Storytelling – How to invite your customer into your story

Kathy Hansen, who writes at A Storied Career, and who I admire a lot (okay, she’s a hero!), has a new series of interviews starting on her site. In the past she has posted interviews with many of the best and brightest in the field of storytelling. She got a head start on the new series with David Willows, who is director of external relations for The International School of Brussels in Brussels, Belgium. Here’s a link to the first post of the interview Q&A with a Story Guru: David Willows: Marketing Is About Telling the Story and Helping Audience Members Find Their Place in the Story.

Kathy has been running a piece from the interview with David almost every day for the past week. The post she did today, prompted by a question from one of her readers, is terrific and is what prompted this post from me. Following Up With David Willows: Helping Folks Find Their Place in the Story

The reader asked what David meant by helping others to find their place in that story. David’s response to the question is beautifully stated. Here are the “money quotes” so to speak.

“Great stories don’t leave us for very long as passive “observers.” Instead, they engage us, challenge us, and invite us to join in; and we find ourselves literally playing a role in the story — imagining ourselves as the would-be hero, the victim in need of rescuing or even the rogue!”

“First, it falls to some of us to narrate a story of education that is powerful and engaging. That’s key to effective marketing. Then, whether we are talking about prospective families, possible major donors or sponsors, future teachers or the students themselves — we then need to find ways of helping these would-be actors feel that they are part of the unfolding story; ways to make them literally imagine themselves as featuring in the next chapter; envision precisely how their gift will have a transformative effect; or simply imagine themselves as included, challenged and successful students.”

Invite your prospective donor, customer, whoever, into the story you are telling and give them the space to see themselves within that story and to form an emotional connection. The stronger the connection, the better for you, your brand, your product, or in this instance, David’s school.

If you’re following this storytelling wave that is gaining momentum in all walks of business and life, you’ve likely read all of that before and wondered how to make it work for you. David has provided a wonderful example. If you are in the business arena and can’t quite see how to do the same thing, I’d like to provide an example for you.

While watching some of the NCAA tournament this past weekend, I saw an ad for Lexus. It was an okay ad, and it told a story about how they have been at the forefront of the hybrid technology game. It’s the kind of story you need to tell if you have it, don’t think I’m suggesting otherwise. There are a lot of stories to tell out there. But, it was all about them and frankly, I didn’t care. You likely don’t care either. These are the kinds of ads that we love to DVR over.

What kind of story could they have told? What would have put them in the league with David’s stories? One about us of course. A simple change in pronouns and point of view. From us and ours to you and yours. How would that work?

The story would need characters. That’s you and me. It would need a conflict or tension of some kind. Lexus is a luxury brand so the conflict might revolve around our self image in wanting to be seen driving a luxury brand and the desire to save some money on high gas prices going even higher in a world economy like the one we’re facing. We might even mix in a little bit of “green” with lowered greenhouse gas emissions. And then we need a resolution. Saving money and saving the planet wouldn’t be bad ones would they? We could even turn that one into a hero story if we wanted.

So, Lexus would tell the story about driving a luxury hybrid, built to the highest standards of craftsmanship, that used little or no gas until you really “stepped on it”, and that lowered the carbon footprint with an ecologically friendly car. They tell that story, in words, pictures, video, however. They don’t editorialize. They make the story big enough so that we can step into it and see ourselves driving that car. That in turn, like the best of stories, lets us draw a lot of our own conclusions, lets us see ourselves in the middle of that story, gives us the room to form that emotional connection. We are free to see ourselves as savvy, wise buyers of a luxury brand. We can see ourselves as heroes helping to save the planet by driving a car that has lowered greenhouse emissions. We can see ourselves in so many other ways too within that story they’ve crafted. Thinking about the car using no gas until we “really stepped on it” lets us draw the conclusion that this thing could really go if it needed to. It’s gone from a luxury, ecologically friendly hybrid to a race car with just a slight tickling of our imagination. That’s the magic of good customer stories.

Can you begin to see yourself crafting this kind of storytelling experience for your customers?