We buy stories, not products
Brands often seem to forget that people buy from them.
Not other companies. Not amorphous, shapeless entities. People.
People are messy and contradictory. They think they're logical, while being emotional. They think they're buying utility when actually buying status, or the other way around. Carefully evaluate whether a $6 book is worth the money while sipping a $6 coffee they didn't think twice about.
This is news to brands. While they articulate features, stats, charts and frameworks, "but wait, there's more"-ing themselves into marginalized obscurity, people don't give them a second look.
Not because the brand didn't have a good offer.
But because the brand didn't have a good story.
Humans don't think in facts
Humans don't think in facts. They feel in stories.
They edit their photographs because the story they tell themselves about their lives matters more than an accurate representation of what happened.
They universally hate movies where "the dog dies" because the feeling spoils the rest of the movie. They can't get into the movie anymore, therefore it was bad.
They'll gladly pay $9.99 + free shipping, but almost never pay $5 + $5 shipping.
They can't remember a series of random numbers they heard ten seconds ago, yet can recite the lyrics to their favorite childhood cartoon theme song that they've not heard in thirty years.
Discretionary effort counts double because, while functionally redundant, it makes people feel vastly more cared for.
Stories don’t just pass through the language centers of the brain. They activate emotional and sensory regions too. The brain treats stories more like lived experiences than abstract information.
You don't feel facts.
You feel stories.
Facts inform, but decay
We're taking in information all the time.
The desk is brown. The coffee is going cold. The notebook is open.
The magazine is creased. The monitor is dusty.
If we held onto every piece of information, our minds would explode. Our brains are excellent at "thoughtfully forgetting" information, holding on to only that which is most obviously pertinent to our wellbeing.
Good stories are the exception.
We remember our spouse's birthday because it has a story associated with it. It could be, "I love buying them a gift, I love the way they light up when they open it" because its part of our own story of "being a good spouse". Alternatively, it could be "I must not forget to get them a card or they'll rip me a new one" because its part of our own story of "preferring not to sleep on the couch".
Two different stories. One outcome: remembering a date.
Facts may help people intellectually understand, but brains treat stories just like lived experiences. There is movement, tension, consequence, meaning, emotion, and self-preservation all at play when a story shows up.
That makes our brains deem them far more likely to be worth remembering.
Stories make facts irrelevant
Is a $200,000 Birkin bag expensive?
After all, it only costs $800-1,400 to produce. It's a $1k bag with a $199k story attached to it.
What's the story? For its target market, it's the feeling of being a better, more important, higher status individual than everybody else around them.
A Rolls-Royce Phantom sells the same story for $500,000. A whopping $301k more expensive story than the Birkin, yet designed to achieve the same feeling.
For the target market, the Birkin bag is a steal.
But facts about the bag don't make it a steal.
Nor do "offer stacks" or "limited time offers".
The story makes it a steal.
Stories create culture
Companies like to talk about culture. Normally, it's a thinly-veiled hodgepodge of aspirations, rather than an account of what things are actually like.
But culture is much more than sterile documentation that preaches to a priesthood of unconverted staff that just want to get paid and go home.
Culture needs stories. For thousands of years, stories were used to pass down knowledge, define norms and shape shared perspectives.
All three are true when deploying a StrategyComic. Knowledge is easily passed down through visual storytelling that everyone will enjoy reading, defines norms and common language everyone shares, and facilitates shared perspectives now everyone sees the big picture.
Everyone on the team is on the same page.
In the loop, invested in the journey, and in it to win it, together.