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Create a story about yourself. About your brand.

People are already inundated with information. Don’t give them more plain information to process.

Give them a story.

Create a story about yourself. About your brand. And then live up to the morals, the lessons, of that story. Make yourself relevant. Make yourself remarkable.

Stories are easier to share than product features or lists of benefits. They’re easier to share than competitive talking points. It’s why our politicians and media seek the perfect image, the perfect narrative.

Stories are a short cut to reading the details.  If people get the story, the narrative, and are sold on that?  They don’t need all the extra noise.

Stories put the audience at the center of the narrative.  Stories make you relevant. They put you in the audience’s world view.

Stories position you as… the friend. the wise advisor. the endearing mascot.

People remember stories.

Here’s one for you:

A little girl came to my door the other day, to sell girl scout cookies.

She was bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Her uniform was impeccable.  She was well-spoken, confident, but respectul.

After listening to her pitch, I was determined to buy some cookies.

I had no cash.

“Could you come back tomorow?”, I asked.

“Well,” she said, as she blew some hair away from her forehead…

“The thing is, my parents are divorced, and I’m with my Mom today, but I’ll be with my Dad for the rest of the week, so can I come back in a week?”

I was deflated.  she said it so matter-of-factly.

“You come back next week, and I’ll be sure to buy your cookies”, I said.

The moral of the story?

This girl was dealing with a significant life challenge.  But you wouldn’t have known it if it hadn’t come up because of my question about her schedule.  she was bright, cheery, and I already wanted to buy from her.

Her persistence and undeterred go-get-it attitude, in the face of her story, made me want to buy from her even more.

And tell others to buy from her as well.

This isn’t about wearing your life challenges on your sleeve. It is about weaving details into a picture that make your offering more compelling, more unique, in this cluttered world.

It doesn’t have to be a real story either.  It can be complete fiction. You could build a myth, a legend, that teaches a lesson analogous to the value you provide.

In another post, I will further explore stories that have been crafted around products. Which make us want to share in the experience.

But for now, if you see a little girl in your neighborhood.  Selling cookies.  Buy a box.  You never know how much it might mean to her.

For now, it’s your turn - what’s a compelling story that has stuck with you?  Or that you’ve told to someone else?

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Tags: bolaji, buzz, buzz marketing, idea, ideavirus, narrative, oyejide, relevant, remarkable, story, theme, word of mouth

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Word of Mouth Magic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.