Getting Others to Tell Your Story: A Lesson from Jungle Book

Very few books have ever brought me to tears. In Runyard Kipling’s ‘The Second JungleBook’ the wolf pack central to the book fights a long and hard battle against a group of invading wild dogs. At the end of it, the former pack leader, Akela, dies after helping the pack achieve victory. It is a poignant moment, drawn out as, aided by a teenage Mowgli, fully cognisant that his time is near, he staggers to his feet and sings his final farewell. As a young teenager reading it for the first time and having grown very attached to the character during the book I was deeply and emotionally moved (unlike the sanitised and totally non-literary death of Akela in the current Disney film which merely passed as an annoying incident). Then I dried my eyes, closed the book, put it back on the shelf and carried on with my life. No change in behaviour necessary.

The last couple of weeks we have been talking about telling your story; the story of your business, your product, what drives you. It is great to have a strong and emotional story, but your story is only of value to your business if it motivates people to action. The aim of telling a tale is to promote behavioural change in the listener. This could be to get the consumer to buy your product or it could be to get buy- in from your staff to behave in a particular manner towards your clients (which in turn makes them buy your product). Beyond just the act of increasing your profit margin, you really want them to tell your story to others.

In the same way that I can retell you the tale of The Jungle Book, you want your clients and staff to pass your story on as they recount their experience of interacting with your business and product. I remember the first time some friends of mine stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago. These were seasoned travellers, well used to hotels and travel. They came back raving. There were stories of everyone knowing your name, experiments with leaving clothes on the floor, the comfort of the beds; you just could not shut them up. They told the hotel’s story. The hotel’s website is full of stunning pictures, but it does not do the justice of a personal recommendation from a friend backed up by emotional stories of an incredible experience.

So how do you get others to tell your story? It starts with you. Firstly create a suitably emotional tale that moves people to action. Then back it up with your own action. No one likes a hypocrite so your story better be true. Give people a reason to behave in the way you want. Reward and affirm staff who emulate the behaviour you desire. Check that the client interaction experience matches the values you have put into your business. Look for other stories that reinforce your story. So if you are a restaurant owner and you see a waiter doing something that makes a client’s experience incredible (for example offering a free dessert to the guy who is trying to impress his lady but you can see is a little cash strapped) take that story on board and tell it alongside yours.

Give your staff the opportunity and freedom to make the choices that enable them to tell your story. A lot of businesses hamstring their staff with rigidity and rules. Take the waiter in the restaurant for example. Enabling a waiter to give away something, not bank breaking, but allowing them once in a while to make a decision to enhance a client’s experience without consulting management is liberating. It liberates the waiter to think and react to ‘on the floor’ moments, it liberates the manager to trust the waiter. Of course there is accountability, of course there are limits, but it is not rigid and restrictive.

Too many end-of-line client interactors are merely robots doing a job without the power to enable decisions. So the clothing store clerk has no idea about fashion, no idea about colour interaction, no idea how to read a client coming into the store and direct them to the appropriate section. Nor do they want to because advising a client goes beyond their job description and if they did they would probably get rapped over the knuckles because, after all, their job is to merely take the money, not to create a shopping experience. If you want to see a local store that is getting it right visit an Electrosales branch. Every salesman on the floor knows how to help me, and if he can’t he knows who to call. It makes going there a pleasure. It makes me want to tell their story.

Tell, empower, act, and tell it again. This process takes time but it gets results. Until next time, in the words of Akela, “Good Hunting!”

Story Telling in Advertising

I grew up at a time when television was a limited commodity-well in Zimbabwe anyway. The station began broadcasting late in the afternoon (late enough to get some serious play in as well as finish your homework) and switched off shortly after midnight. With limited television time came limited advertising space. So when an advert showed it was really competing for space and attention. Despite this, many were, sadly, forgettable. There are two adverts that stand out in my brain when it comes to my childhood. Along with the theme tunes to Voltron and Captain Planet; the Toughees “Rhino advert” and Perfection’s “Where’s is mysoap” occupy a happy space in the portion of my temporal lobe that stores my past.

Why on earth would these two adverts stick in my brain when so many of the others did not? Neither of them presents any facts and figures about the actual product. It is precisely this reason that they worked so well. They work because they tell a story that transcends the product and connects with their audience. Chances are that if you ever saw the shoe advert that you started humming the theme tune the minute I referred to it; it was simply that powerful.

Getting your product across to people; whether it a presentation or an advert can come in three forms. Facts: the size, speed, efficiency, colour, how quick it takes to get the job done. In advertising this is the equivalent of a 1960’s voiceover ad, or the fake doctor telling you why he uses a particular brand. Second is evidence, showing why it works better than what you are using now. This is the brand a versus brand b type advert that seems to dominate the washing powder industry. Neither of these connects really well with people when compared to the third option: the story.

Whether you are flighting an advert or pitching a product to an investor you have to connect with your audience. Nothing connects faster than emotion. The best way to generate emotion is through a great story. Not just the classic Grade 7 model of a story that has a beginning, middle and end, but something more akin to a hero/villain tale with a problem, crisis and resolution. Condensing that story into under a minute makes a great advert.

There is a school of thought that the days of mass marketing are over; that television adverts are a waste of money because they no longer work in a world dominated by information. I’m not so sure that this is quite true. I just think we need to tell better stories. Certainly the infomercial’s days are numbered. The telemarketing with cold facts that try and build an emotion while bombarding you with product pictures is doomed to obsolescence. Part of this is the emotion they are building is fear. Through telling you there is a limited time offer, with a limited supply, and limited bargains for the first few orders it generates action by making you feel you are missing out. Bring out a great story that oozes positive emotion and the infomercial will lose every time.

Another aspect of the problem is today’s grapple for mind space. There is more information today than we have time to watch or process. We rely on headline news and recommendations of others to decide what is worth watching. So the infomercial worked well in the past because there were a few local channels to watch on television and nothing else. Today I have the internet with podcasts, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Udemy, blogs, Youtube, Netflix, a host of other streaming channels, as well as good old television with more channels on my DSTv bouquet than I need.

Despite all this volume so many people tell their story really badly, mediocre at best. That mediocrity gets drowned out in the hubbub of voices clamouring for attention. A great story climbs above that and naturally draws people to it because it resonates with them. Humans love sharing emotional stories. Great stories get shared and passed along to others.

A story must relate to the target audience. As much as I have a personal loathing for the hungry lion and zebra advert that plays before movies at the moment, it works because the children in its target market can relate to it (especially since there is a strong similarity to a mainstream cartoon movie). Comparatively, the brilliant 2015 Extra Gum commercial that ends in a proposal relates to me because I can vividly remember going down on one knee with a ring.

There must be a crisis or conflict situation. This can include a villain- in adverts the role of villain is often filled by the problem as opposed to a scary character. A couple being apart, a pile of dirty dishes, a child running through the dirt, running out of fuel, a question to be answered all work for this.

Finally there must be a resolution with a better outcome for the hero, one that ties in with your product and the reason for using it. A positive emotional ending is a powerful tool. People will remember how they feel every time they see your product.

Spend some time this week watching commercials critically, not just on television but invest in bandwidth and check out some on Youtube. Examine why some resonate with you and others do not. Then check your personal story and where it could do with a bit of polishing. Do it right and you could knock the Toughees advert out of my brain.