How To Use Story To Carry Out Marketing Communication?

In the era of people's numbness of information, how can an enterprise make itself?

This is an age of information flooding. People instinctively refuse to be overwhelmed by information.

People are tired of chattering and preaching over the thick smell of copper, and want to avoid it.

The tedious preaching in vulgar advertisements has no attraction, and the huge advertising cost is wasted in people's changing channels.

Why is such a key marketing communication so feeble? How can marketing communication be more attractive?

Communication tools in the age of information overload

In the era of people's numbness of information, the most scarce resource is a happy and touching story.

They are just like a cool and dreary joy in the sultry heat, with incomparable penetration and infectivity, and they penetrate into people's senses.

In particular, legendary, tortuous, conflict, dramatic, disseminated and heritage stories will undoubtedly become a sharp weapon in marketing communication.

This attractive way of communication has achieved many business legends and has created many successful brands.

Zippo is the world's No.1 lighters manufacturer. So far, no lighters manufacturer has been able to shake its dominance. This is due to its excellent quality and excellent anti-counterfeiting design.

Zippo created a series of wonderful stories: the lighter that had been swallowed into the belly of the fish was intact; in Vietnam, Anthony blocked the bullet to save his life; he sent a distress signal by the fire of Zippo; he even cooked a pot of porridge with a lighter.

All of them impressed the audience and increased people's interest in Zippo brand.

In addition, Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, KFC, Marlboro, Gillette, Ford and so on also rely on stories to achieve outstanding brands.

As a popular and interesting way of communication, stories become an important way of effective communication in the age of information overflow.

Therefore, understanding and strategy of story marketing mechanism is very important for improving communication efficiency.

EdwardWachtman and ShereeL.Johnson published in the magazine "ThePersuasivePowerofStory" published in the magazine "MarketingManagement" (Marketing Management), explained the misunderstanding of traditional communication, the mechanism of story communication, and how to start story communication, which has certain reference significance for Chinese enterprises who are striving to improve the efficiency of marketing communication.

Misunderstanding of traditional marketing communication

From the general exclusion of corporate advertising, we can see that traditional marketing has entered the misunderstanding of communication, and the farther and farther it is, the huge advertising cost of many enterprises has been invested in the sermon of little effect and chattering.

The following are the main misunderstanding of traditional marketing communication.

Audience's cognitive misunderstanding.

"Wine is not afraid of deep alley" is the people's reputation for genuine goods. However, in reality, many high quality and cost-effective products have been defeated in the market competition.

For ordinary people, people's cognition is limited. Just like the food with high nutritional value and low color, aroma and flavor is easily rejected by people.

Therefore, marketing communication should face up to the audience's cognitive inertia. It's not that people will be interested in information about good products. Only by overcoming people's cognitive inertia can communication enable viewers to understand the contents behind the information.

The content of communication is limited.

People have metaphysical needs, and brands can create metaphysical meanings and symbols.

The traditional content of communication tends to describe the product itself, propagate the brand, unable to extend the connotation of products and brands vividly and vividly, and give the products and brands more vivid emotional content.

Information is rigid.

The traditional advertisement expression tends to the statement of fact, directly appealing and expressing, making the information unable to be full of vividness and flesh and blood. Rigid information expression can not attract people's attention effectively.

The mechanism of story marketing

Story marketing is a kind of marketing and communication mode that can arouse consumers' interests and resonates, and enhance consumers' recognition of the key attributes of a brand by using related business events, legendary experiences, historical and cultural stories or fabricated legends.

Through the change of communication content and communication mode, story communication can easily arouse emotional resonance between enterprises and consumers.

Two changes brought about

The effect of marketing communication depends largely on the content and mode of communication. Story marketing is different from traditional marketing communication in terms of communication content and communication mode. In communication, it mainly solves two problems of consumers: one is metaphysical emotion and symbolic demand, the other two is the Cognitive Inertia of consumers in communication.

Stories can give products or brands with emotion and symbolism through fictional plots, thus satisfying people's metaphysical needs.

Shaanxi liquor brand "Tai Bai Yi Chu" building fully embodies this: according to local legend, when Damour was practicing in Taibai Mountain, he drank too much liquor every day and founded drunken fist. One of his little disciples could not resist the temptation of wine, secretly smuggled the master's wine into a small pot to drink in the back mountain. As a result, the wine was spilled into the spring without careful care, and the spring water immediately smelling full of fragrance, and the downstream passers-by competed for drinking.

This little story has become the brand foundation of "Tai Bai Yi Chu Chu", which is widely circulated in the locals.

At the same time, the story can attract interesting elements such as interest, liveliness and tortuosity by its plot design, so as to overcome people's Cognitive Inertia and achieve effective communication effect.

Stories can expand the content of communication from simple products or brands to more easily inspiring feelings and symbols, and humanize products through specific stories, so that people can unconsciously recognize and accept ideas or products from their minds and feelings.

Psychological research shows that rational behavior is often driven by perceptual factors. People are perceptual people, driven by the sensibility of stories to drive their rational behavior.

Story marketing has changed the dull way of communication, attracting people's attention with vivid, lively and interesting expression.

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Persuasion of stories

Because of the two changes in story marketing, the story has strong persuasion in communication.

EdwardWachtman and ShereeL.Johnson believe that the story is convincing because:

Stories teach people.

Story is an important way to disseminate knowledge. Many ancient knowledge is disseminated through stories.

Stories can effectively educate people and change people's cognition.

Stories can unite people.

Sharing the same story is sharing the same beliefs and experiences, making people form common values and finding a sense of belonging.

Stories can give meaning.

Stories enable us to examine our lives in a broader perspective and to give ordinary life and behavior a broader meaning.

Stories can stimulate behavior.

Stories can stimulate people's emotions and stimulate people's behavior. The sensibility of stories can drive people's rational behavior.

Stories are more likely to be remembered.

Because of the vividness of the story, the story is easier to be remembered than the trivial information and easier to be disseminated.

How to conduct story marketing

Dull and boring is full of advertising in China. Story marketing is an important way to change this situation.

How to make people not regard advertising as a visual waste instead of a visual feast? How can we turn people's rejection of advertisements into resonance? To a certain extent, we need the promotion of story marketing.

There are many strategies for story marketing, but in strategy formulation, we need to distinguish the relationship between the external expression and the core of story marketing, so that the theme of the story can not be submerged by the story.

The story is a way of expression. The appeal point of the brand is the core of the story, and the core of the story is divided into two parts: Metaphysics and metaphysics.

For example, the appeal of the function, we can see it as a form and down, and the appeal for emotion and culture is metaphysical.

So how does story marketing deal with the relationship between the external expression of story and the core of story?

The theme of the story and brand appeal.

Enterprises do not tell stories to tell stories, but tell stories for effective communication.

Any communication needs to have a clear theme, through story marketing to shape the brand, the theme of the story needs to reflect the appeal of the brand.

The plot can add interest, but can not deviate or drown the theme in order to increase interest.

The way of story expression.

Stories can be expressed in many ways. They can be fun, emotional and exaggerated.

In addition to effectively attracting the audience and enhancing the communication effect, the way of expression should match the demands of the brand.

For example, to create emotional elements in a brand, it is easier to achieve results with emotional stories.

The story of functional appeal.

For the functional appeal of the brand, the external performance of the story can be realistically or fictitious, but the performance of the core part of the story can not be overly exaggerated.

That is to say, we can use fictitious and attractive plots to show more realistic subjects.

Take China Mobile's story marketing as an example: a seagoing ship had an accident. Luckily, a passenger with global connections, he opened the call for help, and the whole ship was saved.

The story tells people that the value of life can not be exchanged for any preferential price, and a good network is more important than price.

The story deduces the idea of China Mobile's "communication infinity", which is fictitious in plot, but the key part of signal performance is not divorced from reality.

The display of emotional and cultural demands.

For emotional and cultural demands, the way of storytelling can create an atmosphere and emotional elements through fictional plots.

Because emotion and culture belong to metaphysical category, there is no realistic requirement in the core of the story, and can be rendered according to the demands of the brand.