THE POWER OF STORYTELLING

We all have memories of bedtime stories while laying in the laps of our mothers. The fairytales, horror, inspirational stories, and many more from that memory vault had shaped our childhood. The music box we used to have had created so many nostalgic moments. Fantasies, imagination, fiction – all of them have a different space in our hearts. Even as adults these fictions create friction to bring our inner child back.

As a writer from the millennial gen, I am proud and concave at the same time about growing up in the age of the internet boom. Everyone is old school in their way. We don’t talk about pagers anymore. But we can relate to the Walkman, cassettes, even vinyl, floppy disks. Because we have experienced them while playing games on our TFTs. The power of visual storytelling is par everything. Remember watching a movie from the theatre can recollecting the best scenes and discussing them. There’s science behind it. Anything we see in audio-visual format creates a long-lasting impact. And the 3.5sec retain on retina leaves and creates a memory in our hippocampus.

THE NET CONNECT

The Internet has become an inseparable part of our lives, nowadays. But back in 2004, when YouTube was just on the surface, many of us saw a platform and opportunity to connect with the world in virtual means. Gradually, spectrum growth in a series of numbers made us access the virtual world with finger click and swipe. We started logs with prefixes ‘B’ and ‘V’ to share our experiences in a storytelling way. And as humans, we love to see a glimpse of others’ lives – whether it’s a success, downfall, or daily routine. In fact, we all are surrounded by stores in our 18-hour uptime. And our sleep time also has stories, but we call them ‘dreams’.

Now let’s see some broader crossroads. What’s a ‘human-to-human’ relationship means? – it’s just experiences and stories unveiled as discussions or casual talks in formals or casual wear. In the same way, there are two types of stories then – self-orated and earned.

Self-oration can be braggy in most cases. It can create a perception of having a ‘sweet tongue for itself’. In a scenario, everyone is pointing in the crowd ‘that red hat braggadocio man’. No pun intended.

And if the reverse psychology plays here, and your people start telling stories about your success, downfall, up stepping, heartbreaks, etc. – that’s the earned word. And that is what makes you a BRAND.

THE RETAIL CONNECT

If we see the retail snaps from times in the back, we just see the ‘SALE, SALE, SALE’- and treat it as double entendre. No one was ready to create a retail experience. Since we started stepping in forwarding decades, we realized that creating an experience connect with the consumer is more important to make a dollar in the first place. Though its ultimate.

Combining all the forces (physical and digital), brands started exploring new ways to connect their brand and products to the five senses of the consumer. Retail storytelling then started shaping the whole industry and brands got in the race to provide the best narrative to ‘retain and regain’ the consumer. Over the past decade, experience centers are making their space in the retail industry to provide exclusive brand experience.

Gaining and reciting stories via affiliate and influencer marketing, brands are focusing to get the deepest insight of their consumer. No dirt here. But we made ourselves virtually and may end up like this. Virtual stores are preferred in the first place by brands than physical stores. And the consumer shift is more closely studied in the wake of artificial intelligence. We are immersed deeply in these immersive technologies and will be more in the future. The prime reason for making these machines to ease the human efforts can take ugly shape – treat as double entendre too. We are making our machines learn to create a story for ourselves and to catch that emotional nerve. We will be successful ONE FINE DAY.