Using Human Interest Stories in Your Company's Marketing

Everyone loves a good drama or human interest story. Newspapers, television and even the World Wide Web are all filled with features and human interest "stories" for the public consumption. You may not have realized it, but your marketing and advertising efforts can truly benefit from finding the drama, heroes, and human interest angles to your business and promoting them to the public. But, how do you go about utilizing stories" to build your marketing plan?

The truth is, people respond to people-they like to make purchases and give their business to companies where they feel a personal attachment. This is why telling "stories" in your advertising can be so effective. Think over some very memorable advertising campaigns-Home Depot using employees who are also Olympic athletes in their advertising during the Olympics is one that comes to mind. Also, nonprofit agencies and charities usually do a good job of telling the personal, heroic stories of clients, workers and volunteers.

Look within your business organization-do you have employees who also do volunteer work or who have overcome a particular hardship? Has your company been involved in a community event, or been called upon to help solve a problem or cope with a natural disaster? Sometimes there are interesting stories in family-owned businesses or companies that have been in operation for several generations. It may take some creative brainstorming to come up with story possibilities and human interest angles, but they very likely exist already within your business.