Consumer decisions and behaviors are increasingly driven by the opinions, tastes and preferences of an exponentially large global pool of friends, peers and influencers. Social activities have become the place where consumers tell their stories. 70% of consumers hear of other's experience of brands and 65% learn about products and services. Brand storytelling is not about telling your brand story -- it is about making the consumer the hero. Today’s consumer has the ability to share their hero journey and it is our job as marketers to be the herald of their story.

1. 1
Brand Storytelling
Find the universal truth …
and find those who want to hear it.
Kim Donlan
KDonlan@RedSwan5.co
m

2. What‟s my story.
2
‣ Brand/Digital strategist
• Consumer: Beyonce to Nickelodeon to
Gillette
• Publishing: Scholastic to Pearson to
Macmillian
• Education: Harvard Business School and
Harvard‟s Office of the Arts
• Technology: Demandware to Where
(PayPal)
‣ Media psychologist
‣ A girl who tells a great story
A die-hard brander, idea
launcher, entrepreneur, marketer

3. 3
Is the brain wired for story?
Understanding how we think.
Why storytelling?
Heroes, myths and legends. 1
2
Successful stories formulas?
Find the universal truth and let people talk about it. 3

4. 4
Seth Godwin, All Marketers are
Liars
“Consumers believe
stories. Without this
belief, there is no
marketing.”

5. Storytelling Defined
5
‣ Narrative and
storytelling are
interchangeable
‣ Narratives are the
stories we tell ourselves
and others about
everything we do
‣ Stories seem authentic.
Authenticity is
perception not attributes
Story is a reimagined
experience narrated
with enough detail
and feeling to cause
your listeners
imaginations to
experience it as real.

6. Consumers Ignore Confusing Stories
6
Make snap decisions…they know when you are faking it.
Malcolm Gladwells, Blink.
‣ Humans make decisions without data and will do
anything to not be proven wrong
• Applies to interviews, dates, friends, products, services, brands
‣ Confusing stories are ignored (cause panic)
‣ Compelling stories are embraced
• Even if it is fear. (Fear is irresistible)

7. Every Story has a Hero
7
‣ Based on ageless myth patterns and common
archetypes
‣ Universal stories in every culture called the Hero‟s
Journey
‣ Archetypes – constantly repeating characters that
occur in myths of all cultures
• Young hero
• Wise old woman/man
• Shape shifter
• Shadowy antagonist
Heroes, Myths and Legends
Joseph Campbell‟s: The Hero with a Thousand Faces: A Hero‟s
Journey
Carl G. Jung: Archetypes: The collective conscious

8. 8
A Hero‟s Journey
looks like this…but
transferred to a
brand
Crossing the
first
Threshold
Challenges
Revelation
Transforme
d
Ordea
l
Retur
n
With
Exlier
Refus
al
of the
Call
Call
to
Action
Central
Ordeal
Temptation
s
Rewar
d
Begin
Transformatio
n
Resurrectio
n
The Road Back
Test
Transformatio
n

9. 9
Crossing the
first
Threshold
Exists
Revelation
Transforme
d
Forgiv
e
Loyal
to the
Story
Refus
al
of the
Call
Call
to
Action
Known for
something I
care about
Known for
Something
Defend
Begin
Transformatio
n
The Road Back
Test
Transformatio
n
Represent
s me
Adapted from Google „s Presentation at
Hubspot Conference 2012
is a new way to look at
marketing where the
consumer is the hero

10. 10
Is the brain wired for story?
Understanding how we think.
Why storytelling?
Heroes, myths and legends. 1
2
Successful stories formulas?
Find the universal truth and let people talk about it. 3

11. 11
Jonah Lehrer, How We Decide.
“The reason emotions are
so intelligent is they turn
mistakes into educational
events.”

12. 12
Emotional Thinking Drives
Decisions
‣ The sting of spending money
can‟t compete with the thrill
of getting something new
‣ Whichever emotion you feel
most intensely tends to
dictate your shopping
decision.
Research based on Consider this Clever, Brain Knutson and George Loewenstein, Neural Predicto
How we Decide, Jonah Lehrer

13. Humans Think in Story
‣ Human beings are social animals
‣ Seek connection and intimacy from exchange of
information and shared experience
‣ Behavior is based on the believed story
‣ Humans organize and covey experiences to
themselves and one another through story
13

14. Story is Constant
14
5 hours per day on TV and movies (does
not include downloading)
2000 day dreams per day = 2 hours
14 seconds is average length of a day
dream
National endowment for the Arts 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009
Shaffer et all, 2006 pg 623 Motion Picture Associations of America 2006
Solms 2003 Dream Researcher Owen Flanagan 2000 pg 10.
8 hours scientist believe we are in story-
like dream state
50% of Americans
still read fiction but
only 20 minutes a
day
Awake and Asleep

15. Brand Story Become Part of Your
Story
‣ How we saw it
‣ Used It
‣ What it was like
‣ Who told us
‣ What we heard about it
‣ Who we were with
‣ Where we are now because
of it
15
The brand becomes part of our life through the
experience of:
Rutledge, Pamela, Narrative and Media 2012

16. Stories have become social
activities?
16
Consumer decisions and behaviors are increasingly
driven by the opinions, tastes and preferences of an
exponentially large global pool of friends, peers and
influencers.
70%Hear other‟s experience
65%Learn more about
brands/products/services
53%Compliment brands
50%Express concerns and
complaints
2012 Nielson Social Media Report
2012 Oxford handbook of media psychology

17. 17
Is the brain wired for story?
Understanding how we think.
Why storytelling?
Heroes, myths and legends. 1
2
Successful stories formulas?
Find the universal truth and let people talk about it. 3

18. 18
“Stories change in the
telling and in the
telling, they change you.”

19. The Secret Formula
19
‣ Reveal something personal and unknown about
the person or brand
‣ Tap into a specific emotion to move people to
action
• fear, desire, anger, or happiness
‣ Take a person on a journey where there is a
transformation between the
beginning, middle, and the end
‣ Be simple: tap into the audience‟s imagination so
that they willingly go along for the journey
Your Story Must:

20. Tell simple stories in many ways?
20
Experience is becoming increasingly personalized, participatory
and social with sharing of information and stories.
92%Actively multi-source news/info
20%of media consumption on
mobile devices (e.g. iPod)
21%Spending more time on pc and
smartphone
2012 Oxford handbook of media psychology
76%Spend more time on mobile
apps than mobile web

21. People Seek Good Stories
21
From marketers who honestly believe their own stories
‣ Legos
• “We do not sell toys, we sell imagination”
‣ Apple
• “We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge
the status quo is by making our products beautifully
designed, simple to use and user friendly.
‣ Britain‟s Got Talent
• “We sell dreams”
People don‟t buy what you
do; they buy why you do it.
And if you talk about what
you believe, you will attract
those who believe what you
believe.*
Simon Senek, Ted Talk: Start with Why.

22. The Story is What People Buy
22
Large Audiences Require Simple Stories*
‣ It is your brand truth
‣ It is not features, products, promise or attributes
‣ It is the story they tell you that they want reflected
back
Howard Gardner, Changing Minds: The art and science of changing your and other people‟s minds.

23. Competing with Competitor‟s Story
‣ Don‟t tell the same story, tell a different story
‣ Dig deep to find the classic, universal myth
‣ Tell the story to/for the people who want to hear it
‣ Frame it as a hero‟s journey – where the consumer
is the hero – not you or your brand.
23
You can‟t change minds, but you can change the story

24. 24
Jewish Proverb.
“What is truer than truth.
The story.”

25. 25
We are beasts of emotion more than logic.
We are creatures of story, and the process
of changing one mind or the whole world
must begin with “Once upon a time.”
Gottschall, J. , 2012 The Storytelling Animal: How Stories make us Human

26. 26
Kim Donlan
KDonlan@RedSwan5.co
m
“Today‟s consumer
has the ability to
share their hero
journey and it is our
job as marketers to
be the herald of their
story.”