Storytelling
Why your product needs a story
This is still a prevailing belief. However, times have changed, which is why it’s not enough to focus on the product any longer. With markets offering similar products from different competitors worldwide, the best product won’t sell if it’s not properly marketed.
Because it is as old as mankind. People have always been captured by great stories – e.g. while gathering around campfires. If you want a product to be successful in the market today, you need a story – one that your target audience can easily identify with. One that stands out. In fact, storytelling in marketing is not an invention of the digital era. Even traditional companies like Jack Daniel’s have been used to telling stories to their customers.
The success of a product depends last but not least on its unique selling proposition, its USP. But why should people choose this one product if it is more or less interchangeable with another one – something which happens easily in an oversaturated market?
Answer: Whether people buy or don’t depends on the story that is associated with your product. What will the customer's journey be like? What will they experience with what you offer to them? Considering that most purchasing decisions - up to 90% - are emotional, it is not surprising that it is the story of a product or brand that makes their success.
For example, people don’t normally buy Nike because of their great sneakers. It’s about the brand’s motivational promise: “If no one thinks you can, then you have to.” Or – “just do it.” So the image of that brand and its messages have outperformed its products.
It may sound strange, but storytelling should already be part of the product development or innovation process. So the story you are going to tell, the experience you want your customers to make help shape your product so that it will succeed on the market. Story sells.
Telling a great story is not enough. You have to go where your target audience is. Today, the biggest “campfire” of humanity is the Internet or, more exactly, Social Media. There you have to find the proper platform so that the people you want to reach will hear your stories.
If you want to succeed in the market, you need to know why, how and when people make purchasing decisions. You need to tell the right story and bear an appropriate marketing strategy in mind already during the innovation process or product development, as mentioned above.
In our innovation projects, storytelling is part of the process – right from the beginning. This is one of the reasons why our customers are able to tell their target audience compelling stories. Stories that sell.
We help you tell stories that sell - to the people you want to listen.
.svg)
