In an age of sensory overload, attracting attention is anything but easy. Storytelling helps getting people excited about your business: wrapping your company’s history in an exciting story makes it more authentic and sets your company apart from the crowd. Frank C. Mars started the Mars food company from his kitchen. The story of how he went from dishwasher to millionaire is particularly well received. Ursula Burns barely had enough money to go to university, but went on to become CEO and Chairman of Xerox. Stories like these also resonate in politics, where Barack Obama was raised by a single mother.

7 highly emotional stories

Irish bestselling author and journalist Christopher Booker has analysed the different storylines and grouped them into seven narrative strands, which are also used by the film and advertising industry: whether monster, from dishwasher to millionaire or The Mission, whether journey and return, comedy, tragedy or rebirth – most of them can be assigned to one of these highly emotional sequences of situations. And it is this emotion that is at stake. They literally get under your skin, penetrate to the furthest corners of our cerebellum, reduce complexity and increase memorability.

A picture says more than 1000 words

That’s why communication professionals dress their messages in pictures. After rain comes sunshine, no master has yet fallen from the sky or you get to the heart of the matter. Those who manage to string together many word pictures create a mental cinema – and thus stimulate people’s imagination and emotions. Even Hemingway impressed with powerful word pictures in his classic ‘The Bullfight’. We too can take the bull by the horns, suddenly see red or be blinded by rage. If you prefer the world of music, motorsport, boxing, weather or shipping – you’re welcome. Here is a small sample of the most diverse worlds of words: You set the tone, you’re in the fast lane, you’re knocked out, you’re in a period of good weather or you’re consistently heading for your goal.

The bait must taste well to the fish

Do you think your story is great? Maybe, but if your target group doesn’t identify with it, both will fall by the wayside. That’s why the PR experts’ advice is wise: Speak the language of the recipients and pick them up where they feel at home. And the best way to do this is short, colourful and fast, i.e. short sentences with a maximum of seven words, with word pictures that bring vibrancy and colour to the text and with active, almost spoken language.

Basically, think long, write short and be understood immediately. And we quote two great words of wisdom. Wittgenstein said: ‘What you cannot talk about, you must be silent about’.

Goethe (or was it Blaise Pascal?) also came to terms with himself. He apologised at the end of a very long letter with the following words: Sorry, my friend, I didn’t have time to write a shorter one.

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