Storytelling in retail marketing: join the trend!

Storytelling,  which is the creation of a story around brand values ​​and products or services, appeals to emotions and has a direct impact on consumers.

Retail storytelling must be part of our sales strategy because it is a way to impact customers and potential buyers, and to stay in their memory. We give you the keys to this phenomenon and help you discover how to apply it to your business.

What is Storytelling and what use can it have for me and my business?

People are guided by emotions. And the stories we tell each other are what generate those feelings. Why not take advantage of this great opportunity to transfer our brand values, publicize our licensed products and increase our sales? The use of effective storytelling retail not only enables us to capture the customer's attention, but also places us among their preferences and sets us in their memory. 

On the other hand, it distinguishes us in an environment of enormous competition between brands for reaching the customer with traditional advertising-based strategies.  

How do you start a narrative that helps us sell more?

There is no one way to tell stories, so there is no one way to use retail storytelling. On the other hand, each type of narration can be adjusted to a different type of client. Fictional stories, for example, are based on motivation and imagination, in addition to transferring reflections or moral learning. Characters from licensed products, such as those from Cerdá, fall into this category because they are top characters in children's imaginations, who watch their stories on television, in movies, magazines and other formats such us Harry Potter or The Avengers. 

Another interesting option is to tell the story of our brand. Why not tell who we are, what we do, why we do it and since when? All this positions us and increases the ‘engagement’ with our customers, who will identify with our values ​​and understand that behind every store or business are people like them, who face difficulties and seek ways to overcome them.

Themes and values ​​that generate empathy

To empathize and generate trust, we must generate a storytelling that revolves around basic themes but that are always well received, such as love, family, friendship or the choice between good and evil. 

Getting a character to identify with a story in which one of them comes into play, or several, is a first step to create a link between business and customer, or between brand and buyer. These are universal values ​​common to all, and in which people from very different backgrounds, concerns and preferences can be reflected.

In which channels do we broadcast our stories?

The channels to publicize these stories can be from a blog on our online sales website, to the newsletter that we send to our clients and people who have provided us with their email address to stay informed about our offers and news. Retail storytelling has a powerful effect on social networks, therefore we must take advantage of the dissemination of those contents that we can achieve in our official profiles on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, among others.

Activating a storytelling strategy to increase sales of our business with official licenses for children's products does not have to be limited to written texts. In fact, in recent years, storytelling in formats such as podcasts and video has increased a lot and will maintain an upward trajectory. The budget required to tell a story on video is greater, but the dissemination is achieved, too. Lastly, it is important to remember that you can use all the channels of diffusion of your narrations mentioned above (blog, newsletters and social networks) at the same time, not independently. In this way, the greatest possible diffusion is achieved.

Tips on storytelling in retail marketing

We already know what storytelling consists of and how we can apply it to the sales strategy of our licensed products business. But let us give you some last 5 tips to make it as effective as possible:

• Choose your audience and segment it. Choose who your stories are directed to. And select that audience as the recipient. Especially in social networks, where it is easy to do it. You will make your storytelling retail more effective.
• Everything revolves around emotion. Avoid flat stories and keep in mind that your goal is to make a positive impact on your audience.
• Approach, knot and outcome. This basic scheme is followed by 90% of the narratives that we find on a daily basis, from cinema to novels. Although you can modify it, it is a good guide to structure your stories.
• Bet on a protagonist in various stories. You can create a character or a mascot of your brand and make it happen to her with attractive stories.

Don't let traditional advertising sneak into your stories. Forget to explain the virtues of your products and, on the contrary, integrate them into your narrations. If you’ve liked this tips, do not miss other tips and tricks in Cerdá’s blog!