How can storytelling help a business?

A few years ago, the platform OneSpot published an infographic about how people perceive advertising content. The average American sees over 100,000 words of advertising online every day. These include contextual ads, banners, emails, articles, and other materials through which companies promote their products. At the same time, 92% of users admitted they would prefer to see fewer dry facts in advertising and more stories. And that’s no surprise.

We all love stories, and storytelling is one of the oldest arts on Earth. As researcher Mircea Eliade once said, “The interest in stories is part of our way of being.” In early cultures, tribal life was built around a sacred story — a hidden myth that explained a person’s place in the world. In our rational world, where states and churches have lost their monopoly on myths, stories are like nuclear energy: a resource capable of powering civilization. The ability to work with stories is what sets a potential or successful brand apart from an ordinary business that merely wants to survive another day.

Why is that?

If you own a business, you know how hard it can be to capture people’s attention. Brands compete for customers mostly using the same arguments. And they all look alike with their “high quality,” “unique advantages,” and other clichés that were overused 20 years ago. What does an entrepreneur do when they realize the customer is not impressed by cookie-cutter “benefits”? They launch a promotion. A special offer or discount often remains the only way to attract the public walking past the store every day. That’s how we end up with “warehouse clearance,” “total sales,” “80% off forever,” and other tactics aimed at driving sales by any means. But here’s the question: even if a promotion seems attractive to someone, will it make them your regular customer?

Moreover, most entrepreneurs quite reasonably want to make money rather than get stuck in a never-ending discount race, knowing that it’s almost impossible to win. And this brings us directly to how storytelling benefits a business. A story won’t replace a quality product. It won’t fix your business model. If someone doesn’t like your product or service, no ad will convince them otherwise.

But a story is one of the best ways to build an emotional connection with a person. We don’t remember lists of product features. We remember stories.

How do product stories influence sales growth?

In 2017, the American agency Hill Holliday decided to test whether storytelling could directly impact sales. The experiment showed that whenever an item had a story, it increased its perceived value in the eyes of buyers.

Users were willing to pay 5% more for a hotel room with a guest review and photo than for the same room without a review. The value of a painting increased by 11% if accompanied by a short story from the artist. A winemaker’s story in the product description made it possible to sell a bottle of wine for 6% more compared to a regular card listing only taste notes and ingredients. And by now, you probably understand why.

A story adds depth. It helps us learn something new. It shows how the product was made and what emotions it evokes. A story is irreplaceable when you are not just selling a product but trying to convey a more abstract idea to your target audience. Value manifestos rarely move people. Unlike stories with real characters we can relate to. Don’t believe it? Look at the Red Bull brand, which is entirely built on stories of adrenaline, action, and athletic achievements. Look at Visa’s documentary video series “Solo Traveller,” dedicated to stories of women traveling alone through Southeast Asia. One Instagram photo from Patagonia — showing people rafting down rivers, climbing rocks, overcoming waves and snow — tells more about the company than a ten-page brochure about the features of mountaineering and extreme sportswear.

When are stories unnecessary?

Of course, storytelling is not a universal tool. A beer kiosk near your home will do just fine without it. Thousands of identical, faceless small shops don’t really need stories either. The need for storytelling arises when there is a demand for individuality.

Here’s an example from Ukraine: the ATB supermarket chain decided to draw attention to its renovated stores and, among other things, produced a few commercials in the format of a web series. How often do you voluntarily watch ads on TV or finish watching pre-rolls if you have the option to skip them? The first episode of “Cashier Lyuba” on YouTube was viewed by over 60,000 people. Opinions on this experiment and the quality of the content may vary, but one fact is hard to deny — in Ukraine, there is strong demand for engaging, emotionally resonant stories.

How to start using storytelling in business?

An entrepreneur who becomes interested in storytelling for the first time and decides to learn more is inevitably overwhelmed by a flood of useful information online. “Archetypes,” “monomyth,” “narrative,” “three-act story structure.” “And how will a monomyth help me sell five boxes of tiles from the warehouse?” — such a business owner may reasonably wonder.

The good news is — it won’t. Because 90% of awkward ads, pretentious testimonials on websites, and other nonsense nobody believes in — are born from attempts to invent something using academic concepts.

Your story should not lie.

People can tell when something is fake. At best, you’ll simply waste your time and money. At worst, the reaction to your story may be unexpected.

That’s what happened in 2017 with Pepsi, when the company released a commercial about the protests in the United States. The attempt to portray a mass protest as a cheerful show with friendly police sparked a strong wave of outrage among Americans, forcing Pepsi to apologize and pull the ad from circulation. Fortunately, you don’t have to invent anything. Your clients are real people with real problems and real stories. Study them. You can use user-generated content — content created by your customers (with their permission) — or find interesting stories within your own company. In reality, the number of topics is endless. Even a production process can be made interesting if you choose a format that suits your audience — thankfully, in the digital age, we’re not limited to cave paintings and printed words.

Take, for example, Hennessy’s 2016 special project “Harmony. Mastered from chaos,” which tells the story of the brand’s product quality through features in The New York Times about professional chefs and leads readers to the website. The interactive website, in turn, explains cultivation, distillation, and other stages of cognac production. The key word here is “interactive.” Use text, photos, videos — any channels and formats of communication. The main thing is that your story should not replace the personal experience of your users. It should be based on it, because a good story is experience.

Andrii Kolesnyk
Strategist, Senior Copywriter