Few companies see their product as a character in a story. All of their customers see it that way, but they don’t. They see it terms of operations and org charts and marketing plans and manufacturing and distribution and they forget that all of this orchestration only works when the product or service is a character in a story that people relate to and want to make part of their own stories.
I buy Crest. I have an Apple. I shop at Target. I eat chicken. I use toilet paper. I drive a Nissan and a Chevrolet and a Honda. I have a story about each of these things. They are characters in my stories. We all have stories. Go to a sports bar and pay attention. You’ll see.
Your product is a hero or villain, leading man or ingenue. It can save the day or be a sidekick. Is your product the star or an extra, muting along without a speaking part in the background of the scene?
Just because you do not allocate enough budget to tell a great story (times are tough, right?) and give your product a great script and compelling direction and a killer editor, it doesn’t mean your customers have not spent the time and money to put your product in a story of their own. And they are distributing it as you procrastinate and plan and have meetings about whose internal silo will get a bit part in the story you don’t even realize is being told. Even the meeting tells a story. And it certainly has characters.
Customers tell stories about your product every day. They cast it as the funny guy who wins in the end. Now and then they put it in peril at the hands of what they perceive as a better product or a more convenient villian. Perhaps they give your product a herculean task to accomplish and it either nails it or blows it. Then again, they may have just killed off you product in the first scene because it’s role was so unimportant to the larger story. You may have missed it. It happened while you were in a meeting about who will be running the next effort to make sure your brand is not telling a story.
Our products are in stories whether we tell them or not. They are characters whether we cast them or not. So what are you doing to be the director of your product’s performance? Where is your script?
Companies talk about their products like the products belong to them. How preposterous. Once your product or service is out there, it belongs to others. People buy it. It becomes their property. And that is the goal, or should be, right? Selling your product. That is why you are in business. This transfer of ownership is a funny thing in branding. We often only see it from the company’s POV. Social networking and the Web, have made word of mouse the leader of the conversation about your product. Your audience helps you write the story because they buy your product or service. Without any real storytelling on your part, your product’s fate is in the hands of others. From Mr. Whipple to the PC guy, you product is cast in a story. You just may not be telling that story.
When a woman goes to the Apple store and buys an iPhone, it no longer belongs to the Mac guy from the commercials. It belongs to her. It is her product. She is the Mac girl. It is now a character in her story. She writes the script. She is the director. And Mr. Jobs is smiling. That’s how he planned it.
This is not news. It has been going on for years. Certain products are the stars of their stories. Some are obvious. As mentioned, Steve Jobs is the Alfred Hitchcock of product storytelling. He is Scorsese, Woody Allen and the Coen Brothers in a black turtleneck. The reason he is so visible and mentioned so often is simple: He understands that business is a story and his products are characters and he’s not afraid to admit that and use it.
Is General Motors not in the middle of one of the biggest stories in American history? There’s a ginormous struggle. There are good guys and bad. There are heroes and enemies and bit parts and breakout performances. In some scenes of this ongoing story, major players get offed, others get injured and have to fight back. Who will survive? If that is not an awesome story, then I have never seen one. It is The Godfather meets Braveheart and The Shawshank Redemption. That is how GM should be rebuilding – like a novel or movie. That is how it is playing out in the minds of the audience.
It’s not just about your marketing and branding and commercials and ads telling a story. You products are the story. They tell their own story. For your product to be successful, it has to be a self-contained character, always ready to tell its story or take a role in your customer’s story. Your products are already part of the conversation, like it or not. That is what is going on with social media – people are telling stories. Sometimes they are personal, sometimes general, sometimes informational. Sometimes they are random and frivolous. Will your product be Lindsey Lohan or Captain Sully? It is up to you.
The economy is tough, to be sure. But when the selling gets tough, the tough start telling great stories. I bought your product last week. Want me to send you the script?