There’s no greater power than storytelling— that’s the true essence of marketing
Marketing either online or offline, stories are evergreen.
We all love stories in our daily life or we can also say that we make stories each moment. We as humans have been telling stories forever and our brains have evolved to love them. It’s just a fact.
Do you know? Psychologist Jerome Bruner found we are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it has been wrapped in a story.
Storytelling is the true essence of marketing. Is it really true?
Yes, storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to breathe life into our brand. For consumers to form a personal connection with a brand, company’s stories must be authentic, creative and inspirational but just this is not marketing, marketing is not only about creativity, it’s a science which starts even before a product is made and if the product or service has the power then it can sell all by itself. It requires a story to reach its customers and beyond.
This is an innovative augmented reality (AR) campaign by Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola as a brand is doing wonders in terms of stories among all its demographics. Their storytelling marketing shows that it can happen across all sorts of mediums. Customers were able to point their phone’s camera at a can of Coke and see one of the 12 stories coming to life. Each story features a minor conflict, where animated characters engage in a lighthearted exchange before finding a positive outcome which revolves around sharing a Coke. One story shows a couple of kids getting their beach ball deflated by a beach umbrella, while another shows a young couple at a movie getting scared and dropping down their popcorn. Another features two rival football fans who join each other in a friendly game when a football flies out of the can of Coke.
The nature of AR allowed the viewer to bring these stories into their environment using the real can of Coke as a prop and become the backdrop for each of these scenarios to play out. This example helps us to believe that a product just tells but a story sells.
Also, have you ever noticed that brands like Xerox being used to mean photocopying something, Zoom for online video conferencing calls, Google for searching anything on the internet, all these are the sign that your brand or product has been widely accepted by the general public. It means it’s in high-demand, is highly-recognized, and you’re most likely dominating your industry. This is good marketing and it’s all about good communication. If we talk about its basic fundamentals for all its complexity, at its core, marketing revolves around four things:
- Product (This is what a company sells),
- Price (This is just how much it costs),
- Promotion(Which channels will be used to promote the product), and
- Place (The right product needs to be in the right place for people to find it and buy it.).
Tactics and channels change, but these are the concepts everything else revolves around, and they’re principles that never change.
Trendsetter Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing, Is One More Powerful Than the Other?
51% of companies use at least eight channels to interact with their audience and customers. While digital marketing continues to grow and enjoy a larger share of the budget, traditional marketing channels persist for all types of businesses.
And since 44% of customers visit a brand’s website after receiving mail from the company, it’s clear that traditional channels and digital channels can work well together but its a long old time debate now. (Hubspot)
Now the question is what Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing actually means?
Digital marketing is nothing but the use of online platforms to promote products and services. These online platforms can include social media, email marketing, paid advertising, podcasting, blogging, and more.
Whereas Traditional marketing refers to a type of marketing that isn’t present online. This means old ways of marketing like print, broadcast, direct mail, phone, and outdoor advertising like billboards. From newspapers to radio, this method of marketing helps reach targeted audiences.
But there are a few disadvantages to traditional marketing. First, businesses have little to no interaction with its customers they are selling their products to in real-time. You can’t Tweet or DM to ask “Is Samsung’s A50 model smartphone is available in your store”? It states that Traditional Marketing is unreliable. You can’t edit a print ad once it’s out. So, if you recorded the wrong percentage discount for the ad on a radio, you can’t change it and it can cost you hard with no means of results to be calculated.
Quick facts —
- India has TVs in 197 million homes out of 298 million homes, with 4–5 members each in a household. TV has reached 800 million to 1 billion people. The reach of digital marketing is said to be almost close to the TV. (Wikipedia)
- Digital marketing is the best medium to reach the affluent English speaking population in India with spending power.
- Radio has a reach to 65% of the Indian population. (Financial Express)
- The newspaper has a reach of almost 465 million people. (Business Standard)
But it’s NOT all or nothing scenario!
By digitally sharing traditional campaigns, you can take your offline marketing and promote it online. You can retarget website visitors who navigated to the landing page and put them in your direct mail. So, while the business might begin offline, you can then take it online with different forms of retargeting.
Moving ahead have you ever heard about CATT marketing funnel and framework?
Well, that's something wholly created by Digital Guru — Deepak Kanakaraju who is a digital marketing expert, author, speaker, and consultant with more than 10 years of experience.
Let me take you through this.
Wealth = n^CATT
The CATT marketing funnel is an effective way to develop your Niche which helps in making personal brand at a later stage.
Niche selection is like doing shopping , suppose you are a woman who enters the showroom and you love all the clothes but really can’t buy all the clothes because of the following reasons
- You can’t wear all the clothes even in 365 days
- All the sizes might not fit you
- Even after liking all clothes, you must be having a colour of your choice
Here you need to follow the law of marginal utility concept that you need to sacrifice other clothes to gain specifically one or two of your choice and can be chosen out of
- Trend ( Market)
- Favourite (Passion)
- Body fitting (Talent)
Exactly this goes with the niche selection too. I hope you understood the importance of it from my personal example. The conclusion from the above case is that,
“You cannot be into everything. You need to select the niche you know the most or you’re most passionate about. The niche should also be according to the present and future demand of the customer as that is what they really require in the market”.
What’s next after selecting a niche? Here comes the CATT Funnel.
- Content — It is an asset, you need to create content that attracts your niche through blog posts, webinars, storytelling, videos, lead magnets etc.
- Attention — Next important aspect is to bring out the traffic through the content in ways like SEO, Social media, Paid ads and Referrals.
- Trust — Now it's an important phase to build loyalty for your brand, start building trust with your audience with trip marketing automation, tripwires and retargeting. It should be personalised to each customer which builds a magnetic effect.
- Transaction — This is the last but most important phase where your leads need to be converted into customers through different channels and sales methods.
It's an ongoing process which will definitely build a high profile brand, but what about other different factors?
The Integrated Marketing Framework, what’s this now?
We have read in economics that “Our resources are limited but wants are unlimited” and we want everything irrespective of situations but we don't really put that level of efforts to achieve it. We don't know that resources are connected to each other.
Integrated Marketing Framework involves the various online platforms where you publish your content related to your product or service. The platforms work with their strength towards a similar goal which search engine monitors. The main asset here is your content that plays a vital role and controls all the other platforms, like on social media if any content is posted and you like it, you will repost and share it which will help in reaching out the masses. It effectively generates more sales for the business.
Some of the known digital marketing methods are as follows:
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Social Media
- SEO
- Paid Advertisements
Now everything has been set up so well and this story is looking perfect. Isn't it? But there’s something missing.
How should people reach out to you personally? Do they really need to know you?
The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability. – Simon Mainwaring
There might be many experts existing in this domain but your customers and clients will know you only if you market yourself well in front of them via social media platforms So that every other person who even doesn't know can see your work and reach out to you. Company is just an object, if the owner is not known then it’s difficult to build trust. Here people really want to listen to your story and trust me story influences a lot.
In Hindi, we surely have heard several times “Jo dikhta hai wahi bikta hai” and that’s really true.
Example: “ELON MUSK” is definitely a brand as he influences and inspires so many people, which builds trust towards his company SpaceX and Tesla Motors.
Now, how can you make yourself a brand?
Learn — Practice — Work — Blog — Consult — Mentor
“Great stories happen to those who can tell them” — Ira Glass