Shouldn’t We Just Call Ourselves Storysellers?

Stories sell products. If there's no story, there's no value.

A profile of Stephanie Linnartz in Fortune recently answered a question I had: Why would the president of Marriott, the world’s largest hotel company, go to Under Armour, a confusing brand that’s struggling to find its identity. It turns out Maria Aspan had the same thought.

While Linnartz says that she was seeking a new challenge after guiding Marriott through mergers and Covid, she’s also a great example for what we’re all really doing when we say we’re content marketers: we’re storysellers, not storytellers.

Stories sell products. If there’s no story, there’s no value. It’s irrelevant if companies think they have a story. A story is only relevant if it resonates with consumers.

Barbie. Need I say more?

Yet when you think of Under Armour you think of …?

And that’s a huge problem, one which hurt the company after losing its cred with unexciting products after signing mega deals with athletes like NBA superstar Steph Curry, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and former pro-wreslter-turned-multi-hyphenate Dwayne Johnson.

Stories sell products. If there’s no story, there’s no value.

Under Armour needs a great storyseller. It’s needed one for a while. Linnartz understands what that means. It's what gets me up in the morning.

“Marriott has an incredible breadth of operations, and it’s attempted to redefine itself as an organization that doesn’t just give you a room and a bath and a roof over your head, but tries to create a sense of style, and a sense of belonging,” says Sean Hennessey, a hotel industry consultant and associate professor at NYU’s Tisch Center of Hospitality. “Under Armour is very much in that vein of trying to appeal to people that don’t just need a T-shirt or shorts, but who dress in that clothing because it says something about the type of people that they are.”

When story drives creative, it no longer feels like an advertisement. The brand becomes aspirational. It’s informative, entertaining, and inspiring. As Marriott’s content studio liked to say, You’re no longer interrupting. You become what consumers are interested in and seeking out.

That was a sentiment that Linnartz embraced at Marriott. When Linnartz wanted more millennials to visit Marriott.com to book their hotel stays, she empowered me to build and lead a team that turned Marriott Traveler into a trusted — and revenue-generating — source for travel content among a younger but also broad mix of visitors that’s now a valued marketing channel for Marriott Bonvoy and Marriott’s more than 30 brands.

Marriott Traveler assisted Marriott in owning the story that it’s the leader in hospitality, and provided the kind of relevant content that is remembered and shared, and ultimately drives increased traffic to brand and booking channels. Help create memories, not content. In Marriott’s case, help people travel better.

I remember meeting with Under Armour’s marketing team while at Marriott and realizing that while they had big stars working with them, they didn’t understand that those athletes were just telling their own story. They were selling their own brand.

Under Armour came across as awkward, inexperienced. Its focus on performance, rather than fashion, passing up the surge in athleisure sales, made it feel out of touch. “Today, Under Armour might be best described as something that teenage boys’ moms buy for them, on sale, at Kohl’s,” Aspan writes. Ouch.

“What’s gone wrong with Under Armour is what’s always been wrong: Under Armour doesn’t really know what it is.”

Deadspin recently called Under Armour the “worst sports apparel company of the past 20 years,” with one analyst saying, “What’s gone wrong with Under Armour is what’s always been wrong: Under Armour doesn’t really know what it is.”

It will be interesting to see if? Under Armour can ever accumulate sneakerhed cred through collaborations that have boosted other storied luxury brands. Or whether Under Armour can boost its appeal among women, who turned Lululemon into a juggernaut in the athleisure space.

As Stephanie Linnartz tries to generate some brand heat around Under Armour, keep an eye on what story her team of marketers try to sell.

What kind of Yeti-style documentaries will we see? What kind of wellness-focused advertorials will be published on content hubs? More TikTok videos? Absolutely. Podcasts? Its “The Only Way is Through” series was good but short lived with episodes released in 2020 as the company tried to rebrand itself as a human performance company and get customers to seek out Under Armour as they embark on new strength journeys.

Three years later, Under Armour is …

Remember, if there’s no story, there’s no value.