The Power of Story

A recent conversation with a client illustrates the power of story in not only messaging but refining a target customer. 

The case involved marketing a health-focused product.  Our conversation began with a better understanding of a fairly vague target.  The client told her own story of becoming a customer of the product and it occurred to me that the story was much more useful than the client expected:  that is, while it was on the one hand a marvelous device for expressing the client's passion, warmth and energy and the product's virtue, it was also a means of connecting with the right target.  And in this case someone more or less exactly like the client. 

I invited the client to fill in the details of the point where the product changed the client's life and to think of speaking to those in the same life circumstances, as if a group of friends.  The story will become a valuable video in the client's messaging.

Bottom Line:  Having difficulty narrowing your focus to an ideal target customer?  Consider writing down your own story on how you came to offer your own particular product or service and then visualize who you're speaking to as concretely as possible.  You should begin to gain some very valuable perspective as well as juice up your own messaging!