Introduction:
“Some stories are inspirational, some stories aspirational,
some stories make a connection and some stories make us emotional.
Stories give identity to things and people!”
In this article we are going to discuss why is it important to have stories and how businesses and professionals can craft stories that connect with the customers.
Why stories matter?
Telling and listening stories is an important part of being human. We all grew up listening stories. Some stories were about people, some about things and objects, some stories about past, and some about about future. Stories help us connect with the world and make our own opinions and thoughts. Stories shape our choices and make us who we are today.
We humans are extremely curious beings. We care more about the stories associated with the product rather than the product itself. Being aware of this idea can be very helpful for the businesses and professionals.
Why is it important to have a story for businesses and professionals?
Today the consumer has endless choices of products that they can buy. From buying a small pen to a luxury car, choices are endless. The top players in this competition are almost at the same level in their pricing, quality and availability. In these cases, what sets them apart and influence the choice made by the customer is the stories that they tell.
With the idea that, “People buy stories not products”, learning to use stories to sell your ideas, products and services is a great strategy.
How is the worth of a product dictated by its story?
Merely having a story is not the only factor that contributes to the selling of the products. What is even more important is what that story mean to the consumers. Do people care about that story? Can they connect with the narrative? These are some of the very important questions one should ask.
To make this point clearer we can take an example of a pen. Let us say you have four options to buy a pen. The first pen is a regular blue ball point pen which is available in every shop, and you can buy a new one anytime you want. The second pen is a very rusty and old pen which does not even work properly now, but it ones belonged to your favourite person on the planet. The third pen is a pen that was one’s used by your great grandfather. And the last pen is a pen that ones belonged to your favourite celebrity.
Which of these pens is worth more?
The answer to this question can vary for different people. Because for some, the pen that belonged to their mother is much more precious than a pen that belonged to their favourite movie star. But for someone else, a pen that one’s belonged to Nikola Tesla is more precious than a pen that belonged to their great grandfather.
Some choices can be difficult to make; such as a pen that was used by Albert Einstein while writing the theory of relativity vs. a pen of your loved one who has passed away.
But we can all agree upon the fact that the least precious pen is a regular pen with no story that is available throughout the market in abundance. Such a pen is replaceable and can be bought anytime and from anywhere because no real narrative is being attached to it.
How this example applies to businesses?
In case of businesses though, products are not individual but made in a large quantities. Same as that ball point pen in the example above the competition for these pens is much higher than a rare pen whose value is already on the moon.
That is why it becomes essential for businesses have to a good narrative and a brand around their product to sell their goods and services at a higher price than their competitors.
One such example is of noodles brands. Which noodles do good in the market depends on the story that they tell. Marketing the noodles as vegetarian and healthy can be a good story, marketing the noodles being tasty, easy to make and super healthy can be a better story and marketing the noodles like they taste as if they were made by your mom and have a comforting feeling while also being healthy can be a great story.
These stories help people connect and influence their choices to buy some specific products.
How stories help build your brand?
As we have already discussed the meaning of a brand in my previous blog post: An introduction to the meaning of brand. We can understand the importance of storytelling in building the brand and reputation of a business. By having a good story for yourself you can create a brand for yourself and manage what people think about you and your business.
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