MARKETING EVOLUTION
Why Start-Ups Need
Stories
By Marion Wakahe
M
ost businesses today appreciate
the power of storytelling to
engage their various audiences.
Propelled by the digital space, businesses
realize that in order to develop content
that truly engages, story is the way to go.
Much has been said about stories and their
potential. From a scientific perspective,
we know that stories provoke emotions.
Feeling these emotions means that we
connect with the narrator of the story. As
we listen to these stories and feel these
emotions, our bodies respond by releasing
oxytocin. Whilst oxytocin is well known
as the hormone we release when we are
with the ones we love, it’s also responsible
for creating trust between individuals. This
means that good storytellers are received
as more credible.
Additionally, our brains ‘align’ or are
‘synchronized’ when stories are shared.
This simply means that the brain activity
of the person telling the story matches
that of the listener. This is probably best
described as ‘keeping a listener in one’s
thrall.’ We can all attest to moments when
we listened to a story and were so drawn
into the narrator’s flow that even our
bodies seemed to move in coordination
with the narrator creating a kind of dance.
Cortisol also known as the stress hormone
is also released when we listen to stories.
This typically happens as and during a
story’s peak and helps listeners focus.
We may want to believe that we make
decisions based on logic and fact. However,
neuroscience expert Christine Comaford
posits that 90% of human behavior and
Our brains ‘align’ or are ‘synchronized’
when stories are shared. This simply
means that the brain activity of the per-
son telling the story matches that of the
listener. This is probably best described
as ‘keeping a listener in one’s thrall.’ We
can all attest to moments when we lis-
tened to a story and were so drawn into
the narrator’s flow that even our bodies
seemed to move in coordination with the
narrator creating a kind of dance.
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decision making is based on emotion.
Even Dale Carnegie said, “When dealing
with people, let us remember we are not
dealing with creatures of logic. We are
dealing with creatures of emotion.”
Neuroscientist
Antonio
Damasio
conducted a research examining people
with damage to their frontal lobe, the
area of the brain where emotions are
generated and that helps to regulate
personality. Though they were unable to
feel or express emotions, the participants
had normal intellectual ability in the areas
of working memory, attention, language
comprehension and expression. However,
they were unable to make decisions. These
participants although logically able to
describe what they wanted, were unable
to come to a final decision. Emotions
influence our choices.
Outside the area of science, we have
also observed the power of story to
not just create awareness of companies
and products but to also stimulate buy
in. Blake Mycoskie while travelling in
Argentina in 2006 was troubled by the
number of shoeless poor children he met
which then sparked his idea. Being an
entrepreneur and a humanitarian, Blake
made the bold, disruptive move to give a
pair of shoes to a needy child for each pair
sold. After having distributed more than
70 million pairs of shoes to children in
need, TOMS has expanded its charitable
focus to include clean water, safe birth and
bullying prevention services.
Eyewear retailer Warby Parker says it
was founded as a rebellious upstart to
tackle the problem of expensive eyewear