Maybe We Just Need to Tell Better Stories

Once upon a time, well - lately - I’ve been thinking about storytelling.

Not in a “storytelling is the future of marketing” sort of way. More in a why do I remember that advert from 15 years ago, but can’t remember what I walked into the kitchen for five minutes ago? sort of way. The latter happens a lot lately!

There’s something about a good story isn't there and some members of my team and I had a marketing morning looking at our favourite TV adverts recently and why we remember them.

And I think that’s something we sometimes forget when we’re trying to market things.

We get so caught up in what we need to say that we forget to think about what people might actually want to hear..... which is what I think John Lewis does so well at Christmas - in fact many of the brands at Christmas change that tact and create magic.

I’ve sat in plenty of meetings where we’ve spent an extraordinary amount of time deciding exactly how we should describe something or come up with a slogan or strapline which does not mean anything!

Discussions centre around things such as 'Should we say innovative?' 'What about that picture?' 'What about that word?' and 'Can we get three key messages on the slide or in the adverts without making the font so small that nobody can read it?' Ring a bell?

And, of course, we all take it very seriously. Because marketing matters. Words and pictures matter.

But every now and then I think we need to step back and ask a much simpler question:

Is this actually interesting to the customer?

Because people aren't walking around waiting for brands to tell them about their latest USPs.

They've got enough going on trying to get the kids to school, answering emails, wondering what's for dinner, scrolling on their phones while pretending not to, living their lives.

So if we're going to interrupt them, we probably need to give them a reason to stop. And stories are really good at doing that.

Think about the last time a friend told you something that happened to them.

They probably didn't start with: "Let me give you some context around my core proposition."

They probably said: "You won't believe what happened to me at xxxxxx yesterday."

And you're immediately listening.

That's because we humans are wired for stories. We've been telling them for thousands of years. Around fires. In kitchens. In pubs. On trains. At dinner tables.

We tell each other what happened, who was there, what went wrong, what surprised us, what we learned. We make sense of the world through stories.

And yet, somewhere between the kitchen table and the marketing department, we seem to have decided that the best way to communicate is through a series of bullet points and strategically messages and words, and carefully crafted images that don't resonate.

I don't think storytelling means every brand suddenly needs a backstory of some degree. Everyone has a backstory it seems! Sometimes the story is just much simpler.

It's the person who started a business because they couldn't find something they needed.

It's the team who spent two years trying to make something work. It's the customer who found a way to do something they thought they couldn't. It's the reason a product exists in the first place.

That's the bit I find interesting.

The why.

As an example: a pair of walking boots are lightweight, breathable, waterproof and made from recycled materials and are generally designed using some impressive new technology.

I'll probably forget most of that very soon.

But tell me about the woman who bought them after deciding, at 42, that she was going to climb one of the big seven. Yes, she loves walking on tracks and trails, but had she ever done anything at altitude, at around 6000 metres, at -20!? This is the woman who hates early mornings without a decent cup of coffee, who trained a lot speeding up Snowdon and Scarfell not just for enjoyment and throughout doubted herself all the way knowing she would have to take malaria tablets - which she was sick with the last time she had to take them never mind up a freezing mountain sleeping in a tent with no shower for 8 days, and be more relaxed about toilet stuff too in the open air!

Now I'm interested.

Not because you've told me anything particularly clever about the trainers.

But because you've told me about a person.

And you can imagine yourself in that story.

Maybe you're not a walker or a hiker.

Maybe you'll never ascend one of the big seven let alone any mountain.

But you probably know what it feels like to start something you're not sure you can finish.

That's the magic.

The product becomes part of something bigger.

I think that's what good brands do. They don't just tell us what they sell. Look at John Lewis at Christmas and the many adverts that don't mention their stores but create an emotional connection. This gives us something to believe in. Something to recognise ourselves in. Something to talk about. And don't we all talk about it!

That's why the best marketing can feel surprisingly not like marketing!

You don't necessarily finish it thinking:

Excellent. I have just been marketed to.

You think:

That was good, warming or just wow!

Or:

That reminds me of growing up and my first trainer!

Or, ideally to your friends (as I do with John Lewis's Christmas Advert):

You need to see this.

That's when you've got something. When the audience starts telling the story for you by talking to each other about it.

There is, of course, a huge danger here. Because once marketers discover something works, we have a habit of absolutely using and abusing it.

So suddenly everything has a "story".

Everything is "authentic".

Everyone is "on a journey".

Every customer has "an amazing experience".

And after a while, it all starts to sound exactly the same.

Which brings us back to the beginning: The story has to be good and it has to be true.

Most importantly, it has to be human. Real.

I think that's probably why I'm still so interested in storytelling and why I love John Lewis's penguin, give the gift, skateboard, vinyl and Elton John adverts!

Because underneath all the strategy, the targeting, the data and the clever campaigns, we're still just trying to connect a person with another person.... not actually the product or service if we think about it (although thats the goal).

And perhaps the best way of doing that isn't to shout a little louder and be in everyone's face with your adverts. It's to tell a story someone actually wants to hear.

So start with the story

A good story.

That's usually a pretty good place to start.

The End.