“If your story is too small, it’s not a story. It’s just an annoying interruption.”
Seth Godin in All Marketers Tell Stories
We’ve all endured it. We’ve all had a friend who began to tell a story that had no point. It just drags on and on. We’ve experienced the person who starts telling a joke but gets lost somewhere before the punchline. What began as a potentially good story falls flat and becomes an annoyance.
In Seth Godin’s book, All Marketers Tell Stories, he reminds me that all marketing is a story. When we think of a brand, we have a story that comes to mind. Your favorite drink sparks a fond memory. Your favorite restaurant has a story you tell yourself about the quality, the atmosphere, and the service you expect.
We tell ourselves stories all the time when we shop. We expect this place to be too busy on a weekday evening. We tolerate this store because it has the lowest price. We begin to shop online and shun a store because we find an even better price and we don’t have to endure the crowds. That story of the store you once frequented becomes small because they can’t deliver what you expected anymore. It becomes an annoyance.
We tell ourselves stories every day. What story do people think of when they think about your business? How can you be sure your story doesn’t become too small to delight customers?
Let’s start telling our customers stories that are true, compelling and so good, we have to negotiate the movie rights.
