We tell each other stories every day at family dinners, at friend parties, during office lunches, and sharing photos on social networks. This information is more important than the facts.
Our brain uses the language portion of our brain to translate words into meanings and the emotional brain parts when we read stories. Combining what we hear with our personal experiences, we can imagine color, taste, movement, and smell.
What is storytelling? Where does it come from?
Storytelling refers to the art of telling stories for listeners to feel engaged.
The emotional bond to the brand is what determines trust and affection. This attachment can be started with a story. Storytelling goes beyond that. A story solves a problem, resolves a conflict or does irreparable good.
How storytelling works?
When we hear boring facts, our brain engages only the left hemisphere. Stories involve the right hemisphere, which produces images, pictures and emotions. This chemical reaction produces oxytocin which is essential for any deal to succeed. The client won’t have to be convinced if you can create an emotional connection through the story.
Commercial storytelling serves many functions:
- Propaganda
- Unification
- Communication
- Influence
Propaganda
Stories can inspire, persuade and convince. Stories have the potential to be lasting and motivate others to do good things. Nike promoted, among other things, women’s freedom to choose their sport in early 2017.
Unification
Stories can help shape a project, brand, or company’s culture and create a common identity. Lego created a cute commercial that used a sketch of a family’s life as a metaphor to show how customers can be brought together by a company that creates cubes. Parents then stop walking barefoot inside the house.
Communication
Stories build trust, and that is key to understanding. Communication that leads to the goal will be more effective if there is greater understanding.
Influence
Stories are a way to inspire and build trust. As everyone knows, Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur, inventor and industrial designer. He was a wise man who believed in everything, and that is what he did when he delivered his Stanford speech.
Commercial stories: Features
You need to:
- Describe the purpose of your story
- Be client-oriented
- use the “situation-problem-solution” scheme;
- Show the audience the brand’s value
- Tell a story to engage clients or make them a part of it.
How can you tell stories people will believe?
You don’t need to be a skilled storyteller, creative researcher, director, or editor to tell a story. You don’t have to be a master storyteller or researcher to create a story.
Stories to Tell:
- About the creation of the product
- About working with clients
- About successes and failures
- Directly about the product
- Information about the company
- Anything that is directly or indirectly connected to your business.
There are many ways to tell a story
Marketers aren’t limited to telling stories through text and video. You can use comics, cards or podcasts to present your content. It is important to follow the algorithm.
Storytelling algorithm
Analyze of the target audience to tell stories
This is true, but marketers and associated professionals often overlook this step even though marketing activities like launching an advertisement campaign or implementing new products begin with research on the target audience.
You should first assess your listener’s or readers’ listening skills before telling a story. Then, you can bet on those who are more loyal or more receptive.
Storytelling is the main idea
A commercial story is a marketing tool that catches users’ attention and creates trust.
Marketers should remember that every fact has a story. It starts when a fact is discovered, and it has an obvious impact on the course of events. When a fact is somehow relevant to an audience, it becomes important.
Choose a hero to tell your story
A company’s stories about its product or job depend on the context of the client – their lifestyle, habits and interests, rather than the company itself. The client’s image, or that of a relative (mother, spouse, child) could be the main character. It could be a pet, household object, or any other familiar object.
The character is often drawn from a living person. The audience then thinks “Oh, this would be what my mother would do and this would be what my friend would say.” To fully understand the character, you need to be able to see how he would behave in certain situations.
Selecting the plot
Commercial storytelling is not about the story, but the benefit it will bring. Marketing is all about demonstrating how the brand can solve the customer’s problem.
Storytellers often base their stories around the product’s utility to customers. The story’s foundation is typically as follows: A hero meets a problem and solves the problem using the product of the company.