“What does your company do, exactly?” Can you answer that question in the time it takes for the elevator to reach the lobby? Is there a difference between what you’re known AS today and what you want to be known FOR? If you asked employees, executives and consumers these questions, would you get three different answers? Is your company’s strategy clearly understood by all of your stakeholders? Are you getting the credit you deserve for all that you do beyond the numbers?

1. MASTER NARRATIVE EXPERTISE
© MWW, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1
“What does your company do, exactly?” Can you answer that question in the time it takes for the
elevator to reach the lobby? Is there a difference between what you’re known AS today and what you
want to be known FOR? If you asked employees, executives and consumers these questions, would you
get three different answers?
Is your company’s strategy clearly understood by all of your stakeholders? Are you getting the credit
you deserve for all that you do beyond the numbers?
MWW EXPERTISE
MASTER
NARRATIVE
MWW, a full-service public relations, public
affairs and marketing firm, has more than 25
years experience helping companies to build
eminence, strengthen employee engagement and
build, manage and protect their reputations.
Our total stakeholder approach ensures that we
are reaching your key influencers with the right
messages across digital, social, and traditional
channels. As an independent agency, we have
the freedom to customize individual strategies to
each client’s needs and objectives. Because we’re
the largest of the mid-size agencies, we combine
the resources and comprehensive services of a
large shop with the entrepreneurial spirit, agility
and senior-level engagement of a boutique firm.
The answers to these questions begin with a carefully crafted master narrative. Your master
narrative is the core story that shapes all other communications. When done well, it can be a
company’s most powerful communications tool. It echoes your brand promise and reason for
existing, underscores why you’re different and why that difference matters. It helps to bring
your strategy to life and rally employees, customers, prospects, communities and shareholders
around a unified vision. It ensures that everyone who tells your story does so with a common
and purposeful vernacular, and those who hear your story have a shared understanding of your
Company’s mission, purpose and accomplishments.
Your story begins in the same place that your business did: with a big idea, a long-term vision, and a
promise to add value.
“BEHIND EVERY GREAT BUSINESS IS A GREAT STORY . . . IT’S A GRIPPING BLEND OF BUSINESS
STRATEGY, BRAND ESSENCE, EXECUTION AND MESSAGE.” – DAVID REIMER
“WHEN ORGANIZATIONS EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE THE BUSINESS STRATEGY, THEIR
MARKET-TO-BOOK RATIO IS 43 PERCENT HIGHER THAN THOSE ORGANIZATIONS THAT DO NOT.”
– DELOITTE & TOUCHE
POINT OF VIEW:
If you don’t proactively tell your story, others will write it for you. While there is no substitute for
performance, companies that communicate a consistent and clear message about their business,
or point of view about their industry, build greater trust with employees, customers and investors. A
master narrative should be a filter by which all decisions are made and communicated, so whether
you are talking to Wall Street, Main Street or employees, you are speaking a universal language that
makes it easier to achieve alignment and the benefit of the doubt –even when the going gets tough.

2. MASTER NARRATIVE EXPERTISE
© MWW, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2
For more information, please contact:
Carreen Winters
EVP/Reputation Management | 201.507.9500 | cwinters@mww.com | www.mww.com
Dawn Lauer
Vice President | 212.827.3744 | dlauer@mww.com | www.mww.com
KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Can your employees and customers easily recite
the core differentiators that reflect your values and
make you stand out? Does your leadership team
agree on what those core principles are?
While it’s tempting to try to convey every last detail
about your business and point of view, the most
compelling narratives are not the most ornate.
They are simple and focused, and help to convey
the purpose behind why your employees come to
work every day, why customers will go out of their
way to come to you versus a competitor and why
shareholders will invest their money in your future.
APPROACH
MWW employs a proven approach to developing a
company’s narrative. It begins by gathering input
from all key stakeholders about their perceptions
of the business, challenges and opportunities in
the marketplace, and aspirations for where they
see the business headed.
This information is compared against our
own research and insights into the market
and competitive landscape. We then take
that information, analyze it and put it through
our “litmus test” where we determine what
is ownable, rings true to your business and
mission, is relevant across stakeholders and
what has staying power…because whether
you’re a start-up or a blue-chip, a narrative
should be both elastic enough to evolve with
your business and meaningful enough to make
an impact on tomorrow.
We help companies distill their assets, points of
differentiation and aspirations down to three to
five memorable and compelling platforms that
support the narrative and all ladder up to an
umbrella theme. From these platforms, we help
you to craft a set of key messages that focus
on how you’re living up to that value promise,
with an eye to the future. Then, we tease out the
anecdotes that compel your various stakeholders
to action.
HOW WE USE THE
MASTER NARRATIVE
Your master narrative provides the framework
for all corporate communications. From press
documents to earnings reports, CEO speeches
to employee town hall meetings, your master
narrative is how you relate the story of who you
are, and why you matter.
DEFINE STAKEHOLDERS
WHAT IS OUR UNIQUE STORY? EVALUATE EXTERNAL ECOSYSTEM
DEFINE SUCCESS: THINK SAY DO CREDIBILITY CHECK
CURRENT PERCEPTIONS
UNDERSTAND SPHERE
OF INFLUENCE PRIORITIZE STAKEHOLDERS KEY MESSAGES
CLIENT INTERVIEWS MESSAGE WORKSHOP RESEARCH&MESSAGETESTING
EXTERNAL RESEARCH
PRIMARY AND/OR SECONDARY
THE PROCESS