Articles

I’ve Got A Story To Tell

In this increasingly transactionally focussed, mono-dimensional retail world we live in many of us have lost sight of the most powerful weapon in the retail armoury.

Story telling.

What has been true since the beginnings of time is the power of story telling to persuade, teach, motivate, compel and communicate. For all stakeholder groups, active support of a retail business or brand is based on the power of it's story. From Woolworth's "fresh food people" to Louis Vuitton's "150 years of luxury goods craftsmanship" the power of cleverly constructed stories is to motivate staff, investors, customers and community to carry the business to higher levels of success.

Stories help us to connect to what makes the business better than and different to its competitors in a way that we don't just get it, but are excited by it.

There are very few of us who do not know the story behind the brands we truly love. Not just the mnemonics of a jingle, an advertisement or the brand iconography, but the story of what makes it worthwhile to us.

Great stories don't just communicate to the early adopter or first receiver of that message. They give us something that we can re-tell and in the re-telling we feel even more connected to that brand or business. Far from Telstra commercial's hapless father scrambling to invent the Emperor Nasi Goreng and the rabbits to fill a massive memory void, great story-telling in retail creates images and emotion so powerful that it is instantly memorable and compelling to on-sell to our family and peers.

The innovation & aesthetic appeal of Apple. Tom Ford's glamorous re-birth of Gucci. The playful experience of Build-a-Bear. Ralph Lauren's wonderfully aspirational 21st century Gatsby dream.

They resonate on both a rational and emotional level with everyone who comes into contact with the businesses.

So what is your story and how do you use it in every thing you do, to every stakeholder you have to powerfully imprint your brand and motivate them to support you?