What’s the Story, Morning Glory?

Every brand is a story.

Anyone interested in marketing should live this, breath this, tattoo this to memory.

Popeyes will give you Louisiana flavor for generally under ten dollars and ten minutes. Maybelline promises that their make-up products will make you look so incredible, people will think you were born that way. Disney tells everyone that anything they dream can come true, often through anthropomorphic characters singing.

Bottom line: you’re not purchasing a pair of Nikes for the name or the mythology reference; you’re adding yourself to the quilt of the Just Do It story. The public isn’t buying you; they’re buying the story you’re trying to sell.

Social Storybook

The boom of social media has unintentionally given its users an opportunity to brand themselves on the Internet. Every post or picture is another piece to the story of their lives. Essentially, a timeline has become a never-ending, perpetually updating anthology of the lives of one’s acquaintances and oneself.  

Many successful marketers have managed to use this to their advantage, turning it into a new digital marketplace. While a considerably economic tool to use to reach a wide audience, the true challenge comes in finding timeline real estate. Today’s consumer is already so bogged down by a ceaseless stream of content. Everyone is trying to tell his or her stories at once that a brand’s message gets lost in the clutter.

The Choice Isn’t Yours

Facebook, among other social media platforms, is constantly updating its algorithms to filter the content that its users are able to see. Many businesses can easily see this as bad news bears because it drastically limits the playing field in the social media marketing game. The undertaking becomes creating social media content that weaves such a compelling story that the average Twitter user will actually stop their habitual scrolling and take in what’s being sold.

Psycho-economist Sheena Iyengar shares very interesting views on the importance of making choosing easier for consumers in this TEDtalk embedded below:

Perhaps the most relevant point Iyengar makes is that when presenting your wares, you need to make it easy for the customer to absorb the whole scenario without having to think. In selling your brand’s story in the social media marketplace, making your content easy to digest is tantamount to making a statement. To be your client’s choice, you have to make it as simple for them as possible.