STORY TELLING
The Art Of Story Telling In
Marketing
By Geoffrey Sirumba
T
he most popular adage in most
Marketing classes goes "Is marketing
an art or a science". We all know
that art is fluid and science is rigid. This
discussion does not have a conclusive answer
to support or to deny the above statement.
In this context we will have to look at
Marketing as an Art.
Storytelling is best described as an art …
the “art” of storytelling; art encompasses
creativity, vision, skill, and practice. Growing
up as kids we witnessed the various
foklore that was passed from generation to
generation on the various conquest of our
then heros and heroines.
The way the stories were created to
make them memorable and pass on a
crucial message to the listeners was most
captivating as exemplified by the Tales of
Luanda Magere, How the hare lost its tail,
Kinjeketile Ngwale, and Abunuwasi among
others.
Brands need to tell their stories to endear
them to their customers and make them
memorable. The reason why brands need to
tell stories is because Stories help solidify
abstract concepts and simplify complex
messages. This makes it easy for the target
audience to understand.
The need for fresh and relevant content
is very important in making marketing
communication relevant and catchy to
the intended audience. Formulation of a
story should be in line with the company’s
values and is the next frontier that brand
managers need to exploit. The best stories
are truthful, are infused with personalities,
involve characters the audience who are
the customers can identify with and aspire
to be or consider them as role models,
and include a beginning, middle, and an
ending.
When a brand is personified and a story
is told that embodies human challenges
you create a scenario that your customers
can identify with and thereby creating an
emotional connection with the brand.
Good stories should be entertaining,
educational, universal, organized and
Good storytelling is not only about the marketers
intentions but about their brands and the solutions
they offer. It’s about emotions, experiences, needs
and the written and unwritten images associated
with these emotions and needs, in relationship to
what their brand evokes.
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memorable. The story should have
characters who represent real people in
the society whom the audience can be
able to relate to. This will be important
when the marketer makes a call to
action.
The other part of the story should have
a conflict which elicits emotions and
customers can be able to relate with the
situation in which the character faces.
The final part of the story should arrive
at a resolution in which a solution is
arrived at and winds up the story with
a call to action.
The first step when telling a story is
knowing the intended audience who
will identify with it; consumer research
is needed at this stage to understand
the consumer preference, attitude
and beliefs. This will be important in
understanding your buyer personas.
After figuring out your audience another
crucial step is coining the message you
intend to pass to your audience. The
message here will be the marketers’
intention, whether it is to introduce
a product, to increase sales, to build
brand loyalty, introduce new product
features etc. This is the most important
aspect to the marketer and should be
very carefully reviewed. After this the
marketer decides the kind of story that
they want to convey which should be in
line with their objectives.