Powerful Marketing Through Authentic Storytelling with Maria Alonso

Discover the secrets behind some of the most successful marketing campaigns with Maria Alonso, the brilliant mind behind Fortune 206 as she talks with host Peter Woolfolk. With over 15 years of experience and a portfolio boasting iconic campaigns like Dove's Real Woman, Maria reveals how authentic storytelling can revolutionize marketing strategies. This episode promises to redefine your understanding of brand loyalty as we explore the essence of cultural diversity and sustainability in storytelling. Maria's expertise with industry giants like Coca-Cola and Starbucks offers a firsthand account of aligning brand values with consumer expectations through powerful narratives.

We'll uncover the art of crafting a compelling brand story that strikes an emotional chord with audiences while maintaining clarity and focus. Throughout our conversation, Maria shares invaluable strategies for identifying a brand's core message and effectively communicating it across multiple platforms. Our discussion highlights the growing influence of data-driven decision-making and the role of technology in tailoring marketing efforts to meet modern demands. As we look to the future, learn how brands can harness user-generated content and AI to create resonant stories that connect with today's conscious consumers. Join us for an inspiring dialogue brimming with insights to elevate your marketing game.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Chapters

• 1:05 Power of Storytelling in Marketing
• 14:51 Crafting a Compelling Brand Story
• 23:47 Embracing Data and Sustainability in Marketing

Transcript

Announcer: 1:06

Welcome. This is the Public Relations Review Podcast, a program to discuss the many facets of public relations with seasoned professionals, educators, authors and others. Now here is your host, Peter Woolfolk.

Peter Woolfolk: 1:26

Welcome to the Public Relations Review Podcast and to all of our listeners all across America and around the world. Now, this podcast is ranked by Apple for being among the top 1% of podcasts worldwide, so let me say thank you to all of our listeners and guests for making this possible. Now, if you enjoy our podcast, please, we'd certainly like to get a review from you. Now a question to the audience Are you familiar with the power and persuasion of storytelling? Well, my guest today will provide you a fulfilling and satisfying overview of the benefits of storytelling. The founder of Fortune 206, she is a marketing expert with over 15 years leading successful global advertising campaigns. She is also a member of the acclaimed Ford Magazine Communications Council. So, maria Alonso, welcome to the podcast and thank you for joining us from Seattle Washington.

Maria Alonso: 2:20

Thank you so much for having me. It's great to talk about storytelling and maybe even showcase some of the campaigns that storytelling really had an impact during my career. So thank you so much for having me.

Peter Woolfolk: 2:33

Well, why don't we begin a bit more about your background and how you got into this storytelling piece?

Maria Alonso: 2:40

Yeah for sure. So I started my career working with a huge advertising agency, golby, and I think I was lucky enough to work on the Dubb Real Woman campaign, which I mean, if we talk about storytelling, that is just the best example about storytelling, right? So I started my career being like an account executive center account executive but really got to be involved with just storytelling from like different women and showing the media. At that time, everything you would see in the media would be models and people that were just have the perfect body and what Duff did was actually showcasing real women and being part of this campaign and telling that story and also showcasing real women and I mean from the casting to working with them in photo shoots. Everything was pretty surreal and I mean I'm lucky enough that the campaign got a bunch of awards at the time. It was pretty innovative. All the people that I worked with were really, really excited to make a difference because it was actually portraying a real woman in all these commercials using the product and showcasing bodies in all shapes and forms. So I mean I think I was just really lucky to be a part of that from the get-go and then, shortly after that, I got the opportunity to work with other huge brands. I got the opportunity to work with Coca-Cola and I think I was lucky enough because the brand I worked with was Ciel, which is a water bottle, and I was lucky enough because the brand I work with was Ciel, which is a water bottle, and I was the account person.

Maria Alonso: 4:32

I was the brand manager for All Latin America and the brand was actually going through a little bit of a shift because we wanted to be more sustainable. So we wanted to be a little more conscious in terms of the environment and truly bring something to the environment as opposed to keep accumulating waste to the environment. So the bottles were actually starting to be making from recyclable plastic. So it was just really great to see that shift on the brand. And then that shift on again, storytelling, right, like, how do you tell the story to your audience? How do you make sure that your audience relates to the cause? How do you find, like people that align with the cause so they can talk about your brand, your brand? How do you start doing, um, like different, different initiatives that talk about taking care of the environment, and not just doing like publicity that says, hey, we're made of a recyclable plastic, but actually walking the walk, actually doing like campaigns and working with like different organizations and trying to better the world. So I think that was just again like another great campaign that I was part of. That I got to just kind of spearhead it from beginning to end and I got to be a part of like the very beginning, of like okay, how are we going to pivot this? Who are we going to partner up with? What's the story that we're going to tell our customers and how are they going to relate to the story and the cost that our brand has? So, again, just pretty rewarding, to be honest.

Maria Alonso: 6:17

Then, after that, I got the opportunity to work with Starbucks and just kind of like similar. I worked with a Latin America piece of business and again just similar making sure that the products tell the story for Latin America, that it's not just one size fits all, because I think what many brands do is they actually take the product from the United States and they just put it in a different market and they hope it fits, but many times that's not the case, right, like many times you need to localize it, you need to do research on your customer, you need to do research on what story is really going to align to your customer. So your product is successful, so you feel like you're connecting with your customer, so you feel like you're actually making a difference and you're just another product in their shop, but you're actually like connecting with your customer and that's when you're going to create much of the loyalty with your consumer. And ideally, I mean as marketers, we want to create that loyalty, we want to create that relationship with our consumers so they become loyalty consumers as opposed to just like a one-off right. So I mean again, just like pretty challenging trying to figure out what are the products that fit Latin America and trying to really individualize different countries in Latin America, because I think also what happens in Latin is many times it's just like all Latin right and, if you like, actually looked at Latin America with a fine comb. They're very different cultures, like if you see Colombia and you see Mexico and you see Brazil. They're all completely different. They all relate to different things. They all have a similar story but a different story. So you want to make sure that when you bring your products to these places you tell a story that's actually gonna be relatable to them. So, again, just like really rewarding.

Maria Alonso: 8:19

And then from there I got the opportunity work, work with global campaign whichosen, which is a sponsorship campaign for an NGO, and again, all about storytelling Our Chosen campaign. Actually the thing that we were seeing is we actually were not getting that many people sponsoring that many millennials sponsoring children with the NGO. So we just kind of stop and think and we're like, okay, what is it that we can do to get millennials to actually be engaged, like, what story can we tell? And from the data that we found out is we found out that millennials actually wanted to. They wanted the people that were sponsored to choose them as opposed to them choosing the sponsors. So usually the way it works for additional sponsorship is you get to see a few kids from a few different places and you decide which kid are you going to sponsor. So Chosen was actually switched on that it actually gave the person that was going to be sponsored the power to choose the person that was going to be sponsored, the power to choose the person that was going to be sponsoring them. So I mean really, really groundbreaking, really fulfilling.

Maria Alonso: 9:34

And we decided to name this Chosen because you are being chosen, and also World Vision, the NGO that I was part of. It's also a faith-based organization. So again, it's the whole idea that we're chosen by God. So I mean just by doing that, like in the first, like three months that we launched the campaign, we increased our market share by 25%, we increased our revenue by 30%. And again it's just like that story that you're telling. Right, it was a story of the kid actually has the power to choose you, of the kid actually has the power to choose you. And also another thing that we saw in that campaign was that the people that were sponsoring the child would stay longer sponsoring the children. So again, it's because they felt that connection, because they felt that being relatable to the kid that was choosing them. And again, it's just all about the story that you tell. There's many stories and that's why I love marketing and advertising. There's 20 ways to slice a cake, but it's the story that you're going to choose that's going to resonate best with your audience.

Peter Woolfolk: 10:42

Well, let me jump in here a second, because I mean, you said a lot to us now and, pardon me, I was just looking at an article you wrote about crafting an effective brand story and you've got some, uh, bullet points here. So if I let's talk about the bullet points and, for instance and you've covered them, but let's talk about things such as authenticity, how important is that in terms of crafting your story?

Maria Alonso: 11:03

for sure. So I do talk about like a few bullet points, and the first one is authenticity, um. Second one is knowing your audience, uh. The third one is a clear message. Fourth, emotional appeal find a spiritual and verbal element. I mean with the very first one, which is authenticity, I mean again, I think it's just like crucial when it comes to storytelling, that you're authentic, that you're giving message to your consumer that they can relate to, that seems honest, that doesn't damage your brand's reputation and it aligns to your brand's values and missions right.

Maria Alonso: 11:42

So you want to make sure that when you come with any kind of messaging, it's not something that you're posting as a brand to get more followers, or it's not something that you're posting as a brand to get more consumers, but it's something that is authentic to your brand. That seems like natural, because consumers nowadays and I mean, I think honestly, they've always been, they've done their research.

Maria Alonso: 12:05

They're really smart. They want to make sure that what they bring into their household is something that relates to their values. So, as a brand, you want to make sure that you stand for those values, that you align with that vision and that you tell the story to your consumers, that they're gonna align to that vision and you're gonna end up having again like loyalists. You're gonna have these consumers that are gonna keep consuming your product and not just buy a one-off, so people that relate to the same things that you relate to as a brand.

Peter Woolfolk: 12:39

Well, as you said I think it's important and you might touch on that again is that that means you actually have to know your audience and understand who they are and what their values are.

Maria Alonso: 12:49

Absolutely, and that is just like number one. Like I always start all my campaigns with doing research in terms of, okay, who is our target audience, who is it that we are trying to increase our target audience towards, and what do they like and dislike and how can my brand fit their likes and dislikes and how can I tell a story that's going to be able to get their attention, that's going to be able to get them as a consumer? Like that is just the first thing that I start. I think doing a campaign without knowing your target audience and knowing what your target audience wants and likes and dislikes, I mean it's just kind of just closing your eyes and throwing a dart and hope it sticks.

Announcer: 13:36

I mean, it's just kind of just closing your eyes and throwing a dart and hope it sticks.

Maria Alonso: 13:39

It's just not going to be effective. It's probably going to be a waste of your money. You're probably going to be really frustrated. So that initial research is so important, like do the work beforehand and test honestly. Test honestly like I am a huge fan of just kind of like AV testing or doing pilots and see how how they, how effective that they, that they work, because that also it's really. It's really going to help your brand in the long run if you start doing like three month pilots and you find out, okay, what's the data on that, and then go back and take the information from the data and pivot. I think nowadays we're so lucky that most of the advertising that we do is digital right, so you can pivot fairly quickly and, like you can do a campaign on Monday and you can get three weeks later. You can get a bunch of data and see if it's resonating with your audience or not. So I think we need to be smarter about the messaging that we're putting out there.

Maria Alonso: 14:47

Yeah, the other thing I think, and the message of the tools that we have, the fact that we can pivot early.

Peter Woolfolk: 14:52

Well, you know, the other thing that you mentioned, of course, was having a clear message, and I think that's very compelling.

Maria Alonso: 15:00

Yeah, for sure.

Maria Alonso: 15:01

I mean doing a clear message just.

Maria Alonso: 15:03

I mean, again, telling a compelling story that has just a clear and concise message and just make sure you avoid overcomplicating the narrative, like there is no reason to just kind of overcome, over complicate the narrative or the message. You just want to make sure that you focus on the core message that you want to convey and do everything you can to make sure you get that crevice, that message, across. I think many times what happens in marketing is a lot of products start throwing different messages and you get a very confused consumer because you don't know exactly what the brand is standing for. So that's why it's really important to make sure that you have a few clear messages and that's why you keep saying over and over because that's really what's going to resonate with the audience that being repetitive, making sure that you're saying the messages in different outlets, making sure that they're hearing the same story from different voices and from different outlets like that is really what's going to make the consumer come to you and what's going to make you being able to connect with your consumer right.

Peter Woolfolk: 16:16

Well, you also mentioned emotional appeal. Talk a bit about what is emotional appeal as you deliver your message.

Maria Alonso: 16:23

Yeah for sure.

Maria Alonso: 16:24

So when I talk about emotional appeal, I talk about incorporating elements of just kind of a bulk emotion, so elements that, whether it's like joy or sadness, inspiration, nostalgia, anything that's like an emotional connection, it's going to be just really significant to enhance the end of your story, the end of your story.

Maria Alonso: 16:51

So, for example, if I go back to the campaign that I did for the NGO that I was a part of, like if I go back to Chosen, again, that emotional appeal of you're helping someone, you're connecting with someone, you're sponsoring that person and you have that one-on-one relationship like that speaks really loud. That speaks louder than words, because you're having your consumer connect in an emotional way to your product in this case, the sponsorship product. Also, many times the aspect for example, when I worked with a brand for Coca-Cola that we were actually being a lot more conscious in terms of the environment and we were making our bottles from recycled plastic. Again, if you are connecting that with your audience in terms of, hey, we care about the environment and you have an audience and a consumer that cares about the environment, you have that emotional connection and that's going to go a long way and that's what's going to make your consumer become a loyalist, as opposed to just a one-time purchaser.

Peter Woolfolk: 18:05

Well, you know, you got into some other areas that I think are important, and that is implementing the strategy for your storytelling, and I think that's very important that our listeners might need to know a bit about. You know, such as you mentioned here, identifying your brand's core story.

Maria Alonso: 18:19

Exactly exactly. I think. Like identifying your brand's core story. Like identify what your brand stands for, right, determine what makes your brand unique. Like the first thing that I ask when I'm working with a brand is what's your unique selling point? Like why would people want to buy you versus another product? And that issue that's just really important. Like knowing how are you different from the competitor, what makes you unique, what is the brand's core story that you're going to tell?

Maria Alonso: 18:48

And many times it could be personal experience, like it could be that someone starts a product out of like, out of something that happened to them, and they have that emotional connection with a product and that story could be your unique selling point. Like many times it starts about necessity, right. So, for example, there's a lot of like free and clear like products. So maybe there was someone that was like getting rashes and had eczema and they created this detergent. That's free and clear and they have that connection with that product and they have a connection with the product they created. Then again, that's a unique selling point and that is the story that they're going to go out and tell right.

Maria Alonso: 19:32

And I think those are just really powerful stories because you're really passionate about something that perhaps wasn't there before, that you created, and you want to make sure that everyone that had that problem, like maybe again going back to the free and clear, like maybe you want to connect with all the people that have eczema and they use all these other detergents, that have a bunch of perfumes and have a bunch of things, and when they throw their things in the washer they come out and they get rashes and itches. And again, connecting, identifying what your unique selling point and connecting with your consumer that's just what's going to get you the most for your box. That's what's going to get you people that identify with your brand.

Peter Woolfolk: 20:19

Mm-hmm. So let's say, now that you've developed what your delivery message and so forth are. You mentioned also about leveraging multiple channels as a way to deliver this story and advertising package you put together. Let's talk about the multiple channels that could be available to you.

Maria Alonso: 20:38

For sure, and I think I touched a little bit on this, but again, it's just like giving that message to your core audience through different channels.

Maria Alonso: 20:49

So different channels could be like social media, it could be a blog, it could be a video, it could be a podcast, it could be like the apps that you see online newspapers, at homes, tv, Like. All those are different channels and if you keep saying the same message in all these different channels, then you're going to resonate with the audience. Like there might be someone that's been driving on a highway and they see an out of home and that out of home has a message that connects with them. So when they get into their computer and they're like checking their email, and then another, like a banner, comes out with the same message for the same product, like I think eventually they're self-resonating that message or those messages with that product and if it's something that they connect with, they might do a double click. I mean, at the end of the day, you want them to want to know more about your brand, right? I mean the first thing about a brand is you want to?

Maria Alonso: 21:46

create awareness. You want to know more about your brand, right? I mean, the first thing about a brand is you want to create awareness, you want to make sure that people know that you're there, but then after that, you want to make sure that they're learning about you and eventually you want to make sure that they are purchasing you, right? Like that's just the funnel that it goes to for advertising, that we use in marketing, but again, it's just showing these messages, making sure that you're putting them in a lot of different outlets so you can hit your consumer throughout different points of their journey.

Peter Woolfolk: 22:20

Well, I certainly agree with that, and one of the things that you do is also perhaps mention. So why not create a calendar so that you can deliver these messages at different parts or different times of the year, maybe through different activities going on throughout the year as well?

Maria Alonso: 22:35

Exactly exactly. When I create a calendar for the products that I work with, I make sure that my content calendar has again. What messages am I going to give? What stories am I going to tell? Have again. What messages am I going to give? What stories am I going to tell? And make sure that I tell these stories in my social media, in my emails, in my TV, in my at-homes, in my newsletters? Making sure that I'm telling the same story in different places so I can hit the same consumer throughout their journey. But then I can also hit different consumers. It might be just one that just likes to read on paper, right, so this person might actually read my article in the newspaper. Or there might be someone that is at home when they drive at home. So it's just making sure that you're being repetitive and just kind of doing that completely like go-to-market campaign.

Peter Woolfolk: 23:30

And now that obviously we've created the story and we've gotten that out there, then of course we have to measure and find out exactly what results. How well did it do? So what are some of the steps that you suggest in terms of measuring the output that you produced?

Maria Alonso: 23:47

Measuring and being able to pivot and adapt. It's so important and that's why I love technology and I love where we're going, because you can do a campaign and then you can see how it performs after three weeks and you can see whether your visual is resonating with the audience. You can see if your copy is resonating with the audience and if not, you can tweak it and try something else. And that's what's so important about looking at the data and making decisions with the data.

Maria Alonso: 24:22

I think right now we're just so lucky that we have a ton of data we can really make really educated decisions. I mean, honestly, like 15 years ago we just didn't have that. We didn't have like digital advertising wasn't as big as it is, like we couldn't pivot and adapt within like three weeks, like we didn't necessarily have that. And I think right now we're in the stage that we can really make educated data decisions and we can measure them, we can adapt, we can pivot and there is really no reason, if you do all the research on your audience and on your customer, that you're going to be able to hit them where it counts right, that you're going to be able to tell the story that's going to move them.

Peter Woolfolk: 25:12

You know, as we come to a close here, one of the things I think is important because you mentioned millennials and millennials are big in terms of sustainability and social responsibility Talk about how you let them know that sustainability and social responsibility is part of your marketing product.

Maria Alonso: 25:30

if you use yeah, I think sustainability, to be honest, is right now more than ever. It's really important because, like you said it, it's like all these like Millennials and Gen Z, like they want to make sure that the brand that they're consuming cares about the environment as much as they care about the environment, that it's not just a brand that is going to be like creating waste, but it's actually going to do something about it. So what I've been seeing a lot from like different products is they all have this kind of like arm of sustainability. And there's a lot more products like, for example, like Roppies it's a shoe that's made out of recyclable material and like that. There's just a lot more in the market. And again, it's telling that story to your consumer, telling them what you're doing and make sure that they connect with that story, and I I mean it could be.

Maria Alonso: 26:29

You could do it as a brand and stand for sustainability regardless, which I think you should or you can find out what moves your target audience and try to create arms of sustainability that moves your target audience specifically, right, like I think that's where all this data that you have can be useful, but, again, making sure that you're doing something with sustainability. That, I think, has become the core of most brands right now, because us millennials and Gen Zs, we want to make sure that if we're buying a product, that product is going to do something for the environment, like there's going to be something good that's going to come out of it. I think back in the day it wasn't that way, but now it's really important to make sure that you're doing good and that the brands that you're purchasing are doing good for the world as well.

Peter Woolfolk: 27:25

Well, Maria, let me say that you provided us with a lot exceptionally, a lot of valuable material. Is there anything you think that we need to know that maybe you haven't mentioned yet?

Maria Alonso: 27:37

Well, I think I did cover a ton. I mean again like sustainability, social responsibility, Again, like the consumer, just really values. That I'm really excited to see where storytelling is going with all these like tools that we have, like user-generated content, AI, like all these like different tools that we can use to tell a better story and learn faster from the data that we get. So I'm just really excited to see what the future holds, especially on storytelling, because that's really the core of any brand.

Peter Woolfolk: 28:17

Well, my guest today has been Maria Alonzo, founder of Fortune 206 and an expert storyteller. I certainly hope that you've benefited from her wealth of information that we've delivered today and, of course, I certainly want to thank Maria for being a guest on the Public Relations Review Podcast and hope that you've enjoyed her and, if you have, we certainly like to get a review from you. So let me say thank you and join us again for the next edition of the Public Relations Review Podcast.

Announcer: 28:48

This podcast is produced by Communication Strategies, an award-winning public relations and public affairs firm headquartered in Nashville, tennessee. Thank you for joining us. Music, music, music, music, music.