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Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 10:32 am
“Once upon a time there was an entrepreneur who had to give visibility to his company…”. We could start with this paraphrase of the classic fairy tale incipit to think about the concept of storytelling : telling stories is in fact an activity that accompanies us throughout our existence and understanding how to exploit its potential in terms of marketing and communication is a fundamental step that you must consider when you want to promote your products and services, especially in the digital context. Let's analyze why it is so important for a company to be able to outline its values through a story, based on the functions that the narrative dynamic is able to express, the channels and formats that can be used and the expectations developed by customers.
What are we talking about when we talk about storytelling?
There is no standard definition, but we could describe storytelling – or to be more precise corporate storytelling – as the art of using the patterns and models of narrative storytelling in order to communicate the thailand mobile phone numbers database image of a brand and its products. It is therefore a trait d'union at a marketing level, since it manages to connect the potential of corporate communication (especially with regards to the digital scenario) with the great wealth of references and knowledge that we can represent through the development of a story.
Every form of narration has its own structure that blends rationality and emotion, verisimilitude and fiction. An effective story involves, excites, inspires: it is not difficult to understand how high the potential of storytelling is for the purposes of corporate promotion and sharing values with potential customers. So think about how you could tell what you do through a story: think about what, among the activities you do, is able to fascinate your audience, how to imprint a positive memory in the memory of a reader, how to guide potential customers to action.
The Structure of Narration: How to Make the Most of the Basic Rules in Storytelling
No pretense of bothering great scholars of language like Propp, Eco or Barthes, but it is undoubted that, to understand how to create effective stories, you need to know their architecture, their framework. And, even before this, the objective is to understand what you want to create through storytelling : what kind of corporate identity you want to bring out, with which symbols and references you want to involve and excite your audience, which tools you consider most effective to obtain the desired results.
Starting from the classic schemes of definition of the narrative model, we can say that all stories must (or at least should) have a development that, from a starting situation, leads the reader to recognize the existence of a problem to be solved or a challenge to be overcome, with a character - the protagonist/hero - who works to overcome them in the name of the set of values he embodies; the culminating moment of the story resolves, positively or negatively, this tension and from this process the reader can draw a moral. Translated into marketing terms, you can interpret this path by imagining that your brand is the protagonist, which tries to resolve, thanks to what it is able to offer, an adverse situation determined by the presence of a real problem, also arousing an emotion such as to make the reader's thoughts adhere to the company's vision.
It is clear that, in order to produce a concrete effect on your audience, storytelling must respect some communicative functions, as they are understood in the classic model of Roman Jakobson: the conative one, linked to persuasion and the call to action; the poetic one, to draw attention to the form of the story; the effort one, connected to maintaining contact between narrator and interlocutor in relation to the chosen channel.
It is equally essential that you also clearly highlight the roles within the story you have decided to tell: those who follow you must understand, through the narration, who is the hero and what are the qualities that characterize him, who is the enemy or the antagonist who opposes his mission, who will benefit from the resolution of the conflict and who (or what) can help the protagonist. Well-developed storytelling should therefore always follow this scheme:
the public discovers that there is a hero (i.e. your brand) that has a mission to accomplish to bring a concrete advantage (to your customers); to do so, he will have to face an antagonist (e.g. unfavorable market conditions or the failure to use a product) but he will also be able to count on a helper (the product or service to be marketed).
You can find great examples of brands that have created compelling and impactful stories: check out this (albeit slightly dated) list from Mediabuzz.
Applying these patterns and these basic rules in corporate storytelling reveals that it is not a simple task and not the exclusive prerogative of the creative resources within the company. It requires an all-round competence that combines the ability to exploit narrative potential with solid preparation on the management and organizational front, without neglecting a certain acumen in the analysis of the contexts in which one operates, from the evaluation of competitors to the choice of communication channels.
What are we talking about when we talk about storytelling?
There is no standard definition, but we could describe storytelling – or to be more precise corporate storytelling – as the art of using the patterns and models of narrative storytelling in order to communicate the thailand mobile phone numbers database image of a brand and its products. It is therefore a trait d'union at a marketing level, since it manages to connect the potential of corporate communication (especially with regards to the digital scenario) with the great wealth of references and knowledge that we can represent through the development of a story.
Every form of narration has its own structure that blends rationality and emotion, verisimilitude and fiction. An effective story involves, excites, inspires: it is not difficult to understand how high the potential of storytelling is for the purposes of corporate promotion and sharing values with potential customers. So think about how you could tell what you do through a story: think about what, among the activities you do, is able to fascinate your audience, how to imprint a positive memory in the memory of a reader, how to guide potential customers to action.
The Structure of Narration: How to Make the Most of the Basic Rules in Storytelling
No pretense of bothering great scholars of language like Propp, Eco or Barthes, but it is undoubted that, to understand how to create effective stories, you need to know their architecture, their framework. And, even before this, the objective is to understand what you want to create through storytelling : what kind of corporate identity you want to bring out, with which symbols and references you want to involve and excite your audience, which tools you consider most effective to obtain the desired results.
Starting from the classic schemes of definition of the narrative model, we can say that all stories must (or at least should) have a development that, from a starting situation, leads the reader to recognize the existence of a problem to be solved or a challenge to be overcome, with a character - the protagonist/hero - who works to overcome them in the name of the set of values he embodies; the culminating moment of the story resolves, positively or negatively, this tension and from this process the reader can draw a moral. Translated into marketing terms, you can interpret this path by imagining that your brand is the protagonist, which tries to resolve, thanks to what it is able to offer, an adverse situation determined by the presence of a real problem, also arousing an emotion such as to make the reader's thoughts adhere to the company's vision.
It is clear that, in order to produce a concrete effect on your audience, storytelling must respect some communicative functions, as they are understood in the classic model of Roman Jakobson: the conative one, linked to persuasion and the call to action; the poetic one, to draw attention to the form of the story; the effort one, connected to maintaining contact between narrator and interlocutor in relation to the chosen channel.
It is equally essential that you also clearly highlight the roles within the story you have decided to tell: those who follow you must understand, through the narration, who is the hero and what are the qualities that characterize him, who is the enemy or the antagonist who opposes his mission, who will benefit from the resolution of the conflict and who (or what) can help the protagonist. Well-developed storytelling should therefore always follow this scheme:
the public discovers that there is a hero (i.e. your brand) that has a mission to accomplish to bring a concrete advantage (to your customers); to do so, he will have to face an antagonist (e.g. unfavorable market conditions or the failure to use a product) but he will also be able to count on a helper (the product or service to be marketed).
You can find great examples of brands that have created compelling and impactful stories: check out this (albeit slightly dated) list from Mediabuzz.
Applying these patterns and these basic rules in corporate storytelling reveals that it is not a simple task and not the exclusive prerogative of the creative resources within the company. It requires an all-round competence that combines the ability to exploit narrative potential with solid preparation on the management and organizational front, without neglecting a certain acumen in the analysis of the contexts in which one operates, from the evaluation of competitors to the choice of communication channels.