This ad is a good example of an organization showing how it can change your life without ever talking about the mechanics of what it does. Please watch this story and then go through the reflections below.
What is in your organization’s box?
23andMe is a saliva collection kit (can you feel the romance?). You never hear those words in the commercial. While 23andMe has a very real box for its customers, your organization may have a figurative box. Either way, you need to know the answer to this question so you can hold on to it for later in your conversations. Why? Because it’s a bad idea to start conversations with the transactional things you do. Here is an example; another ad from the same organization that is more transactional. Feel the difference?
How will people feel when they use the stuff in your box?
The answer to this question will tell you the emotions all your stories should create. The woman in the story felt lost, full of unanswered questions, and ready to give up. By the end she felt a sense of belonging and had found her utopia. Whoa! That is a lot for a saliva collection kit to do…and that’s why they didn’t mention the kit.
Why should anyone let you change their lives with the stuff in your box?
The answer here is what your stories should be about. 23andMe is selling you the idea of “know thyself.” That is huge. The viewer becomes curious about “what could be in a box to create that kind of wonder?” and so she visits the website. The promise of finding out her heritage and place in history is planted so even when she finds out she is buying a saliva collection kit she still sees it as so much more.
Don’t sell your kit but the dreams it makes.
Paying $99 to spit into a tube seems spendy. Paying $99 to find your long lost family is a steal. So…are you selling your audiences a saliva collection kit or a means to find their place in the tree of humanity? Make sure you’re leading with emotions and magic and not a list of transactions and outcome statistics. Let the audience ask how you make all that magic happen and then you’ll have an invitation to tell them what’s in your box.
Want more? Click here to learn about why emotions come before data.
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