Storytelling Grows Up: Giving Consumers Faith In Your Brand
I’ve written about storytelling a fair amount in this blog, and I gave a MarketingProfs webinar on it earlier this year, so most of you know how important I think it is. My favorite author on the topic is Annette Simmons, who wrote in her book,The Story Factor: "People don’t want information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith - faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell."
And, then, as Robert McKee puts it in his story-developing/screenwriting bible, STORY: "But fact, no matter how minutely observed, is truth with a small "t." Big "T" Truth is located behind, inside, below the surface or things, holding reality together or tearing it apart, and cannot be directly observed."
I see it as a stick figure of facts versus a, say, Michelin man of story. The smiling Michelin man is based on the stick figure of facts, certainly, but then is wrapped with much more emotion and becomes much thicker with relevance for the average Joe/Josephina.
Why bring this up now? It turns out that branding by storytelling is getting much more popular, and so we are now seeing both great examples and bad, lazy-marketer, examples. I recently wrote an eBrandMarketing.com post about how it isn’t that simple, and that today’s consumers expect storytelling at a much more sophisticated level. And, according to a MediaPost article by Laurie Sullivan, there is now hope for the evolution of storytelling in marketing. In fact, the advertising industry takes it so seriously that they’ve done a study:
"A report released earlier this year by the Advertising Research
Foundation (ARF) suggests story-based advertising is more effective
than using words or phrases to position a company’s brand. Companies
use storytelling to shape the memories consumers record and recall. In
the simplest of explanations, storytelling anchors the brand’s name
into memory because the consumer recreates the meaning with the
advertiser from experiences they might have had, according to William
Cook, senior vice president/research and standards for the ARF, New
York."
Sullivan’s piece also includes mention/an interview with an executive from "narrative branding company," Verse , who points out that the goal isn’t for a consumer to be able to recite specific facts or words relate to a brand Rather, the goal is for consumers to connect with the brand through the back-story (or, as Robert McKee might call it "the above, beyond and around").
While storytelling may have some sort of "feminine" reputation, in actuality, all of your customers will likely better connect with your brand if it is done well. Give consumers faith, not information.
