“ONCE UPON A TIME”
WHY STORYTELLING IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO MARKETERS
Guest Blog Post By Fabrice Briatte (Montreal)
FRENCH TRANSLATION ALSO AVAILABLE 
Once upon a time, there was a world where people didn’t watch TV any more.
There was a world where people used adblockers when they go to the Internet.
People wanted brands to talk to them only when they needed it.
Marketers couldn’t attract attention by disturbing them anymore.
But there was a little fairy full of emotions called ‘Storytelling’ that could help marketers.
Here is her story 😉
Micro Moments Are Changing The Rules
The importance of moments
Our life is made up of micro-moments.
These micro-moments are changing the relationship between brands and clients.
We spend most of these micro-moments through the Internet.
According to Google, there are four types of “Micro Moments”
(1) I Want To Know Moments
When someone is exploring, but is not in purchase mode.
(2) I Want To Go Moments
When someone is considering buying a product at local store.
(3) I Want To Do Moments
When someone needs help finishing a task or wants to do something new.
(4) I Want To Buy Moments
When someone is ready to buy, and may need help.
All these micro-moments represent chances for brands to engage with the clients.
Brands can make this experience great just by giving the right information at the right time.
30,000 Decisions Every Day
Micro-moments, micro-experiences mean micro-decisions.
We make more than 30,000 micro-decisions a day.
It means we have too much information.
Do we have the time to analyze them?
No, we don’t!
This is why we are looking for tailored content.
Personalisation Makes Our Choice Easier
We give away a large amount of data to companies.
In turn, they should help us to make our choices easier.
As an example, 75 percent of user activity on Netflix is driven by tailored advices.
Emotion Makes Us Act
Giving tailored advice however, is not enough.
We need a touch of EMOTION to bring us to buy.
As Alan Weiss has noted, “Logic makes people think; emotion makes them act.” Even if we ask factual questions, our emotions finally lead our choices.
Microsoft has found that our attention span is now less than that of a goldfish.
To face this situation, we can no longer use old marketing strategies.
No more marketing campaigns focusing on the promise of a product with limited emotional thought.
Procter & Gamble Focused On Empathy & Emotions
The best-case study to explain this is taken from Proctor & Gamble’s Always® brand.
In 2013, they noticed their message was no longer reaching their young target audience anymore.
The reason was because they focused mostly on product features.
They decided to focus more on people.
They began to understand their clients on a deeper level.
They discovered that half the women claimed they experienced a decline in confidence at puberty.
In response, Proctor & Gamble developed a social media campaign called #likeagirl
It focused on empathy and emotions.
It worked.
Emotion is the key to convey our message.
Always #LikeAGirl
Storytelling Is An Excellent Emotional Tool
Storytelling is one of the great tools that can help us engage through emotions.
First, we need to understand the specific problem our clients have.
Then we have to find how we can solve it.
Clients want to get to the point fast.
We need to focus on how we can solve their problem or make their life easier.
We need to address them through a story. It will create a sense of fit to their needs.
Think Like Filmmakers
1) A story has to start with a familiar situation.
Then it has to be broken up by a problem. In this way, we catch the attention.
2) The story explains what can happen if we do nothing.
We need to find a solution.
3) Then, we bring a solution to create a comfort zone for the client.
They feel better.
They will continue to listen to the story in order to get the solution
4) Every story ends with a strong call-to-action!!
Since emotions drive our purchase decisions, storytelling represents a powerful tool.
It creates a world where brands and clients can share an awesome experience.
Personalised Storytelling & Profitability Is Challenging
Everyone wants a tailored story.
We as marketers need to build this one-to-one connection between our brand and our clients.
Among the customer base, there exist multiple micro-niches.
Telling stories for each micro-niche while striving to maintain a profitable business is a challenge.
Data Driven Culture Can Help
Tailored storytelling can only work if our company has a data driven culture.
By placing a high value on data, the process of collecting customer data, defining micro-niches and detailed analysis become prioritized.
From there, we will be able to create stories talking about customer emotions by leveraging Artificial Intelligence.
The algorithms will be able to help increase relevance for each micro-niche.
As we continue to feed the algorithm additional data, the end results become more and more relevant.
In conclusion, we live in a world constrained by decreasing time and increasing information.
Storytelling is one of the solutions to talk to people who make decisions driven by their emotions.
Meet Fabrice Briatte
Fabrice Briatte has 15 years of marketing experience across several continents.
He is an Innovation Project Manager at Loto-Quebec.
He leads Design Thinking effort through memorable experiences.
He reinvigorated the sales of a major product by 20%.
He developed a new category of games bringing 300 million of dollars in five years.
He follows the market trends and customer data.
He is a real insight engine to help executive decisions.
He loves to turn customer data into impactful stories!!
“ONCE UPON A TIME”
WHY STORYTELLING IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO MARKETERS
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
(1) HOW TO SHARE YOUR STORY ON A LIMITED BUDGET
(2) GET YOUR BUSINESS BOOMING WITH STORYTELLING
(3) BUILD TRUST BY SHARING YOUR STORY
(4) THE JOURNEY SO FAR
