Whats your Story?

Storytelling has always played a big part in medicine. The most important tool in medical education is the case study, which is simply a description of events in narrative form. A doctor taking a patient’s history is actually asking them to describe their medical autobiography, highlighting key events.  The history of medicine is itself full of stories of serendipity, struggle against adversity, sudden insight and blind luck.

Why does storytelling matter in pharmaceutical marketing?

In the current pharma world of commodity products and ever-tightening regulations on brand promotion, to make an impact, marketers need to tell a product story — one that transcends the features and benefits of a product and shows how the product will influence the patient’s whole treatment experience.

The power of storytelling is no secret. Neuroscientists have proven time and again that stories stimulate our brains. A substantial amount of information stored in and retrieved from memory is episodic—stories that include inciting incidents, experiences, outcomes/evaluations, and summaries/nuances of person to-person and person-and-brand relationships within specific contexts

It provides simplicity- Expressing information as a narrative condenses a complex situation to the essentials. Concentration adds power without necessarily taking anything away.

It focuses on what’s important- Storytelling is a lens that identifies and magnifies what really matters. This is vital in marketing, where we often struggle to select key brand attributes and market factors.

It provides meaning- Searching for meaning is a fundamental human need. Stories can help us to understand the forces that motivate people and drive events - and to come to terms with the randomness of life.   

It provides emotional engagement- Advertisers have long been aware that emotional arguments are more persuasive than rational ones, even in people who consider themselves rational. This is supported by cognitive psychology and behavioural economics, which show that most of our decisions are based on emotion, then justified with logic. Information is more effective if it is affective. Luckily, there is enormous emotional capital in healthcare brands, which can enhance or even save people’s lives.  

It is more memorable- When absorbing information, we are more likely to retain ideas when they are presented as stories.

How can we unlock the power of storytelling?

• A good starting point is to identify your brand's 'personality archetype'. This involves thinking about it as a human protagonist or story character.
• Not every brand is a Leader or Pioneer, but describing your brand as a Maverick, a Rebel or a Magician opens up a wider range of possibilities, because these are more complex characters. 
•  We need to consider what story fits our brand There are many possible trajectories - a journey, a struggle against adversity, a tale of discovery or an intellectual puzzle.
• Like all good stories, our stories always begin with a setup of the conflict — the challenges a patient faces — and end with a believable resolution
• Patients and physicians who can see themselves as the hero in the story overcoming health adversity to provide better care for themselves or others, that’s who. While nobody wants to see themself as the sick person in an ad, they will want to be the hero who finds a resolution to their own or their loved one’s health challenges.

Of the three pillars to successful storytelling — context, content, and connectivity — the availability of contextual and personal relevance has become the game changer for pharmaceutical marketers,

“The complexity of pharma product information, combined with the emotional trauma associated with illness and diagnosis, as well as the patient’s more empowered role in his or her healthcare, can all be addressed successfully through good storytelling,”

The well-established techniques of the professional storyteller not only have the potential to model complex ‘‘truth’’ but also to dig deeply into that complexity, thereby perhaps getting closer to that truth. This applies not only to fiction, but also to medicine and even science. Compelling storytelling ability may have conferred an evolutionary survival advantage

Stories have always fascinated people and are more easily remembered than facts. Well-told stories regarding a brand appear to have the potential to influence consumers’ brand experience, which consists of all the “sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of brand’s design and identity, packing, communications, and environment”

The brand-consumer storytelling and pleasure outcome builds on “that people need help in finding what makes them happy, and this is where storytelling comes in.” Happiness via brands enabling consumers to enact archetypal stories is a micro complementary proposal to more macro explication of the role of marketing in aiding consumers’ conscious quest for happiness.

References 

1. ? 2017 Life Healthcare Communications

2. Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 25(2): 97–145 (February 2008)

3. The impact of storytelling on the consumer brand experience: the case of a firm-originated story”, Journal of Brand Management 20, 283-297 

4. Sci Eng Ethics (2012) 18:567–571