Shaping Human Behavior Through Storytelling
The new generation of consumers is a constant source of data that generates information about all aspects of their life. From wearable devices that create data about the human body to financial data; and energy consumption data; humans are becoming a wealth of complex data that organizations need to understand, and make sense of, in order to deliver personalized information that is meaningful, accessible and actionable.
In today’s market, the delivery of information can be challenging because we live in a world where cultures have collided. Thus, the value of information will vary across ethnic cultures and communities (Quigley, 2013). Unfortunately, many organizations do not implement the art of story-telling when designing information systems.
Cognition and the Connection to Storytelling
Human evolution has been influenced by the stories we live in all day long, and dream about at night. We have learned how to communicate through story-telling, and we have learned from stories shared with us. Without stories our lives would have no meaning or coherence (Gottschall, 2015). Are stories what influenced human evolution from ape to a New Yorker? Human evolution has occurred over many cultural and ecological changes in the last 2 million years, which means the evolution of social behavior has slowly evolved over time as well (Boyd & Silk, 1997).
Center to human intrinsic motivation is self-expansion. It is the desire to deepen life experiences through social bonding with another person. This is accomplished by gaining access to their experiences, insights, and knowledge stored in their mind (Boyd & Silk, 1997). Humans are motivated by the tension or dissonance they feel right before they are exposed to aesthetics. The more a human seeks out aesthetics the more dissonance they experience. The increased dissonance acts as a cue to reduce arousal. Once the individual is exposed to stimuli arousal is reduced, making way for pleasure and relaxation. If arousal is not reduced than it will escalate to fear and anxiety, breeding contempt (Crozier & Chapman, 1984).
Humans make decisions and judgments everyday based on their intrinsic aesthetic response to stimuli. The pervasive influence of aesthetic responses is the foundation of our mental processes directly linked to our human experiences that are tied to feelings. Positive feelings can be verbal cues like, “Good job! That’s amazing! You did it!” Negative feelings can be verbal cues like, “That’s gross! I don’t like that! That’s mean!
Why Storytelling Matters
From the beginning of time humans have lived and evolved from stories. We live in stories all day, and at night when we are dreaming stories. We communicate by stories and learn through our stories. We organize our lives by our experiences. The essence of our being is centered on story-telling (Nett, 2015). However, today’s digital world we rely more on human computer interaction for new stories. Human to human interaction has taken second row to the World Wide Web. As consumers how do we decide what we like or dislike anymore?
The internet has opened up a new opportunity for both consumers and brands. Consumers have become savvier on deciding what they like because of the vast access to information. Conversely, brands can tap into consumers with targeted information that requires minimal advertising costs. However, the challenge brands face is that the definition of a story has changed. Because of the digital possibilities of live motion, voice, and visuals consumers are expecting more from their user experience to help them decide what is aesthetic. The digital world is bringing us back to our past storytelling days in a sense, giving us different platforms to help us tell our story using different stimuli. One example of this is the selfie culture. The selfie culture is much like the time when human’s left hand symbols in caves to tell the world, “I am here” (Cooper-White, 2014). The selfie culture expects user experiences that include sight, sound and motion. Social media has made consumers want to participate in the creation of a brand’s story and continue to interact with it and share it once the story elegantly ends.
For brands to achieve success they must help consumers accept the brand into their lives where they can share the story as if it were their own. This must be accomplished by letting the consumer tell the story in their own way (Shing, 2015).
Conclusion
Brands must understand that marketing to the consumer is more than just advertising. Without this mindset they will fail. Brands must be authentic because of the vast amount of information available to the consumer. Campaigns are not about propaganda anymore they are about participation. Content needs to be delivered to the consumer at the exact moment they decide they need it. In order to be competitive, marketers must think global by coming up with strategies to reach untapped audiences to reach be competitive (Nett, 2015).
More importantly, brands need to use more of a narrative approach called “story-telling” engage consumers to invoke emotion that triggers a subconscious response. This can be accomplished by using specific words and images that promote familiarity, affection, empathy, and the desire to succeed or triumph (Marketing Schools, 2015). Does this sound familiar?
The more authentic a campaign is the more the consumer will want to engage with the brand. Using stories is a powerful way to tap into the human attitude. This is because stories change our thinking and behavior, and define a culture. If consumers learn of a good story they will likely share the story within their circle of friends to strengthen their social bond (Gottschall, 2014).
References
Boyd, R., & Silk, J. B. (1997). How humans evolved (7th ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Boyd, B. (2009). On the origin of stories: Evolution, cognition, and fiction. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Cooper-White, M. (2014, September). Scientists Discover The World's Oldest Hand Stencil, And A Big Theory About Art Goes 'Poof'. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/09/oldest-cave-art-indonesia-europe_n_5954404.html
Gottschall, J. (2014). The Science Of Storytelling: How Narrative Cuts Through Distraction Like Nothing Else. Retrieved from www.fastcocreate.com/3020044/the-science-of-storytelling-how-narrative-cuts-through-distraction
Quigley, D. (2013, August 12). Five Steps to Storytelling with Data | UX Magazine. Retrieved from http://uxmag.com/articles/five-steps-to-storytelling-with-data
Nett, M. (2015). The Old vs. New Rules of Marketing: What's Changed [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://ebizresults.com/old-vs-new-rules-of-marketing-whats-change
Shing, D. (2015). Why Storytelling STILL Matters | AOL Advertising [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://advertising.aol.com/blog/why-storytelling-still-matters
