THOSE of us of a certain age may remember Jackanory, the children’s television programme where a celebrity of the day sat on a chair in front of a TV camera which filmed them reading out a book as viewers crowded around the television set to listen.
Reflecting on Jackanory in this age of multimedia super sensory stimulation this form of light entertainment seems remarkably benign and by modern day standards rather dull. However, I seem to remember being engrossed in the story despite not having to use all my available senses at the same time in order to be absorbed in the content of the programme.
Storytelling is powerful, it captures imagination and allows the narrator to develop feelings of empathy and even emotional attachment to characters, storylines or lifestyles.
Storytelling is also used in business to develop brand. We know the rugged Wild West tale of Levis or the innovative route of Apple, developing a brand and a story a powerful way to market, your brand tells the customer what you are and how you came to be.
Storytelling, therefore is a potentially powerful tool for marketing. Organisations that are able to associate themselves with a back-story or lifestyle are able to develop powerful brands and capture the imagination of those who wish to “buy into” and be associated with such a lifestyle by purchasing your product or service.
An example on our supermarket shelves is 'Innocent' smoothies a name that is associated with naivety but in a manner that reflects the simplicity of their product, the “goodness” of their product in terms of ingredients and lack of 'badness' in terms of absence of nasty preservatives.
For those who are building a brand and developing a story it is important to remember that it is not just what you tell people it’s also what they believe about you based on the signals your brand sends through your actions, product and service. In other words your product or service must actually do or relate to the story you tell.
An example of how storytelling enriched a brand was to be seen in one of last year’s CIM Ireland Award Winners. The Lough Neagh Partnership wanted to increase awareness of the Lough and the services and products available and decided on holding a festival, but how do you make a festival that celebrates produce such as eels appealing to the public?
What they did was to enrich the visitor’s experience by engaging with some of the fisherman who had fished the Lough for eels over many years, and who were able to come and tell stories to the public of how fishing was carried out in times gone by and could tell tales of the Lough and its history?
Therefore visitors were given an understanding and insight into the history, uniqueness and identity of the produce of the Lough, capturing imagination and establishing a rapport with the public a brand identity for Lough Neagh produce.
The Marketing Excellence Awards Ireland 2015 celebrate our good practice as businesses, entrepreneurs and marketers in Ireland and we are currently inviting you to share your good practice with us and the wider business community by entering via http://www.cimirelandawards.net/
As marketers we must never lose sight of the fact that we market to people and we must win the hearts and minds of our customers and a way to do this is to develop a brand which our target market will want to associate themselves with.
:: Nick Read is chair of the CIM Ireland Board, which represents hundreds of Ireland’s marketing professionals. Visit www.cim. co.uk for more information or follow @CIMInfo_Ireland.
