STORYTELLING IN MARKETING

9 inch axiom – Storytelling

‘People respond to stories. The ability for your marketing to tell a story is vital in capturing the mind and the heart of your consumer’

American novelist Reynolds Price once said:

“A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens–second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives.”

The ability to tell a compelling story is a powerful tool in marketing.  There has been a great deal of research that indicates that narrative is a potent tool with the ability to pursuade and change minds.

[A 2007 study by marketing researcher Jennifer Edson Escalas of Vanderbilt University found that a test audience responded more positively to advertisements in narrative form as compared with straightforward ads that encouraged viewers to think about the arguments for a product]

Bottom line:  We live in a low trust world.  Your marketing needs to go beyond features + benefits and facts + figures.  You need to tell a story to engage your audience and connect on an emotional level. What’s your story?

Today’s Lagniappe - A Baseball story and a link  and book reco.

A Baseball Story – Tomorrow I’m going to a celebrity breakfast where Tommy John and Jim Bouton will be guest speakers.  Both are former Yankee pitchers and both have some interesting backstories.  Tommy John has a surgical procedure named after him and Jim Bouton is the author of the controversial ‘tell all’ book Ball Four.  The breakfast tomorrow and Opening Day for baseball this week reminded me of story of my days working for adidas at Yankee Stadium.  One of my responsibilities was to manage the Joe DiMaggio Suite and our 30+ guests for each game.  With adidas being a global company I would get visitors from all over the world for our games.  Baseball may be America’s past time, but the game can be very confusing for a foreigner.  One day I was sitting down next to an older gentleman from Scotland. As the game progressed I tried to teach him some of the basic points of the game.  I could tell he started to enjoy the cheering and constant banter from the fans.  He seemed to be catching on until he all of a sudden stood and screamed at a batter who had just drawn a walk.  In his thick brogue  he exclaimed, “Run ya bastard, run!!!”.  I quickly stood up and relayed, “He doesn’t have to run, he’s got four balls.”  At that point he nodded and looked out towards the field and yelled, “Walk with pride my son, walk with pride”.

Link – I have to credit Lisa B. Marshall of the Quick & Dirty Tips podcast, “The Public Speaker” for giving me today’s topic.  A great podcast where Lisa stressed that if you’re trying to inform, persuade, motivate, or entertain, you need to incorporate stories.  You can download her podcast by clicking here.

Book reco – Seth Godin wrote a great book on storytelling.  I’d highly recommend it.

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