Richard Krevolin - The Hook: How to Share Your Brands Unique Story to Engage Customers, Boost Sales, and Achieve Heartfelt Success

People dont just buy what you sell, they buy what you stand for. They want to believe in your brand. The best way to convey that is through storytelling. The Hook takes the mystery out of the process and lets you peek behind the curtain of wonderful storytelling. How? By telling stories, of course. It is a masterfully written road map for how to use stories to connect on a deeper level with your customers. If youre not following his advice, youre missing out.

Brent Niemuth, President & Chief Creative Officer, J.Schmid & Assoc. Inc.

Heres the short story on The Hook: Go to school with Prof K. and learn to tell your brand story in a succinct, powerful, engaging way that matters to your customers. Youll be glad you did!

Andrea Syverson, Marketing Strategist, IER PARTNERS, INC .

I wanted to begin this quote with a glib anecdote about how I took a relatively unknown brand of washing powder and within a few years, incorporating many of the marketing and storytelling techniques of Prof. Krevolin, I transformed that brand into the number one washing powder in the world with grosses in the billions! Instead, I will just say that his teachings contained in this book are an oasis from the same old reheated poppycock present in most marketing seminars and books. Instead of relying on lists of information, his book moves like a good storyin keeping with his emphasis on narrative and storytelling. Learn from him. Enjoy his lessons. Be inspired to tap into your natural brilliance and that of your colleagues!

Simon Clift, Former Chief Marketing Officer, Unilever

Real leaders dont boss, they lead by inspiring and educating through great stories that engage consumers and are retained by them. Let master storyteller Prof. K. teach you how to tell business narratives that are transformative and re-energize your leadership!

Ritch K. Eich, Author and Former Chief of Public Affairs, Stanford University Medical Center

The power of story is undeniable. In The Hook, Rich Krevolin clearly demonstrates why storytelling can move your audience and he gives you practical tools and techniques for crafting your own compelling narratives. If youre looking for ways to connect more deeply with your customers and your teams, the techniques in this book will help you do exactly that.

Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS and author of One Piece of Paper and Lead Inside the Box

In this insightful, engaging, and highly entertaining book, Professor K. illuminates what are perhaps the most important elements of human experiencestories. Stories shape our beliefs and actions, they define us in context of other people. They are the truth as each of us perceives it. So-called rational adults may want to relegate stories to childrens play or entertainment; they do so at their peril, particularly in business. Krevolin demonstrates why story works and how to craft and tell them. Most importantly, he stresses the power of authenticity in stories and storytelling and illuminates a path to success in todays media where customers dont merely hear and buy into stories (or not), they are active participants in the process. The Hook is a master class in business that shows you how to build success exponentially with a tool every child knowsthe power of a well-told story.

Christopher Byrne, Marketing Consultant, Toy Expert and Author of Funny Business

The best way to demonstrate the power of stories in business is, of course, to tell great stories. Richard Krevolin does exactly that in his latest book, The Hook. Business leaders can learn a lot from Hollywood screenwriters, and Krevolins book serves as an important bridge between those two worlds.

Victor Prince, Managing Director of DiscoveredLOGIC and Author of Lead Inside the Box

The Hook

How to Share Your Brands Unique Story to Engage Customers, Boost Sales, and Achieve Heartfelt Success

FOREWORD BY HARRY BECKWITH

author of Selling the Invisible

Richard Krevolin

Copyright 2016 by Richard Krevolin

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

T HE H OOK

E DITED BY R OGER S HEETY

T YPESET BY K RISTIN G OBLE

Cover design by Howard Grossman

Printed in the U.S.A.

To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press.

The Career Press, Inc.

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www.careerpress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CIP Data Available Upon Request.

T his book would not have been possible without the help of hundreds of people who have contributed in both large and small ways to helping me complete a finished manuscript. So now, in advance, Id like to apologize to anyone whose name I may have inadvertently forgotten and acknowledge below as many people as I possibly can remember:

A big thanks to Nancy Cohen, who urged me to write this book, and to my agent, Paula Munier, for garnering interest in this book, and to Renee, for her support through the process.

There were many great people who contributed interviews and/or forewords, so they should be mentioned: Shekar Khosla, Anila Shrivastava, Harry Beckwith, Terri Alpert, Trevor Garlick, Al Pirozzoli, Frank Myer, Joel Klettke, Kathy Copas, Michael Simon, Katja Bressette, Shalini Chandra, Abhijit Ghosh, and Suchitra Paranji.

As well, Id like to mention Bill Ohlemeyer, David Steel, Coach Bob Orgovan, Colleen Sell, Ana Magno, Martin Weigel, Mark Knauer, and everybody else who in one way or another contributed to help make this a better book.

And last but not least, I would like to send out heaps of gratitude to every client who has ever hired me to help them tell their stories better. This book is dedicated to you.

W e are entering a new phase of storytelling with the rise of social media. In this phase, what individual people with a widening radius of trust and global connectedness say about your brand can become more important than what you say about your own brand.

In this new normal, transparency is mandated, and having an experienced and inspiring partner as you commercialize your brand promise is an asset. I found in Richard Krevolin just the kind of partner I was looking for while managing Unilevers Asia Pacific Skin business and building future corporate capabilities. He gave us a master class in story crafting and brand narratives. It was a powerful and essential workshop that showed me that good marketing is, in the end, really just good storytelling.

Ever since meeting Richard in that workshop many years ago, I have utilized many of his powerful strategies for leveraging the basic tenets of storytelling to build and sustain iconic brands. I have, indeed, come away richer after having been exposed to his teaching and I know you will do the same after reading this book.

In the end, his take on marketing and business is too valuable to be limited to only being accessible in his workshops, so I am grateful and happy that he has finally agreed to get it all down in a book. Finally, all this fascinating and useful information will now be accessible to the world. So then, you may ask, what exactly is contained in this volume?