Why read this? : We show how storytelling helps improve the way you communicate market research results. Learn how to tell a more compelling story with your research using story types and structure. Read this to learn the craft of market research storytelling.
The lights dimmed.
The awed audience gazed on in wonder at the screen of the mystical wielder of the Powerpoint deck in front of them.
“We have travelled far to bring you great insights from the mysterious world of your target audience,” says the confident and charismatic, and not at all nervous and nerdy market researcher at the front of the room.
“Wow”, thinks the audience.
“But before we share these stellar secrets with you. Before we make you feel all warm and tingly about how much money you’ve spent to find this out. Let’s just take these first 20 slides to remind everyone of the methodology of the research process we went through”.
There’s an audible sigh as energy drains out of everyone in the room.
This is very common in market research. It’s like being made to watch all the DVD extras first, before you get to watch the movie. Nobody wants that. But researchers do it all the time, and it drives you crazy.
You listen to stories to hear about the hero, not how the story was written. In market research storytelling, that means you focus on the customer, not the research process. That’s what the audience for market research wants. It’s the deep insights from the customer’s story which set up the story for the marketing team and the marketing plan.
CMOs want you to be good at storytelling
We didn’t just pull this insight out of thin air.
We saw some LinkedIn chatter from one of the sessions at the Research Society’s recent annual conference. That session had some CMOs sharing their view on the skills market researchers need to bring to the table.
And once you got past the usual predictable managerial blah phrases like strategic planning, being curious and being passionate, there was that still relatively new chestnut, storytelling.
Given we’ve covered storytelling in previous articles (see storytelling in marketing and the value of storytelling for example), it got us thinking about how storytelling works for market research.
Learn the tools of storytelling
You’d think researchers would find it easy to research storytelling principles and tools, right? Them being researchers and all.
But many market research debriefs seem hell-bent on telling the dullest stories. Total snooze-fests. There’s often little consideration for what the audience actually want.
Great stories hook the audience. They’re memorable. But most market research storytelling is so poorly done, it goes over the audience’s heads rather than into their heads. It’s not that hard to find storytelling techniques to make market research debriefs more magical and less mundane.
Story type
Take story types, for example. Christopher Booker’s analysis of the Seven Basic Plots outlines how most stories fit into one of 7 overall themes.
It isn’t that much of a leap to apply those story types to market research debriefs.
For example, the story could be about the customer taking on a major problem affecting their life (overcoming the monster).
It could tell the story of the customer journey (the quest or voyage and return). Or the improvement in their lives they’re looking for (rags to riches).
Maybe it’s something transformational in their lives? A rebirth story? A comedy or tragedy?
Telling the customer’s story in these sorts of familiar emotional types would draw the market research audience in. They’re familiar and yet, they also have in-built drama. Tension. Surprise. That’s what you want in a good story.
The audience is drawn in as they see themselves in the hero / heroine’s shoes. That’s the essence of what market research storytelling should do.
What market research storytelling usually does
But is that what you get from most market research storytelling?
Not even close.
What you mostly get is a dry and dull rendition of the researcher’s story. Not the customer’s story.
The aim seems to be to show how much work they’ve done (and what you’re paying for).
But let’s face it. All that stuff should have been covered during the brief and proposal.
The market research audience want to hear about the customer. That’s what they’re paying for. That’s what’s going to grab their attention.
Most of them don’t care about all the introductory waffle about methodology. Or the 100+ pages of charts, diagrams and commentary which drown them in information, rather than telling a compelling story.
Plus, the big finale of the story should fire the audience up with inspiration about what they need to do for the customer. But too often, it’s a damp squib because the story’s been so badly told.
Story structure
To avoid this, market researchers should go back to storytelling basics. Start with the story structure, for example. It’s not that hard.
You have a basic 3 part structure, the beginning, middle and end. These need to cover :-
- A hero / heroine – that’s the customer.
- Facing a problem – that’s the customer’s need or pain point.
- Meets a guide – that’s your brand.
- Who comes up with a plan – that’s what your brand does for the customer.
5. The hero follows a call to action – well that’s even got the same name in marketing.
6. There’s successes and failures until they reach their goal – that’s basically the customer journey.
The beginning of market research storytelling
We know from writing advertising and sales copy how important it is to start well. You want your headline and your “opening act” to grab attention. To hook the audience in.
So you need to get right into the customer (the hero, remember?) at the start.
Show us what their problem is. In storytelling terms, this is often called the inciting incident. It’s what drives them to act. Show us what’s wrong in their world. Show us what’ll motivate them to look for solutions to their problem.
The middle of market research storytelling
Then talk about the role the brand plays to guide the hero towards those solutions. How the brand can help them find the answers they need.
What steps do they go through? What do they think and feel as they move along the customer journey? How do they make decisions? How do they come up with a “plan” to solve their problem?
Market researchers should have tons of “material” to choose from when telling these stories. In qualitative research for example, there’ll be customer quotes and videos of them talking. Look for what customers say that makes their problem really easy to visualise. Include things they say which show the emotional parts of their story.
Problems and emotions are what add drama and tension to stories. If the problem’s easy to solve (or there’s no problem), that story is going to be dull.
When we hear a story, we imagine what we would do if we were in the hero / heroine’s situation. Market researchers should use that in their storytelling. The whole point of market research is to help you get into the same headspace as the customer.
The end of market research storytelling
Having held the audience’s attention all the way through, you want to close the story with a strong ending. A resolution to the customer’s problem.
Where the customer gets what they need. They end at a better place than they were at the beginning of the story.
That’s the story the market research audience wants to hear. That story helps them work out what’s needed in their marketing planning. The end of the market research story is a call to action to show marketers what they need to do for customers.
When and where you tell the story
Moving on from story type and structure, next you think about context. When and where you tell the market research story.
As per our market research in the marketing plan guide, you usually need 3 different versions of the market research story :-
- the elevator pitch version.
- the edited version.
- the bells and whistles version.
The elevator pitch version
The elevator pitch version is where you tell the story in as short a time as you can.
Imagine it like the 30 second movie trailer version of your story (or the blurb on the back of the book if you’re more of a reader).
When time’s short, you can only cover the most important parts of the story.
You choose your words carefully. Every word counts. You focus on being clear and concise.
(if you’re more of a digital person, you can get the same effect by writing a Tweet version of the story).
For example, this is our elevator pitch for our market research guides :-
“We’ve found x% of businesses want to get better at market research. But x% of existing websites focus on the technical side, not on how to use it to grow sales. So we’ll build market research content which gives more practical advice on market research and what to do with it.”
So, here we have a market research fact – X% of businesses want … – followed by the action we’ll take to fix it. (practical market research content) That’s about as much detail as you need for an elevator pitch.
For some people in your business, this may be all they need to know. A few key points. Maybe even just one point, which lets them know the headline and what it means for them.
If they want to find out more, they can. But the elevator pitch tells them just enough.
Customers want better pizzas. They want faster delivery. And they want to know when it’ll be delivered. (to take an example from our recent e-Commerce customer journey article).
Short sentences. Simple words. Easy to understand and remember.
The edited version
Then you’ve got the edited, “just enough” version of the story.
Think of it as the final cut version of the research. It should be a 20 – 30 minute deck you share with the key stakeholders.
This version of the story has all the highlights, but leaves out the more mundane details.
Those highlights cover the most relevant data, information and insights from the research.
The audience will get enough of the customer’s story to then go build their own story in the marketing plan. That’s really the whole point of the market research storytelling.
So be ruthless in the edit. Cut things out, or banish them to the appendix. You need to be clear and concise so your market research story is easy to understand and actionable.
Action is key here. Action drives a story forward. This edited version of the market research story needs to get down to the nitty gritty of the actions required.
The 10-20-30 rule
One way to “force” this level of clarity and concision is to use Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 presentation rule.
You limit your story to 10 slides. The story can be told in 20 minutes (allowing time for questions after). And you use a minimum font size of 30.
Those limits force you to be concise.
It’s like a forced edit of your story. You can only show the best bits, like the bits someone would be happy reading on their mobile phone.
Business Model Canvas
Another way to “force” clarity and concision and bring the story to life is to use a template like the business model canvas.
It’s a concise single page summary often used to summarise business plans. But it also works as a way to capture many of the key elements of your market research story.
It starts with a focus on the customer and what you want to do with them (the external analysis). Clearly, there’s lots of scope for the highlights of your market research story to plug in here.
Then, it covers the internal resources required to meet customer needs. Some of these might be obvious from the market research. Others however, you may need brainstorming and idea generation sessions to come up with.
It then pulls these together into your central value proposition and key business metrics. This is essentially the headline of your story. It’ll be close to what your elevator pitch was.
The presentation rule of 3
Finally, it’s also worth building into your edited story, the presentation rule of 3.
You’ll have noticed we like the number 3. It’s in our name, of course. But you’ll also see it a lot in how we structure much of our content.
We like to chunk information into groups of 3 because we know that makes it easier to understand. (see our design psychology article for more on the value of chunking by the way).
The “rule of 3” is often used in writing and presenting to make content easier to remember.
Studies have shown people find it easier to remember things in groups of 3. So when you organise your information into 3s, it’s more likely to “stick” in your audience’s heads.
Think about how you remember your phone number, for example. Most people don’t remember it as a long string of 10 or 11 numbers. They group the number into 3 chunks.
Try it. Try it on other people. We bet you’ll hear the pause, when people stop between the groups of numbers.
“Oh four one four (pause) five five five (pause) five five five”.
Once you hear it, you can’t not notice it next time.
It’s why 3 is so common in storytelling. Think about it. What did we say earlier? Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end.
3 things.
Think about it in jokes. An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman go into a bar.
3 men!
Listen out for it. 3 is everywhere!
Use the rule of 3 when you present
Use the rule of 3 to help make your market research storytelling easier to remember.
Pick out your top 3 insights to back up your main point, for example. Make 3 recommendations based on each insight. Give 3 examples for every point you want to bring to life.
Your audience probably won’t notice you doing it.
But, they’ll be more likely to remember your story. And more likely to act on what it’s telling them to do.
The bells and whistles version
The hard part about doing the elevator pitch and the edited version of the story is all the stuff you need to leave out. There’s always such interesting stuff in there. But think about who it’s interesting to.
If some parts of the story are only relevant to certain audiences, share those parts with those audiences directly. Don’t share them with everyone.
Share the pricing insight with finance. The packaging insight with supply chain. The website insight with your digital team. But don’t send those insights to people who don’t need them.
Instead, set up a place which holds all these insights and which people can access when they need to. This is your bells and whistles version of the story. The “director’s cut and all the DVD extras” version.
That’s where you put the 100+ page research deck the market research company insisted on giving you. You store the original research brief and proposal there. All the data tables, video files and notes you took during meetings. Those are all your bells and whistles.
You might not need them now. But someone somewhere in the future might be able to find more hidden nuggets of insight in there.
Conclusion - market research storytelling
Market research storytelling can be tough.
Researchers often work under tight deadlines. Market research needs to be timely. The longer it takes to deliver the results, the less useful they become.
And it takes time to craft a good market research story. The best one we ever saw was on a multi-market segmentation research project which took 18 months to complete. And it had an amazing story by the end.
But most market research doesn’t have the luxury of that much time.
We reckon that’s why so much market research storytelling defaults to standardised formats. Because it’s just easier and faster for them to do.
But not building in some basic storytelling techniques increases the chances the audience won’t get the market research story they need to hear. That they end up bored by methodology and chart overload, and miss the key points.
The audience for market research just want the interesting bits. Elmore Leonard once wrote, one of the key ways to tell a good story is to leave out the parts which readers tend to skip.
It’s a great lesson for market research storytelling. It works for the elevator pitch version and the edited version. You only tell the most interesting part of the story. That’s what’ll give your market research storytelling a happily ever after ending.
Check out our articles on story structure and story type for more on this topic. Or drop us a line if you need help building storytelling into your market research process.
Photo Credits
Coffee Cup : Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash
Woman presenting on stage : Photo by Product School on Unsplash
Person reading with sparkly lights : Photo by Nong V on Unsplash
Woman blowing sprinkles : Photo by Almos Bechtold on Unsplash
Bored in front of computer : Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash
Woman reading storytelling book : Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Surprised Monkey : Photo by Jamie Haughton on Unsplash
Delivery – driver handing over package : Photo by RoseBox رز باکس on Unsplash
Elevator Pitch : Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash
Woman editing on a Macbook : Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash
Woman looking at phone in dark room : Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash
Business meeting : Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash
Lens : Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash
