How To Use Storytelling In Your Marketing

Storytelling is one of the most underutilized tools in marketing. In this blog post, we will show you how to use storytelling in your marketing.

Coffee… a household staple in cupboards around the world.

Coffee subcultures abound throughout history and in many locales.

With so many different choices to make when purchasing coffee, what drives a consumer to one brand over the other?

And how can this relate to your business?

When thinking about coffee, some would say taste, quality, convenience and cost are of the utmost importance to the consumer.

When marketing a staple product, it seems obvious to focus on these features.

However, there is more to understanding success in the vast coffee market than that.

We can learn this by reviewing one of the most successful marketing campaigns in coffee history – marketing messages that barely even mention coffee at all.

Let me tell you a story:

In 1964, Tim Horton, a former professional hockey player, opened his first coffee shop. Today Forbes estimates the Tim Horton’s brand worth to be $4.5 billion.

In 1994, Tim Horton’s began a ‘True Stories’ advertising campaign that captured the hearts – and wallets – of Canadians. The stories showed how the brand wished to be interwoven with the very fabric of Canadian life.

Due to its success in, “bringing Canadian values to life,” in 2018, Tim Horton’s revived the ‘True Stories’ campaign and continues to accept ‘True Stories’, which Canadians can submit and view on their website.

Here is one example of a ‘True Story’:

With these commercials, Tim Horton’s has been successful in convincing their customers that purchasing Tim Horton’s coffee is a Canadian activity.

They wish to show the customer how their product not only fits into their lives, but consuming their products is an emotional, sometimes patriotic, experience.

The Tim Hortons campaign effectively engages customers, by having them write the marketing content.

The Tim Horton’s ‘True Stories’ campaign is one example of using storytelling as an effective marketing technique.

Storytelling can help you to achieve the same outcomes as Tim Horton’s: increased customer engagement, higher brand recognition and affiliation, and hopefully, increased sales!

How Can you Use Storytelling to Market Your Business?

You do not have to be the CEO of a large company to think carefully about your brand, and use the techniques of storytelling to sell your product.

Even if you are sole proprietor, you can put these tips to use in free or low cost marketing campaigns.

1. Understand your brand’s identity – if you are telling a story, who is your main character?  Who your brand is, is typically connected to your company values, and mission statement. Think of your brand as having a personality – what do they do for fun? What do they value in life?  How do they behave towards other people? If you are the only member of your business, be careful about making the brand ‘you’. The brand should stay separate from who you are as a person. They might be like you in some ways, but not all.

2. Think about your customer – who are they, what do they value, and what do they want to see?  Your customer may already have expectations about your brand based on your name, location, or the look of your logo, packaging, sign, or website – what attracted your first customer to you? Why did they decide to try you out?

3. Know your product – what does it represent to your target audience?   What do they think after trying your product?  How does this product fit well in or solve a problem in your customer’s lives? Does your brand align with your product attributes and features?

4. Develop your character – write the story of how your brand came to be, and how the brand and product embody the qualities the consumer expects or hopes for in your product.

5. Consider your marketing budget, media available, and most effective platforms to tell your story – Social media platforms are free or cheap ways to get your message out, but you must use them effectively:

   1. Facebook – ideal for longer narratives, can combine multiple images and video. The basic look and feel of facebook cannot be altered, but you can add a lot of content in one post.

   2. Instagram – Facebook’s picture-filled cousin, ideal for video montage

   3. Twitter – ideal for punchy, humorous questions. Great for engaging your stakeholders, including competitors, or other brands..

Tailor your message and ways customers can engage with your brand depending on the media you are using.

6. Develop your story with multiple installments and customer feedback –  Testimonials have always been effective marketing, however, storytelling goes a step beyond that. Stories have a main character, who has a reason for action, who must resolve a conflict.  The stories should reflect the customer’s emotional attachment, not only their use or enjoyment of the brand, but affiliation with the character and their journey.

7. Leave them wanting more – good storytelling ends when it ends, not always when the audience wants or expects it to.  Your story should have some natural conclusion, as engagement peaks and as your major message is resolved.

As we see with Tim Horton’s ‘True Stories’ campaign, timing is important.

The campaign was shelved for a long period before being reintroduced.

Many companies have stopped using once-beloved mascots, or ended successful storytelling campaigns, when they no longer are reflective of the values of the company, the brand, or the consumer, and, regardless of their perceived popularity, are shelved before they lose their relevance.

Looking for More on Storytelling in Marketing?

Storytelling and its use in marketing is a well-studied subject, and the publications you will find on the topic will cover the writing process, the creative process, or the marketing and branding process.

It will be your job to piece these disciplines together into a cohesive and effective campaign.

Consider the skill sets you already possess and can use to write your story.

Here are a few favourite storytelling and marketing books to help you fill in the gaps:

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini

The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster, and Win More Business, by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman.

Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work,and Keep Going, three books by Austin Kleon.Resonate, by Nancy Duarte