Kissa Kahani Ka..

Guest Lectures, to be frank, are generally a mundane affair. A speaker from a reputed organization comes.. Accolades are lavished, people clap.. and soon after a power-point presentation starts and people enjoy siesta, only to be disturbed by the claps in the end. So, when i was to attend the guest lecture of "Consumer Behavior".. i already had planned to make up for my lack of sleep.

In between the routine talks, there was one particular moment, which stimulated me. He was asking what is the most influential theme of communication, and all of us are giving answers which are consistent with the marketing jargon to which we are highly exposed day-to-day. His simple response was " story telling"... and yes it is the most influential tool for communication.

If we look it on a bigger scale, all our beliefs come from telling and listening story. What are religions ? A grand collection of stories to be the best. Why panchatantra is so popular ? because simple moral values are depicted through perfect sweet little stories. Stories are the way to help the audience relate to the incident and feel the consequences as if it were their own.

Take example of children, in their younger age of development, values are imparted to them by the means of story telling. Imagine saying to a child " Telling lie is bad ".. or " Hurting others is bad "... and they will reply " ok... but wats the big issue.. why it is bad... what are the consequences !! So, the stories and fables are constructed where there is a protagonist depicting the same behavorial patterns as our child can imagine, and then we can make him understand the consequences by telling him the fate of that protagonist .

People in general, do not change much from their childhood days. They still need a story to be stimulated by some marketing communication. That's why you might observe that most of the successful brands are the brands which have a story to tell. If you have heritage associated with the brand, nothing could be better than this.. but if you do not have , you have to construct a story around it. Just type "balbir pasha" in you tube and you can witness how creating a story can send the message across more effectively..

So next time when you have to market something or market yourselves, think of some story.. because its not the product, its not the benefits, its about the story by which you can engage your customers...

P.S. By the time i wrote this, our football team has done very well to play 2 very good competitive matches, and now we can tell this story for other sports too.. to motivate people.