Do you want to know what elephants have to do with your content strategy? In this post we tell you with a story (or if you prefer to skip the story and get to the heart of the matter, click here).
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English poet, author of The Jungle Book, a book of stories about atropomorphized animals. The short story “The Elephant’s Child”, part of his collection Just So Stories, tells the mythical story of how elephants got their trunks. I provide a summary below:
They say that before, elephants did not have trunks like they do now, but rather small noses; Among the herd of elephants in the African jungle was a very curious little elephant that constantly asked the other animals why they had such a long neck (giraffes), why their eyes were red (hippos) or why its tail feathers grew that way (to the ostrich). And all the little elephant got in response was blows from his animal uncles and his elephant brothers.
One day the little elephant had the courage to ask, what does the crocodile eat for dinner? and he only received more blows in return; but this time the kolokolo bird told him: if you want to know what the crocodile is having for dinner, go find him in the Limpopo River. And so the little elephant did. Upon arrival, he found the python and as, despite his curiosity, the little elephant had never seen a crocodile, he asked if he had seen the crocodile, because he wanted to know what he was having for dinner.
The python hit the little elephant before it continued on its way in search of the crocodile until it found it and, facing it, naively asked, what do you have for dinner? The crocodile asked the little elephant to come closer and caught it by the nose with its big jaw while he said: “Today I will have a little elephant for dinner.” They began to pull towards opposite ends, the crocodile to eat it, the elephant to get away. With the help of the python that suddenly appeared, the elephant managed to get free, but by then his nose had elongated to form the trunk that we know today in elephants.
Upon returning to his family, he had discovered great benefits of having this trunk, he could feed more easily, smear himself with mud when it was hot, and above all, he could defend himself when other animals wanted to hit him. So little by little all the elephants in the herd went to look for the crocodile to extend its trunk like the little elephant, and from then on they stopped hitting each other.
The story ends with the following poem:
I keep six honest serving-men:
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
I let them rest from nine till five.
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men:
But different folk have different views:
I know a person small
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends ’em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!
Nick Westergaard, speaker and brand storytelling strategist, draws parallels to this story to tell us that content strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply, like the elephant in Kipling’s story, one must ask oneself:
- Why: We must start with the reason why we are doing something. Content marketing can achieve any of these business goals: branding, community building, market research, customer service, public relations, lead generation, and sales. You have to take one of these objectives and answer Kipling’s other questions.
- Who: The content must solve our audience’s problems, so it is necessary to make a good segmentation and understand our potential customers.
- What: Lastly, based on the business objective (why) and who your audience is, you have to determine which form of content is most appropriate.
Why, who, and what are the basis of a solid content strategy, to which must then be added:
- When: On what date or with what periodicity it is convenient to publish.
- Where: Through what channels, what are the media or social networks that our audience visits.
- How: The most appropriate way to do it must be determined.
In summary…
Sometimes corporate communication or communication for one of our projects can be overwhelming; however, it doesn’t have to be that complicated: asking the right questions is the foundation of good strategy.
Now that you know this methodology, share the story so that others know about it. And if it is still difficult for you to carry out your content strategy, remember that you can contact us and we will gladly help you define it.
