Customers want to know they are making ‘the right decision’ with each purchase, but deciding what's ‘right’ isn't just about facts and figures. People also make decisions based on feelings, and feelings are powerful.
Sometimes you can address these feelings and instincts with statistics and case studies. More often, however, a story, fictional or otherwise, can persuade in ways which facts won’t and communicate brand value that case studies can't.
Ben Settle, in his article for Copyblogger, uses the movie Top Gun as an example of a story with power. While the movie played in theatres, sales of aviator sunglasses skyrocketed along with U.S. Air Force and Navy recruitment levels.
This wasn’t because the movie told people they should wear aviators or sign up to serve in the military. Not one case study or statistic was written into the script. Rather, the story influenced the audience. But how?
‘Fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than writing that is specifically designed to persuade through argument and evidence,’ explains Jonathan Gottschall in his article, Why storytelling is the ultimate weapon.
He goes on to say that, according to studies, when we read facts, we keep our guard up, looking for inconsistencies and missteps. However, a story disarms us and we ‘drop our intellectual guard.’ When we hear a story, we look for ways to map it to our own experience.
According to Cleverism, for marketers, storytelling is ‘the process of making a connection with the customer first, and selling a product second.’
Stories in marketing, where the customer is first and selling is secondary, take a few different forms such as:
The first two types, the non-fiction, are easier to create. It’s the fictional stories, the creative works, which require a little more attention. Take a moment to watch the Google ad below (one of my favourite brand stories) from 2013:
Not one feature is listed and no pitch is made, but that doesn’t render the message ineffective - quite the contrary. You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘show, don’t tell.’ When we use creative stories in marketing, we show, instead of telling customers why our brand is the right decision.
As Christopher Penn puts it, ‘No child will ever ask you to read them a press release at bedtime. They want you to tell them a story. So do your customers.’
It’s one thing to know that stories have power and that stories sell. You also have to know how to practically apply this to your marketing campaigns. Stories in marketing, whether fiction or non-fiction, require a few foundational elements of story to carry weight: character, conflict and theme.
In Top Gun, Ray-Ban didn’t sell aviators - Maverick did. Stories are nothing without characters. Additionally, stories are nothing if their characters are not strong and dynamic. So, how do you build character into your marketing campaigns?
It’s important to note that your brand plays the supporting role. The customer should always be the focus.
‘Every character should want something,’ according to Kurt Vonnegut. ‘Even if it is only a glass of water.’ Your customers, the main character in any marketing story you tell, want something and you should be talking about this in every campaign.
In stories, the conflict, whether it’s man v. man, man v. society or otherwise drives the plot. In the same way, the conflict, pain point, need or want your customer faces should drive your campaign. In marketing, this typically appears as:
Your job as a marketer is to identify the conflict whether it’s finding the better brand or resolving pain point x, y or z. You form stories by introducing the conflict, showing the adoption of your product or service and then the benefits gained by doing so.
The theme of the story is the underlying message. For marketers, theme matters in campaigns because it speaks to your brand’s values. You might identify your campaign themes by looking at your:
Once you know what message you want to convey, you can ensure each chapter of each story in each campaign reinforces that message.
What is marketing without stories?
Lists of products, features and prices are forgettable. Characters connect with customers, the conflicts relate to their needs and the themes remind them why your brand is one they can get behind.
Fact or fiction, stories connect with your customers’ emotions and persuade in a way that facts can’t. Gottschall writes, ‘We are creatures of story, and the process of changing one mind or the whole world must begin with “once upon a time”.'
(Hat tip to Christian Schnettelker for the photo)