Industry Insights Tell Me a Story By Lori Anderson If you think back to when you were a child—or when your children were young, if that’s easier—you likely will remember hearing or saying, “Tell me a story.” Maybe this was just a delaying tactic, trying to stall bedtime. But it offers one of our earliest memories, one of our most powerful ways of connecting to others. Somehow along the way, we may stop asking for a story, but we never really lose the desire to hear one. Stories offer a powerful connection that “just the facts” don’t allow. That’s why it often is more enjoyable to watch the latest blockbuster movie or the hottest TV show than it is to tune in to the nightly news. The best stories, though, aren’t fiction. They are based in truth and showcase more of who we are. They also are extremely persuasive in a way that a recitation of facts isn’t. Stories aren’t just meant for bedtime. They are becoming a more powerful business tool that you can use to make connections with current and future customers. It’s important to communicate your story and share the larger sign industry story as well. So what’s your story? Chances are good that it somehow involves helping businesses in your community grow while providing great careers for your employees. That’s what sign and visual communications companies do every day. And it’s easy to tell people what we do when we focus on what connects us. There may be more specifics to your story, too. There were the contributes. Research conducted by Ernst & Young last year on behalf of ISA found that the on-premise sign and visual communications industry contributes $37.5 billion in direct and indirect economic output. We point out that more than 200,000 Americans are employed in the sign and visual communications industry. This tells the story of just how significant our industry is to the overall economy. Now think about when you have an opportunity to tell public officials how important a particular issue is to your business. They’ll want to know more about your business, your employees and how your issues may help local citizens. They want to know how the products that you provide help other businesses grow. And if you can find business owners who will tell their own stories, all the better. The Signage Foundation Inc. continues to develop research that helps back up the stories we tell. Through the years, SFI has developed numerous resources that tell the story of the importance of signage. There are studies that put a dollar figure on just exactly how signs can contribute to a business’ success. There are case studies that detail how a business used signage to boost sales. If you find yourself in a situation where you want to make a persuasive argument and you don’t have an applicable story, consider the Signage Foundation and ISA research as a place to find one. Your story weaves into the larger narrative of the strength of our industry, the way our products contribute to building stronger communities. And it fits into the larger story of ISA. I hope you’ll join your story with ours and help us show just how much signs contribute positively to our country, our communities, to our businesses and to those we serve. We would love to hear your stories! Tell us how the sign and visual communications industry has positively impacted your community. How a career in this industry has helped you grow. How ISA and the larger sign industry has benefited your own business. Or just any sign story you think we’d like to hear. Please send them to me at MarComm@signs.org or on Twitter using #signstories. struggles that came with starting your own business or when economic conditions took the wind out of your sails. Those can give hope to another business owner. You have seen success with how your customers use your product. Telling that story— not just focusing on the facts—can help that a new customer envision how he or she might use those same products. As an industry, we have a story to tell, too. We can tell how our signs build strong businesses which, in turn, build strong communities. When we use these stories in meeting with regulators and codes officials, they often are persuasive. Hearing a local business owner detail how a sign has brought more business that has led to hiring two new employees gets attention. As the sign and visual communications industry’s association, ISA has its own story. In fact, we have thousands of them: from the 200,000 people who work in the 15,000 companies that make up our industry, and from the 20,000-plus who will attend ISA International Sign Expo 2015 later this month. Each of these people and companies represent the positive contributions that signs made to their community and their lives. There are stories that come from participating in an organization like ISA, too. It may be the story of a connection made at ISA Sign Expo, or of how members of an Affiliated Sign Association tackled a problem together. Part of our larger story is the economic benefits that our industry 52 Wide-Format Imaging | April 2015 MyPRINTResource.com
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