StoryFirst 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?