It’s no secret that top writers and storytellers paint vivid word pictures evoking our five senses. They do so concisely, transporting us before we can “change the channel.”
Two of my favorites, Don Henley and the late Glenn Frey instantly placed us “on a dark desert highway” with their lyrics to Don Felder’s classic tune Hotel California. From the get go we feel our hair blowing in the cool wind . . . smell the colitas . . . spy that shimmering light . . . stop to hear the mission bell.
Jimmy Buffett sent us to the front porch swing with even less words in Margaritaville. Immediately, we taste sponge cake, see tourists bake, strum our melodic guitar to the wafting aroma of boiling shrimp.
This artful magic applies in like manner to business. As a jingle writer in the ‘80s, my cowriter and I took East Texas radio listeners back to their mother’s kitchen:
“I sure do miss my Mama’s home cookin’.
I could tell what she was fixin’ without lookin’.
Though the miles lie between us now, I can still see Mama smile.
At Burton’s Family Restaurant, I’m back home for a while.”
No, we weren’t nominated for a Grammy or CLIO advertising award. But Burton’s bought radio time featuring the ditty for many years. Why? Because our universal memory of mothers cooking a favorite meal – the smell, the taste, the nostalgic feeling of home sweet home – warmed patrons’ hearts.
Jingles are less commonplace today, but the need for enchanting business stories is perhaps more vital than ever. Amidst the avalanche of data and blaring media. Within our meteoric daily pace. How to arise from the chaos as a client’s best solution is the conundrum du jour.
Most entrepreneurs are realizing the answer lies somewhere in story. Why you? Why now? Not features and expertise, but tapping emotion where decisions get made.
Yet the threshold step is garnering prospects’ attention to even hear our story. By beaming them to a vivid setting, striking at their heart, resonating deep within their soul, all within seconds. Only then will the story fully and effectively unfurl in their minds eye. Only then do we stand a chance of winning their business.