Power of a great story

market gravity

Everyone ‘believes’ in gravity. And yet, we know virtually nothing about it. We don’t know how gravity waves (if there are any) are transmitted. We can’t block them (anti gravity boots!) and we can’t amplify them and we have no idea how fast they travel. There are very few people doing serious gravity research and development, either. But it’s apparently a law.

Evolution (and one’s confidence or lack of belief thereof), on the other hand, is enough to sway a school board election or get you nominated for federal office. I’ve never met an informed person who doubted the general facts about evolution unless they had an alternative view of the origin of species that they felt emotionally connected to. There are evolution skeptics who would prefer a different story, but no gravity skeptics, even though there’s a lot less science there.

Proximity to pain

The closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge.
Pizza at the airport costs five times more than pizza on the way to the airport.
Tax audit services in the middle of an SEC investigation cost triple what they cost before one.
Scalped tickets cost more than ones bought in advance, by mail.
Emergency towing in a strange town costs more too
The single easiest way to increase your fees is to get closer to the
pain. It’s interesting to note that no large-scale advertising ventures
are closer to the pain than the Yellow Pages or Google. Both of which
are insanely successful.

There is a market

Atheists who’ll take in your pets after the Rapture: “Will sends us ‘a site of avowed atheists who will, for a nominal fee, look after your pet when you have taken in the rapture.’

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each
Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you’ve received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.
We are currently active in 20 states and growing. Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet’s natural life.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA

Enormity

Enormity doesn’t mean really enormous. It means incredibly horrible.

The problem with enormity in marketing is that it doesn’t work. Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down.
Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies and you won’t get a bigger donation, you’ll just get averted eyes.
If you’ve got a small, fixable problem, people will rush to help, because people like to be on the winning side, take credit and do something that worked. If you’ve got a generational problem, something that is going to take herculean effort and even then probably won’t pan out, we’re going to move on in search of something smaller.
Not fair, but true.

How to tell a story

How to tell a story: “
Some great advice from Scott Simon.