The Nine Best Story Lines for Marketing

Lois Kelly is the author of Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. This is her explanation of the top nine types of stories that people like to talk about. If you’re pitching your company to investors, customers, partners, journalists, vendors, or employees and you don’t use at least one of these story lines, you probably have a problem. And most likely you’re too close to what you’re doing, so you think that you’re uniquely “patent-pending, curve-jumping, and revolutionary.” :-)

1. Aspirations and beliefs. More than any other topic, people like to hear about aspirations and beliefs. (This may be why religion is the most popular word-of-mouth topic, ever.) Sun Microsystems’ Scott McNealy’s point of view about ending the digital divide is aspirational as is Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s views about how companies can grow by reducing pollution and creating more sustainable business strategies. Aspirations are helpful because they help us connect emotionally to the speaker, the company, and the issues. They help us see into a person or company’s soul.

2. David vs. Goliath. In the story of David and Goliath, the young Hebrew David took on the Philistine giant Goliath and beat him. It is the way Southwest Airlines conquered the big carriers, the way the once unknown Japanese car manufacturers took on Detroit, and the way social media is taking on the media giants. Sharing stories about how a small organization is taking on a big company is great business sport. Rooting for the underdog grabs our emotions, creates meaning, and invokes passion. We like to listen to the little guy talk about how he’s going to win and why the world—or the industry—will be a better place for it.

3. Avalanche about to roll. The mountain is rumbling, the sun is getting stronger, but the rocks and snow are yet to fall. You want to tune in and listen to the “avalanche about to roll” topic because you know that there’s a chance that you will be killed if caught unaware. This theme taps into our desire to get the inside story before it’s widely known. It’s not only interesting to hear someone speak about these ideas, they have the ingredients for optimal viral and pass-along effect.

4. Contrarian/counterintuitive/challenging assumptions. These three themes are like first cousins, similar in many ways but slightly different. Contrarian perspectives defy conventional wisdom; they are positions that often are not in line with—or may even be directly opposite to—the wisdom of the crowd. The boldness of contrarian views grabs attention; the more original and less arrogant they are, the more useful they will be in provoking meaningful conversations.

   Counterintuitive ideas fight with what our intuition (as opposed to a majority of the public) says is true. When you introduce counterintuitive ideas, it takes people a minute to reconcile the objective truth with their gut assumption about the topic. Framing views counter to how we intuitively think about topics—going against natural “gut instincts”—pauses and then resets how we think and talk about concepts.

   Challenging widely-held assumptions means that when everyone else says the reason for an event is X, you show that it’s actually Y. Challenging assumptions is good for debate and discussion, and especially important in protecting corporate reputation.

5. Anxieties. Anxiety is a cousin of the avalanche about to roll, but it is more about uncertainty than an emerging, disruptive trend. Examples of anxiety themes abound: (1) Financial services companies urging baby boomers to hurry up and invest more for retirement: “You’re 55. Will you have your needed $3.2 million to retire comfortably?” (2) Tutoring companies planting seeds of doubt about whether our kids will score well enough on the SATs to get into a good college. Although anxiety themes grab attention, go easy. People are becoming skeptical, and rightly so. Too many politicians, companies have bombarded us with FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) with no facts to back up their point.

6. Personalities and personal stories. There’s nothing more interesting than a personal story with some life lessons to help us understand what makes executives tick and what they value the most. The points of these personal stories are remembered, retold, and instilled into organizational culture. Robert Goizueta, the respected CEO of Coca-Cola, said he hated giving speeches but he was always telling stories—often personal ones about how he and his family had to flee Cuba when Castro took control and had nothing more than his education.

   Similarly, when Steve Jobs gave the commencement address to Stanford University in June 2005, he shared his personal story and life lessons. That commencement address, “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish,” was talked about on thousands of blog and was published verbatim in Fortune magazine. It helped us see Jobs in a new light.

7. How-to stories and advice. Theoretical and thought-provoking ideas are nice, but people love pragmatic how-to advice: how to solve problems, find next practices, and overcome common obstacles. To be interesting, how-to themes need to be fresh and original, providing a new twist to what people already know or tackle thorny issues like how to get IT and marketing organizations to work together despite deep culture clashes between the two.

8. Glitz and glam. Robert Palmer sang about being addicted to love. Our society is more addicted to glamour and celebrity. Finding a way to logically link to something glitzy and glamorous is a surefire conversation starter. For example, tagging on to the widespread interest in the Academy Awards, Randall Rothenberg, former director of intellectual property at consultancy Booz Allen-Hamilton, last year talked about the similarity and challenges between creating new “star” product brands and movie stars.

9. Seasonal/event-related. Last, and least interesting but seems to resonate, is tying your topic into seasonal or major events. Talking about industry predictions around the New Year, advertising during SuperBowl season, executive compensation reform when an executive of a well known company “resigns” with an especially bloated compensation package are examples of this type of story.

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Here’s a good exercise for your team: Have it read this posting and then answer the question: What story line does our marketing currently use? Then, if you’re brave enough, ask the question: What story line should our marketing use?

Comments

[Jeff Ward]

I think #5 is spot on. That's why you see start-ups like prepme.com and tutorvista gaining so much press and visibility.

[James]

What would it take for you to add the one.org banner to your blog to support charity? I have added it to my own and would love to see other bloggers amplify the need to stomp out poverty.

If the activism irritates you then I understand...

James McGovern
http://duckdown.blogspot.com

[CapForge]

Hmmm. I can't think of a story type left out of the list above. Everything fits somewhere here, more or less. I also don't see anything here that is groundbreaking or "beyond buzz" or the next PR. Guess that means I can skip the book!

[Ike]

Where does the Cautionary Tale fit in? It's a completely different story than Anxiety, because it makes the audience a third-person observer to something that has happened instead of a stakeholder. And Cautionary Tales can be easily backed up and verified.

[jdee]

oh do shut up.

[Barb Heffner]

This post is a must-read refresher course for every PR and marketing professional...

[Henk]

I've heard her speak and attended a workshop of hers in - believe it or not - Estonia. She was hands down the best performer at that event. (y)

[Lateef]

Honestly this came at the time am preparing for few launches of product.

Right post - Right Time

Lateef

[Michael Fultz]

There are 300-page books that contain less info than what you put in this short article. I'm impressed! Keep up the good work!

[Mónica]

El marketing es algo que me gusta mucho. Y es importante su estudio para aplicarlo a los negocios.
Saludos. Mónica.

[Dipesh Batheja]

This is pretty nice post after some really midi core stuff, Guy. Seems like you got a knack of pulling out some good ones now and then. Keep them coming :)

[Sandie]

I have been using word of mouth advertising exclusively for 7 years and I stay pretty busy. I have been recently looking to branch out and your blog has been very inspirational. This particular article even inspired me to write about what I do. Thanks!

[Mario Ruiz]

* Harry Potter is a good-triumphs-over-evil story surprises. The good open community over the evil establishment. Harry is orphan who fights against Voldemort who killed his parents. Harry lived with non-magical relatives. A romantic reason to fight: The cost of the licenses vs. the “nature of Internet” to share.

* Funny book with funny names like that: Headmaster Dumbledore, Evil Lord Voldemort and Harry’s know-it-all friend Hermione. Or like Java, Red Hat, Google, YouTube, Wiki, Zoho, etc. Keep it fun.

* Harry enters the new world and learns that he is famous (Cinderella Story), and meets the new Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell. Everyone has a genius inside us as long as the good master guide us.

* Long before she was published, Rowling already had seven Harry Potter books meticulously plotted out on grids, one for each year Harry spends at wizard’s school; very well planned! We need to come to a plan without improvisations: the so famous Road Map.

* Warner Bros. (proprietor of Harry Potter rights) receives 100 inquires a day, from Sony Corporation, Microsoft, Boeing, to make cups, saucers and all sorts of ridiculous, frankly, things,” says Rowling. “I’ve said no to absolutely all of them.” They are very selective. Do not give up the idea before the times comes.

Mario Ruiz
www.oursheet.com

[rebelution]

All people in all cultures have stories that are told and shared. All businesses in all industries have stories that those businesses hope are told and shared.

Lois is spot on that when you peel back all of the buzz words and cliches of marketing, you are left with marketing being the art and science of telling a great story about a product, the company behind the product, the ideas behind the company, and the individual/s behind the ideas.

However, it must be kept in mind that the key defining characteristic of any great story is its authenticity. Many goliaths have tried to market themselves as davids to be met with massive failure. Many companies have tried to take the same road as Mr. Chouinard and Patagonia, but few have been as successful because few have been as authentic.

[60 in 3]

You mentioned that these themes work for pitching your idea, but they also work for getting readers interested. That is, using these themes doesn't have to be a lead in to a sales pitch. The theme itself could be what you're trying to sell.

For example, I use a lot of these article themes on my blog. I find that 1, 6 and 7 are especially popular article styles when it comes to my niche, personal fitness. People want to hear beliefs and aspirations, they want to read personal stories so they connect with the author and then they want to read how to's so they too can do what the author did.

Gal