Honestly, before listening to the talk, I have not been realized that storytelling is such

a significant subject full of learning. And what impressed me most in the talk is that I
found storytelling so significant in various fields, and I felt strongly touched and
related after listening to Henry Poon’s wonderful speech and watching each of the
video. Also, the talk really motivates me to learn more about storytelling in the future.
In the article, I will share what I have learned in the talk, as well as my reflections.

How significant storytelling is:

The first thing I have feel from the talk was that storytelling is much more memorable
than any other facts or data. The talk began with an interesting interaction: Henry
Poon showed us a head of horse, and actually the cost of it is only $0.99. And he
asked us to show our prediction for the price after adding the head of horse a specific
story. Surprisingly, the total price of 129 items is about $8,000. I was extremely
shocked, and I found that how powerful the storytelling is. When people see an
advertisement, they remember about 65% of the story, while only 35% of the data
shown in the advertisement. And according to the research, a story is 22 times more
memorable than facts. For example, when you get a product manual, you may forget
about what you have seen on it the next day and throw it away the day after the next
day, it is because what you have seen on the manual is much about data. On the
contrary, stories are more engaging, so we can better remember stories than other
types of information, including data and facts. When paper and computers have not
been invented, information and knowledges are transferred mostly in the forms of
stories told orally. And the majority of human conversations are through storytelling
so we can see it is a natural part of our thinking and communicating. For example, if
you are delivering a pitch, a storytelling can give audience a break and it is easier for
them to remember at least your story even if they forget everything else. However,
when telling a story, the story itself should be interesting, otherwise the story can not
impress audiences. As the saying goes, a skillful woman cannot make bricks without
straw.

Furthermore, storytelling emotionally connects people, which eventually influence

people’s desire to purchase. Interesting stories can make people have a kind of
emotion, and actually the impact on the desire to purchase is larger than logic.
Typically, value behind emotion gather not only a customer, but a tribe, common
language, value added. As Henry Poon mentioned, most of young people purchase
Apple mainly because they think Apple is the symbol of popularity and fashion. They
consider Apple products as fashion and priority, this is emotion. Similarly, nowadays
many young people purchase Jordan sneakers because they hold the opinion that it is
the symbol of fashion, and some people even feel isolated if they do not possess that
kind of sneakers. This is also emotion. The best stories evoke emotional reactions,
which means people truly relate to the stories, and they believe in the company and
what the product stands for. Also, a story that can emotionally connect others must
strike a chord and in this way leave people a good impression. For example, some
companies may emotionally connect people by telling a story about a failure for the
company that their audiences may have also experienced. People will relate to this
since they have all experienced similar failures and mistakes. For example, one of the
videos is talking about how a person get on the road to success: at the beginning the
man has nothing, but after borrowing money from a loan company, he works very
hard and eventually realizes his dream. The story cleverly connects with audiences by
motivating people to borrow money to invest in their dream. Besides, the more
audiences understand what the story is to create the brand, the more likely they will
choose the brand. And when you pass the shop, it will remind you of the story and
unconsciously motivate you to have a visit. To conclude, humans typically make
emotional instead of rational decisions when purchasing, so it is a powerful tool to
relate to audiences’ emotions by storytelling. Transferring your vision into an
appealing story and clearly communicating it is a powerful marketing strategy.

Storytelling can also form a powerful marketing strategy by adding value to the
product or connecting people with the brand. Nowadays, customers are exposed to so
much different information, so it is easy for a company to get lost in the noise. Maybe
a business is selling better products than their competitors, but actually customers’
decision-making is more emotional instead of logical, therefore adding a related story
can help distinguish your company from competitors. Again, take the head of horse as
an example: after adding a heartfelt story, the item was sold $62.95 each, compared
with $0.99 each without a story. This example reminds me of the story of Tesla. The
stories Tesla tell are all about the theme of environmental impact: Tesla focuses on a
specific market segment, and their marketing and mission are targeted specifically on
those people, who care deeply about the environment. The stories of Tesla are so
impactful that they strongly connect with potential or current customers. For the
customers, they are not only purchasing a car, but more importantly, a movement
calling for environmental protection. Tesla customers are like paying for
environmental protection and saving the world. Annually, Tesla releases an
Environmental Impact Report, which is to tell story of how their cars are reducing
carbon emissions worldwide. The stories do well in showing that Tesla is making a
contribution and changing the world. In a world where environmental issues are
gradually catch people’s attention, it makes people greatly connect with the brand and
its products. All in all, Tesla keeps telling stories about their environmental influence
to add value to their products, and at the same time, Tesla is trying their best to
connecting with their ideal customers.

How to tell a good story:

Besides learning how significant the storytelling is, I have also gained a lot of useful
skills about how to tell a good story from the talk. Firstly, where are the stories come
from? Storytelling begins with listening to storytelling, consequently “copy” them. As
Albert Einstein said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
Nobody is a good storyteller at first, we should collect some short stories at the
beginning, and then we try to practice telling the short stories. Through constantly
practice, eventually we should be able to exact our own stories from life. Secondly, to
tell a story is like a train passing through a tunnel, which means the theme should sets
the direction of the story. Take one of the stories in the talk as an example, the theme
is: music can cure people. Therefore, every scene in the story reflects the theme. For
example, music cure other students’ attitude to the boy, and the boy also uses guitar to
cure his mother who got a cancer. Anyway, the theme sets the tone for the story while
all the storylines point to the theme. Furthermore, five basic principles of telling a
good story were also shared. The first and the most important one is: every scene in a
story must have a causal connection. For example, one of the videos shows: The girl
was told that her Mr. Right will have a mark on his arm, while the humble guy in the
story does not have a mark at the beginning. However, in order to protect the girl, his
arm was injured and left a scar coincidently. As a result, the girl was very moved and
became the guy’s girlfriend. The layers of causality make the story more intriguing
and wonderful, and it also makes the story more impressing. It is such a successful
story that makes audiences impressed by the story. And all the causalities just point to
the ultimate orgasm. Another principle is: all storyline development must be triggered
by the character of the story’s protagonists. The characters of protagonists are like the
engine of a train. For example, I have watched “The Boss Up There”, which is one of
Henry Poon’s movies. And this principle is on full display in the movie. One of the
protagonists in the movie used to be a pure and charming girl, but she turns to be a
pregnant drug addict living on the streets. The change of her personality pushes the
development of storyline and makes the movie more exciting.

Moreover, telling a good story requires adding 3S: suspect, suspense, and surprise.
The 3Ss can make the story more impressing by twisting the story. In the story, a girl
is asked to go to France by boat to gain the secret of healthy skin. The girl eventually
arrived in France after passing through thunderstorms and many other hardships. It is
easy to tell audiences to purchase the cream at $30 in the drugstore, but do you think
it will leave a deep impression on them? On the contrary, the story reminds audiences
of the hardship to gain the cream by adding suspense into the story, and obviously the
effect is significant. In a word, like writing an article, storytelling also requires the
storyteller to add 3Ss to a story to make it more exciting and impressing.

As far as I know, storytelling is not an independent subject in almost all the academic
institutions all over the world. And after this talk, I have learned a lot about what
storytelling is, how significant it is, as well as how to tell a good story. All of these
deserve me to continue further study, since it is obvious storytelling cannot be fully
understood with only a talk, instead it is a subject for the entire life. Therefore, I am
excited to involve learning of storytelling in my future life and hopefully it can enable
me to become a better storyteller.