With your compelling idea seed in hand and some cognitive biases to fertilize the soil, it’s time to get started on your most important job as a marketer storytelling. Why storytelling ( or story-selling ), because humans aren’t rational. We simply follow our emotions then make up logic afterward to justify them and it’s because of this inconsistency that stories are so important to marketing.
Stories have power over us and are basically the operating system of the entire human brain. The internal narrative of your customers ( and you ) shape the emotions that they feel and those emotions dictate the actions they are most likely to take. When you sell a story ( instead of your product ) it allows you to bypass all of the brain’s natural defenses because stories themselves are naturally compelling, sticky and give you an opportunity to frame any weapons of influence.
Through stories and narrative, you can make your customer feel whatever dormant emotion you choose to elicit. The trick with storytelling though is to remember that the emotions are already there and you’re simply trying to make your customer feel them. Remember the tree is already in your seed you simply add water and sunlight ( your story ) to make it grow.
The resources in this section are going to introduce you to emotional storytelling and why it’s important in marketing. You’ll learn how to craft stories that make your customers feel emotions that are highly correlated with whatever actions you want your customer to take.
For this section, we’ve also decided to add some awesome case studies that we feel are great examples of emotional storytelling. With each case study pay close attention to the emotions that they make you feel and what actions you are more likely to take now that you feel those emotions. Also, notice whether those actions align ( coincidentally of course ) with the company, person or products business goals.
Want it All – by Nike
By D Grace of God – by Pleasant Green
One Las Ride – by Budweiser
The True Story of Naadam – by Naadam Cashmere
My Life and Legacy – by Gary Vaynerchuk
This Father’s Day, Go Ask Dad – by Gillette
Netflix is a Joke – by Netflix
Dove Real Beauty Sketches – by Dove
Our Blades are Fucking Great – by DollarShaveClub
