Seen a great movie or play? Read an influential book? Got hooked on insightful story podcast that caught you one morning? Wonderful stories inspire us to be successful in life and business. Stories are also a powerful way to persuade audiences to believe in a proposition and act. Marketers should tell powerful stories to be more effective communicators.
Stories Help Marketers Communicate
Joseph Campbell’s 1949 book entitled “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” poses that a singular mythological hero story exists across every culture throughout history. One great human story that lives within us regardless of where or when we lived. The story architecture of this hero appears in all great movies, books, and personal stories. Read Campbell if you have not already.
I incorporated a simple hero story to see the result in a presentation. Midway through a keynote address at a seminar of marketing professionals, I diverged off the key slides to talk about a particular product pricing increase decision I was analyzing. This pricing move would affect whether our customers would continue to carry the entire product line. The increase was overdue. I shared our dilemma, the research, what our competitors would do, the conversations with our customers and the anxiety of the team. You could hear a pin drop in the room as I told this story. The audience waited to know how it all ended. Price increase decisions are NOT interesting subjects. But relatable stories made this one interesting.
Stories Build Brands
By now you may be aware of the brand Bombas. They make socks. But they do it with a difference. For every pair they sell, they give a pair away to the homeless. They care about helping people. The founders, David Heath and Randy Goldberg, started the company in 2010 when they heard that socks are the number one clothing item requested at homeless shelters. Early in the company’s life, they went on the popular TV show “Shark Tank” and received funding from Daymond John. Bombas has become popular selling their high quality and colorful designs to consumers that can afford to shop more expensive brands and wants to help and feel good about themselves. To date, they have also given away over 40 million items. They do all sales on their own website and at only three premium retailers.
Bombas socks are not cheap. You can go on Amazon and get a 4-pack of other name-brand high-quality socks priced at $19 – $30. The everyday brands sell a 4-pack at about $12. Bombas sells their socks at $45 – $70 for a 4-pack. That must be a strong profit margin for them, even when you add the additional cost of making an extra pair to give away.
Their story works, allowing them to sell a commodity product at a premium price in a crowded market. We are as much inspired to help the homeless as to be a part of the hero entrepreneur story. We identify with the winner who beat the establishment.
The Challenge for Marketers
Marketers are not strong storytellers, nor are we literature majors that have studied hero stories. We excel in bullet-pointed, fact-based Power Point presentations looking for white space in competitive markets and managing projects. We design our communication style to push timelines forward, relay information, or get approval on projects.
Leading and persuading, whether to move a team along, or get funding for your startup requires investing others in a story. Stories simplify complexity. Marketers need to tell them – to our customer, to our management, to our stakeholders. Next time you speak or write on a topic, try to tell a personal story. You will be more engaging, grabbing the listener’s attention and leaving them wanting to be a part of the story.
