Storytelling has always been a crucial part of the human experience. It’s how lineages pass down skills, techniques, beliefs, or simply stories of times past. They help cultures or demographics maintain a sense of self over the generations, as many physical items and artifacts will be lost to time. Storytelling in the modern day has had a profound impact on the world of marketing. While it may seem like an odd concept, storytelling marketing is miraculously effective. What is storytelling in marketing though, and how does a company go about it? Let’s take a look at Nike, a colossus in the modern clothing market, to better understand just how far marketing storytelling can take a company.
Storytelling in Marketing
Marketing storytelling might seem like an odd idea. However, it is actually one of the best things any marketing team can master to launch their product forward. Many may believe that storytelling marketing is to simply make a descriptive post on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. The truth is that marketing storytelling is the technique of creating a narrative around a product. In other words, the goal is to create a relatable story around a product for a customer to get immersed in. Furthermore, this type of marketing helps evoke strong emotions from the audience. Most importantly, the audience will associate such emotions with the product and the company who makes it. Believe it or not, storytelling has been a key aspect of some of the most well-known brands in the world. Nike stands out, amongst others, as storytelling marketing is at the heart of their brand.
Nike
Founded in 1964, Nike has become one of the most well-known brands in the world. They started out as Blue Ribbon Sports, launching the Nike brand shoe in 1972, which ended up becoming the company’s name in 1978. They have now become one of the most successful distributors of athletic shoes and apparel, famous for their sneakers and diverse sportswear lines. Much of Nike’s success relies on their excellent marketing. They are able to engage consumers through the use of storytelling marketing. Storytelling gives a greater layer of importance to their customers and gives deeper meaning to their products.
Take, for example, one of Nike’s flagship designs, the Air Max sneaker. An example of marketing storytelling is their 1987 ‘Revolution’ advert that utilizes The Beatles’ song “Revolution” over images of energetic Americans and athletes. This ad promotes a notion of their shoe design. Most importantly, this ad provides viewers with a sense of “groundbreaking revolution.” While a shoe might not usher in a new age on their own, helping to tie these emotions to it will certainly make it leave a longer-lasting impact on those who watch it.
Other examples include famous commercials such as Disney’s “Ducks” commercial, which will tug at the heartstrings of any who watch it, or Levi’s “Pioneers” commercial, which captures notions of what it truly means to be free and young in America. Key performance indicators, or KPI’s, most likely showed how these commercials demonstrated effectiveness across the board. Each of these are great examples of storytelling in marketing. Also, each of these show us how well they can help associate strong emotional concepts with a brand and its image.
Where to Start
We all need a little help sometimes when it comes to getting our brand out into the world. Additionally, mastering storytelling marketing is no easy feat. Marketing storytelling will be imperative to boosting a product, and there’s no reason to tackle it alone. Web Content Development has been assisting companies with their marketing strategies for many years. They are also there to help brands go to great lengths, even from the humblest of beginnings. All it takes is stretching a hand out to get marketing assistance from our experts! Also, this is only one of the many services they have to offer. Get your story told today with Web Content Development.