Because as long as the buyer is a person, stories will be the most impactful means of communication. There is no industry where storytelling will not benefit your marketing. Another thing Heineken does great is telling that story consistently across channels, using slogans like 'It's all about the beer' and the tagline 'premium quality' on their bottles.Įven B2B buyers, despite the pretense of being data-driven, rely strongly on emotions when making business decisions. They buy the legend of the Heineken family and their search for a premium taste. They waited years before selling their beer to make sure it had premium quality.

They don't have the best beer in the world, but their founders have a great story. In short, it has been proven that emotion trumps our rational thinking. There are plenty of studies on the power emotion has over our decision-making, both from a marketing and non-marketing perspective. If that's the difference good storytelling made for a bunch of random junk-store objects, imagine what it can do for a brand.īut how can a story affect us so profoundly? Behavioral science explains it. The very same items, now with stories added, were sold at a total of $3,612.5.

The writers bought $128.74 worth of thrift-store trinkets and set out to create compelling backstories for each item – before posting them on eBay.Īnd yes, they proved their point. They wanted to test their thesis: that stories are the main driver behind perceived value. Have you heard of the Significant Objects Project ? It was a social experiment carried out in 2009 by reporters Rob Walker of The Washington Post and Joshua Glenn from The New York Times.

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