James McSill is an expert in storytelling. He is coming to Portugal this month, invited by Ideias & Desafios to highlight the importance of this tool for businesses. In an interview with Briefing, he even says that without stories, there are no brands. But he warns that, just as they are powerful business tools, they are also weapons that can be turned against brands.
Briefing | Storytelling is a human trait. Is it also a trait of companies?
James McSill | Using stories as a means of communication to prompt someone to act in a certain way is an integral part of our behavior. I often say in the training sessions I lead that we are nothing more than walking shells, made of carbon, filled with water, and animated by a soul called stories. The stories we believe in and the ones we choose to tell define us—whether we are individuals or a company, which is nothing more than a “legal” manifestation of a “natural person.” If the “company” wishes to “persuade someone to act”—that is, to believe in its values and purchase the services, products, or ideas it offers—it must use the same principles underlying the storytelling (storytelling) that a girl would use at a market to tout the benefits of the oranges she’s selling and persuade a customer to buy: “What I have to offer will fill a gap in your life.” Stories are big questions we raise to spark curiosity, engage the audience, create this gap—this feeling that something is missing—and fill it with our solution.
Briefing | To what extent can storytelling help drive business growth?
JMcS | There are two factors at play here. The first, as I mentioned, is that the stories we believe in and tell define us. We cannot begin a negotiation—that is, a business deal—without conveying our values to our counterpart, and for them to convey theirs to us. The foundation of any interaction, then, will always be the stories that answer the most basic questions: “Who are you?” and “Do you know who I am?” The second is the principle that no one, in reality, “buys” an idea, a product, or a service, but rather “buys” a present or future story about how what they are now “buying” will benefit them. If we were to remove storytelling, the very foundations upon which the entire business is built would cease to exist. Nowadays, of course, what leads companies to specialize in what we conventionally call storytelling—how stories work and the techniques for manipulating their elements to inform, educate, and persuade more effectively or quickly—is that they are extremely powerful tools, the only weapons left to civilized peoples to convince others to act. The company must engage both its employees and the world at large with the collection of stories that embody the values within which the organization operates. This can only be achieved through one thing: well-crafted stories told with a specific purpose.
Briefing | And how do you make the transition from entertainment to business?
JMcS | It's not a big deal. It's the same thing. The story engages the audience and creates an emotional foundation that prompts them to take action. In entertainment—whether it's making people laugh or cry—and in business, it encourages them to buy and help spread the word about the benefits of the products.
Briefing | What stories should/can companies tell their customers?
JMcS | Not necessarily in this order, but every company has an obligation—directly or indirectly—to tell stories that inform, shape, educate, and inspire; in other words, stories that engage consumers so they take action, and so that their actions, in turn, engage others, creating a chain reaction. To put it in more contemporary terms: a company should use stories that have the potential to go viral.
Briefing | Would you say that storytelling works for all brands?
JMcS | Yes. Always. Every brand is defined by a set of stories we associate with it. Without those stories, there are no brands.
Briefing | A company always wants to sell. How can this tool be used to boost sales, whether of products or services?
JMcS | Persuasion has to do with human beings“ natural curiosity; we feel persuaded—drawn to—what we don’t know. Stories create, as I said, this emotional gap, this ”longing.“ Selling is nothing more than fulfilling the other person’s perceptible longing—which may be real or imaginary, created by the persuader and implanted in the audience’s will. The only way to implant my will (or the company’s will) into another person’s will is by manipulating the elements of a story so that they fit into an emotional void that naturally arises when we begin to tell a story. When we hear someone say, ”Look, I have a story to tell you…“ or the simple ”Once upon a time…,“ the world around us falls silent; we enter a hypnotic state, becoming ”malleable” and receptive to what the speaker has to convey. We become more likely to buy.
Briefing | Are we talking about the future of marketing, or is it already the present?
JMcS | Present. Although—using terms other than what we now call marketing, advertising, branding, etc.—stories have always been used as a tool to engage and “manipulate.” What would a religious ceremony—in ancient times or today—be without stories?
Briefing | In a globalized world, where communication spreads at the pace of social media posts, could storytelling end up working against brands?
JMcS | Yes, it can. That’s why I always say that whoever tells the best story wins. A company needs to specialize; if it doesn’t, its competitors will. As I said, stories are tools or weapons. “You decide.”.
https://www.briefing.pt/entrevistas/31170-sem-estorias-nao-ha-marcas-garante-o-james.html