Corporate communication has a new headache now: the emergence of narrative warfare as major challenge for the business. It is a new ball game that had origins in geoeconomics now quietly creeping into the board room as an immediate threat.
It is no longer information war where data was mainstay and facts & figures were presented by companies to the market place for understanding of the features of products and leading customers to make a right buy decision. There might be few exaggerations, but overall the info was truthful and verifiable too.
In business competition, it is alright for a company to present itself and its products in favourable light. And it is also permitted to draw the attention of the customers over similar products that are being sold by competitors that neither possess the similar features nor made in such excellent quality without ever mentioning the name of competitor or the brand.
In narrative war, the accepted custom is thrown out. Instead of presenting facts & figures as it is, a doctored analysis of the facts is shown with the intention of bringing disrepute to the firm in question.
Put differently, the concept of narrative warfare is “use of analytical skill by the sender to bring about changes in the behaviour of receiver to make decision on the basis of falsehood rather than on real truth”. Narrative warfare is undertaken by firms to challenge opponents using brain rather than stating the facts. In any event as in military warfighting, in narrative warfare truth is the first casualty.
Faced with weaponised false narrative, firm must design business manoeuvre that have the potential to deflect damages to the standing of the firm and removing any misunderstanding by the prospective customers. The goal here is to right the wrongs in the minds of customers, who after all are “Led to believe”. Few of business manoeuvre are listed below:
1. Create alternate narrative that conveys the truth and put your firm once more in favourable light
2. Destroy the offending firms’ narrative in style by highlighting the falsehood and spotlighting the manner in which the narrative was doctored in the first place
3. Redirect the attention of the customers to the past performance of your firm and its credentials
4. As much of the narrative warfare is based on superfluous ideas rather than vital points go for a blitz on the really critical issues and the benefits that accrue to customers when he buys your products.
Cheers!
Muthu
Ashraff Rajulu
Business Strategist
Mobile: + 94 777 265677
E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com
Blog: Business Strategist
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