Experience Playbooks
- The AHA Group
- Feb 2
- 2 min read
We build a lot of Experience Playbooks within our consulting practice. These are big bodies of work, usually upwards of 120 pages with intricately designed rituals, experiences, elements, and hospitality standards built specifically for our client. What is the one thread that runs through every playbook?
Storytelling.
What have we learned? Most companies, regardless of industry, are terrible storytellers. They always tell us that they are great storytellers, and then when we get into Discovery, we learn that they don’t tell customer, brand, or employee stories very well.
Storytelling is a critical differentiator when creating experiences and brand features that are sticky and drive loyalty. It doesn’t matter what industry or business model you operate; relentless, detailed, and pervasive storytelling should be woven into the fabric of your business.
This is not your old-school, old-fashioned view of storytelling. We advise clients using our detailed framework, but here are a few principles that every business should think through:
1. Create your story playbook. What are the core stories that define your brand? What are the most frequent customer persona stories and narratives that are present in your business? Dig deep on the answers to these questions because if the answers are obvious to you, you didn’t dig deep enough or question hard enough. If the answers are boring or ordinary, your brand is too. And so are your customer experiences.
2. Understand the common emotional elements that present themselves in your business, and tie storytelling into those moments. Sounds easy, but in fact, most clients can’t identify detailed emotional moments or tie brand defining experiences to them. Everyone leans on the most obvious, overused ideas, and commonplace experiences here - if there are any at all. Challenge convention and don’t follow the expectations for your industry.
3. Storytelling should be present in the most mundane acts, and it should be unexpected, enticing the customer (if you are DTC) or the business (if you are B2B) to be transported continuously into the world of your brand.
4. Placing your logo all over everything is NOT storytelling. If you must lean on your corporate colors, your corporate logo, and your corporate mission, vision, values as your storytelling playbook, you are instantly forgettable to your customers.
Designing experiences should be immersive, comprehensive, and woven into the fabric of your business practices. Our Experience Playbooks – like a pro football playbook – are expansive, detailed and provide a step-by-step guide to execution. While storytelling is a common theme, it is just the start!