Customers Don't Move Through Funnels

Gravitational Storytelling replaces the traditional marketing funnel with an orbital model. Instead of pushing customers through stages, it recognises that customers orbit brands , moving through four distinct orbits: Attract, Consider, Purchase, Own.

GSI measures narrative pull from three signal types: identity signals (who the customer is), narrative signals (how they respond to story), and momentum signals (movement patterns). Every 1-point GSI improvement delivers 1.2 - 1.8% media efficiency gain.

While Story Gravity explains why customers move, Narrative Intelligence governs what story expresses next. It ensures every touchpoint aligns with brand truth, emotional context, and customer readiness.

The core problem it solves is narrative drift , the inconsistency that emerges when multiple teams and channels operate without unified story governance. Six proprietary methods codify brand voice, map journey-emotion states, define entitlement rules, and quantify how far off-brand content has strayed.

Experience Coherence prevents expensive misdiagnosis. Most CX programmes fail because they solve the wrong problem. A brand might rebuild its website ($2M) when the actual issue is a trust gap fixable with policy transparency ($180K).

The assessment maps five dimensions , Form, Function, Culture, Truth, and Time , and identifies six validated failure patterns: Hollow Excellence (beautiful but inauthentic), Perfect Betrayal (efficient but alienating), Split Gravity (inconsistent across touchpoints), and three others. The diagnosis tells you where the real problem is.

Loyalty is not one thing. For some customers, it is recognition and status. For others, transactional value. For others still, shared values or community belonging. And for businesses, the economics vary wildly.

The Loyalty Readiness System does not assume a programme is the answer. It applies a dual-lens assessment , customer drivers (what makes them stay) and business capability (what you can sustain) , to produce one of four recommendations: Programme Ready, Foundation First, Alternative Intervention, or Not Now. Sometimes the right answer is to invest elsewhere.