Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

As a Business & Marketing consultant for technological start-ups, I frequently deal with IT companies, which  provide really interesting services. However, when they approach the market, they tend to focus their  communication purely on the technical side of their solutions. As a result, communication is too much  technical, and does not reach a non-technical audience.

Considering a specific case, in a company whose core business is deciphering Offline shoppers’ profile  through sophisticated sensors, and interacting with them by triggering catchy messages, the communication  was mainly based on the technical specifications of sensing devices, rather than focusing on the benefits for  the target Customers (Retailing industries). Thus resulting in a poor impact on the decision makers, who are  usually Marketing and Advertising Directors, not necessarily having an IT background.

The objective of a Marketing Director in Retailing industries is converting visitors into buyers, while improving  the Return on Investment.

After having interviewed around fifty Leads, it came out that the service provided was not clear to them, as  they could not figure out how to apply these technologies to improve their conversion rate and then increase  their revenue.

This is the reason why I decided to use Storytelling tool, by focusing on the most typical situations  encountered during shoppers’ purchasing process, without forcing Leads to understand the features of each  technology.

A Storytelling tool would have improved the communication effectiveness, by switching the attention of the  reader from understanding a complicated technology, to receiving an appealing solution.

Application

I investigated the main “pain points” of Retailing industry by interviewing some experts (consumers’  behaviour specialists, user experience experts, and social trends consultants) and reading specific market  insights and white papers.

I then worked on several typical situations of shoppers’ friction or frustration that may result in the decision  of not proceeding with the purchase.

I also identified some emotional triggers that could lead to a higher motivation to buy.

I finally created a Storytelling PowerPoint presentation, based on the most critical and common situations.

As the approach of the presentation was consumer-centric, I graphically described the journey of the Shopper  in those situations, highlighting his/her needs and the relevant technological solution applied to fulfil those  needs.

Every specific situation was supported by data collected from experts’ surveys, so that the format of the  presentation was:

  “X %” of shoppers are more likely to buy if receiving an offer notification, when they pass nearby a  shop, then a proximity sensing technology is appropriate to increase sales;

  “Y %” of teenagers, are more likely to purchase when seeing a call-to-action message on a screen,  then a demographics-tracking technology is appropriate to increase sales.

Every situation was presented in an intuitive, simple and animated slide with engaging pictures.

Insight

After submitting this new presentation to the same Leads, I succeeded in provoking the interest of about  the 70% of them.

As a result, they requested a meeting to analyse their specific needs and to submit a technical proposal to  meet their requirements.

The strength point of this Storytelling tool is empathy: by putting myself in Retail Marketing Directors’  shoes and investigating shoppers’ needs, I came up with a presentation that resulted more human-centred.

This insight helps me understanding how to reach a bigger impact in Lead generation, by talking the  language of the audience I want to reach.

Approach

PowerPoint Presentations are the fastest and cheapest approach, to get the Leads first attention.

However this system still results not enough direct and time consuming, with the risk it does not have an  immediate impact.

To improve my Storytelling tool the next time I would rather use a video support, as it creates an emotional  engagement.

