Since time unknown, storytelling is an art that has been preceded by numerous generations before us. Mostly, they have been used for entertainment purposes, and at other times they have been used to make a convincing point. The evolution of storytelling has ranged from simple narration, to print media, digital audio and eventually video.
In modern times, with the boom of the advertisement and marketing industry, this art has turned into an effective mean of sustaining the business.
Marketers have pounced upon this technique of storytelling and turned it into a science, which combines narration with consumer psychology and behavior to instill a point in the form of a product or a service into the masses.
To make them more effective, they should be entertaining to captivate the attention of the viewer as well as effective enough to convince them to choose that particular service amongst other options. Brownie points can be earned by making sure that your marketing strategy connects with the consumer on an emotional level!
What constitutes a story?
A story, in its simplest form, is an entity which has a beginning middle and end. Bring a consumer into the picture and you will have to deliver him a story to which he can relate closely.
He should have a similar origin of the problem, consequences to the problem and the end in the form of a solution by placing your product or services will be provided by the marketing agency itself. This will make the customer think about relying on that particular company.
1.Historical origin
To grab a consumer’s respect rather than only attention, it is absolutely imperative to start from the origin of the brand. Storytelling mastery should be top-notch enough to narrate where forth this idea sprung from and how it evolved into what it is today.
2.Testimonials from the employees and consumers
To make a sure decision, consumers will always want to make a judgment about a product by gaining knowledge about that product from the second-hand experiences of other consumers and employees.
To make it easy for the consumer, it becomes a good idea to involve these testimonials in your advertisements, in the form of a personal experience so that consumers don’t have to look any forth and gain information from other unreliable means.
For instance, Tesla does this really well by in their series of customer stories, which is a mix of video testimonials and stories written by customers themselves. These stories depict how Tesla customers interact with their cars and show how being a Tesla owner has improved the customer’s life in a meaningful way.
3.The art of visuals
Studies have shown that humans are visual creatures. In order to use this trait for their benefit, marketers are required to seek the help of creative visual aids. Advertising agencies know exactly how to get this done, as they are experts in the field of film making, psychology, and storytelling.
A simple narration by Joseph Campbell achieved this feat, by shaping a depicted hero’s simple story into something highly appealing to the naked eye.
4.Delivering an emotional connection
Have we wondered what exactly it is that humans crave the most; the answer simply is the existence of another human being.
Knowing that your likes are present close by, nurturing healthy and unhealthy relationships with them, which becomes quite addictive. This necessity has led to the emergence of Social Media apps which work for the sole purpose of allowing people to stay connected.
Website design companies have also taken advantage of this fact by making sure that they get hired by entrepreneurs with ideas to build and develop these apps.
An interesting example of such emotional content is reflected in P& G’s commercial ‘My Black is Beautiful’, which demonstrated a realistic picture of the bias and racism, that the pigmented ethnicity face on a daily basis.
