Oren and Justine Jacob’s session on dissecting a 1 minute story revealed that good stories:
- Have a critical tension/struggle that forces the protagonist to permanently change from the experience. This tension creates an “arc” or crescendo in the story. It pulls the audience into the story as well as creates an emotional reaction to make the story stickier.
- Play off the character of the storyteller either by being congruent or incongruent with their projected personality. The storyteller should be aware of the perceptions and attributes that she projects so that she can realize what stories or words will create intrigue, surprise, and humor.
- Use visual details instead of descriptive language. The details should evoke one of the five senses instead of merely describing the experience (i.e., “go back and forth from fryer to bed…” versus “worked at McDonalds”)
- Provide enough details so that the audience does not need to make up the intention of the storyteller (i.e., why did he make this decision).
- Should not hand-hold the audience by giving them too much or redundant information and not letting the audience infer the middle steps
Stories are incredibly important in both personal and corporate branding because they are what people remember and pass on. It’s the seemingly small stories that build upon each other and reinforce a reputation, characteristic, and value of an entity. More than advertising or PR campaigns, stories (such as the one about Nordstrom’s tire refund) is what sticks in people’s minds and perpetuates brand. As much as positive stories can help support a brand, negative stories can just as easily detract from it, especially if they undermine a core brand promise or value.
Recent Comments