Source: bcarsonradio.wordpress.com

An editorial in last week’s Sunday New York Times, called What Happened to Obama? got me thinking.  The article, by Drew Westen, talks about Obama’s failure to ‘tell us a story.’  The author describes his disappointment when he listened to the president’s inauguration speech back in Jan. 2009, disappointing because there was no story told to give context and meaning to the financial calamity people were experiencing:

Americans needed their president to tell them a story that made sense of what they had just been through, what caused it, and how it was going to end. They needed to hear that he understood what they were feeling, that he would track down those responsible for their pain and suffering, and that he would restore order and safety.

While I found the claims about Obama to be compelling and thought-provoking, it got me thinking more generally about story-telling, that form of art and entertainment that goes back as far as human history.  The article’s key point is that stories matter because they speak to people in a way that straight facts do not.  Stories appeal not just to the rational mind but to the heart, and that’s ultimately what reaches people, what causes them to act, to care, or even to change their mind.

Story-Telling Your Business

So what does this have to do with small business marketing?  The same thing it has to do with marketing anywhere.  Marketing, if done well, is all about telling stories.  There are short-term stories – why a new product matters, how your customers are using your products to solve their problems, what trends are shaping your industry, etc.  These are the stories companies generally issue press releases about and, if compelling enough, get press or blog coverage for.  Then there is a company’s primary, defining story – the story that sticks in customers’ minds about who the company is.  Some would call this a ‘brand narrative’; I would call it a company’s story.  If you want your company to be remembered and your brand to ‘stick’ in the minds of your target audience, you need to have a strong story.  And your marketing – both online and offline – needs to consistently tell that story.

What Kind of Story?

What does it mean for your company to have a story?  Does it mean you have to create a fairy tale around yourself?  Does it simply mean reciting your company history?  Do you need your employees or executives to be colorful characters?  The answer is a partial yes to all these questions, but those are not the questions to start with.  The first question is the one that all sales & marketing folks know the answer to: what is your unique selling proposition?  Start with that, and you can begin to build a story around it.

For some help with the story part, I return to Drew Westen’s column again, where he says (rightly) that “our brains evolved to expect stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought.”  Any good PR person or journalist knows these basic rules about story-telling.  But many marketers do not; those who don’t often default to just relating facts about what products they offer and why you should buy.  Here are some great examples of companies whose brands tell a story:

Apple Computer. The villain was drab, boring business computers in the 1980’s and too many look-alike cell phones in the 2000’s.  Apple’s ‘cool’ products entered the scene, gained recognition from creative advertising and wildly loyal customers, and achieved market share and profit victories because of its ‘insanely good’ product design.  That’s a good story.

Facebook. The villain was “your parents’ computing approach” – namely, email and Internet search.  Facebook, designed for the college crowd (who then grew into the GenX & GenY workforce) defined a new approach to communication and networking and fueled the next tech revolution of social media.  This story was good enough to merit a movie and win an Academy Award.

Subway. The villain here is high-fat fast food chains, and the victims are health-conscious consumers.  Enter fresh, healthy Subway, who’s been around for years, under-appreciated, and now getting a second look from obesity-sickened Americans.  This well-timed story found fertile ground in the health-food movement.

Does your business have a story?  Are you telling that story, or is it being told for you?  Now is the time to seize your own narrative and cement it in your customers’ minds so they can retell it for you.