Anton J van Rensburg ~ 29 October 2010
Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.
The most common problem I see in companies is the inability to describe what they do in simple language; the second biggest problem is bringing that description to life with stories.
I’m sometimes surprised at the great stories I hear from companies that aren’t being told in their marketing materials. Sometimes I think it’s because companies are afraid that storytelling will come across as unprofessional or they don’t think that it’s appropriate to tell them in anything other than a face to face meeting. 
Hogwash! Or like the outspoken Chris Moerdyk would say in his regular feature in Advantage, “Jou moer!”
Then there is Seth Godin who said, “The market for something to believe in is infinite”.
The world has always been organised into tribes, groups of people who want to – need to – connect with each other, with a leader and with a movement. The products, services and ideas that are gaining currency faster than ever are the ones that are built for and on a tribe philosophy.
Harley Davidson and Apple are titanic brands for this very reason. They sell a chance to join a group that matters. They tell their stories and people repeat what they’ve heard and experienced.
The punch line though is that the only way to lead a tribe is to lead it. And that means that marketing is now about leadership, about challenging the status quo and about connecting people who can actually make a difference. If you can’t do that, don’t launch your site, your product, your non-profit or your career. Not everyone is going to be a leader. But everyone isn’t going to be successful, either.
Success is now the domain of people who lead. That doesn’t mean they’re in charge, it doesn’t mean they are the CEO, it merely means that for a group, even a small group, they show the way, they spread ideas, they make the change.
