement and  potential for further sustainable product ranges, creating a cause that customers could buy into.  Through this empathic approach, I recognised the need to highlight the financial gain that can be  achieved through strengthened brand perception and customer loyalty to a purpose-driven  organisation. My Managing Director recognised the value in my story and allowed me to implement  my strategy and generate initial marketing materials.

With regards to the patients and customers, it was important to understand how their needs varied  geographically, conducting research to gain an insight into differing market’s environmental  awareness. I found that I had to create a story around the product which not only conveyed its  sustainability, but also educated the customer and user in the requirement for sustainability. Andre  stated in the video that you must “locate the most powerful part of your data and lean on it”. I  recognised that technical data and hard figures on the reduction in CO2 emissions would not most  effectively inspire our customers and users to join the cause. As such, I sought to contextualise the  impact that purchasing the product could have into more easily digested factoids which were  accompanied by graphics.  This allowed for the user to feel part of a movement, attempting to save  the planet.

To test the receptiveness of the strategy prior to investing in mass marketing material and promotion,  we offered the product to a number of potential customers pre-release. All of the potential customers

loved the sustainable message and found it to be incredibly topical, placing pre-orders. The company  are now planning to utilise this as their key marketing strategy for the product and assess other ways  that sustainable practices can be implemented.

Insight & Approach  From utilising the storytelling tool, I learnt the power of creating a cause for your audience. Particularly  in a global pandemic, I believe that a purpose driven organization resonates with others as they  reassess the fragility of our planet. Perhaps most interestingly however, was that increased  engagement from other employees in the company who had learnt of the initiative, finding motivation  in a shared cause rather than simply increasing the bottom line. Moving forward in my career as I hope  to progress into leadership roles, I shall certainly continue to apply the storytelling tool. Although I  had an understanding of design thinking from my educational background, I realised the extent to  which I could apply it more widely from marketing to leadership.

Next time, I would like to properly implement a leaning launch to gain a better insight from the user  and customer as to how the message can resonate with them more. For example, our pre-release was  focussed around whether the marketing of the product would influence purchase. However, it would  have been beneficial to gain user feedback on how it could be improved further and iterate to better  satisfy the consumer’s needs and create an even stronger connection to the cause.

