club catalyst. Brands should tell stories like he did

Great brands tell their stories really well. Think of Nike, and how well it has narrated the story of “Just do it”. Think of Dove, and its appealing, human stories of real beauty. Think of Tata, and its consistent, inspiring story of pioneering leadership with trust. Such authentic brand stories are essential, because consumers buy not just products and services, which can quickly get commoditised, they also buy into the core ideas that their favourite brands stand for.

Yet many modern marketers appear to have forgotten the right-brained art of superb storytelling, driven by an overriding focus on the left-brained sciences of profit margins, media efficiencies, digital reach, big data and analytics. To re-learn the art of storytelling, I would encourage marketers to study and be inspired by the greatest storyteller of them all – William Shakespeare. This is a particularly good year to focus on a Shakespeare-inspired learning voyage, since in 2016 we mark the 400th anniversary of the death of this great storyteller and playwright.

Amazing stories everywhere Quite unwittingly, I brought this focus into my own life a few weeks ago. I was visiting London, and took the opportunity to visit the Shakespeare Globe Theatre on the banks of the Thames, and witness a beautiful afternoon performance of his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream . Directed by Emma Rice, this Shakespearean story that develops in the woods outside Athens was told so engrossingly well, blending timeless charm with contemporary surprises, chaotic and anarchic, but totally true to the riotous comedy that Shakespeare originally penned. I was particularly delighted to find a strong Indian flavour to the play, including music of the sitar and some Bhangra dancing. And the story was told most immersively, with actors walking in and out of the audience in the open format of the Globe theatre, as they performed their parts. I came out of the Globe performance with music in my ears and a spring in my step. After 400 years, A Midsummer Night’s Dream , with all its plots and sub-plots, is still such a magical story.

At around the same time, my daughter, who is in her twenties, went out with her friend to watch another Shakespearean story in another city. At the Chowdiah Memorial Hall in Bengaluru, she witnessed a staging of an adaptation of Macbeth , directed by the very talented Rajat Kapoor. Her impression of the play: “It was an amazing story, so intense and gripping – a really, really good performance.”

And to cap it all, last weekend, my wife, daughter and I together watched at the NCPA in Mumbai a brilliant Hindi play inspired by Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors . This play, titled Chakkar Chalaaye Ghanchakkar , is scripted by Gulzar. It played to a full house, and the audience, including all three of us, repeatedly doubled up with laughter. We laughed so much that evening, this even brought tears to our eyes, as the comedy played out. I thought to myself, as I reflected on these experiences in London, Bengaluru and Mumbai, Shakespeare can make us laugh, he can grip our senses, and he can also make us cry – his stories work so well in any city, any culture, any language, any form.

Storytelling lessons This reflection led me to think about lessons that marketers can derive from Shakespeare’s storytelling craft. At a very basic level, I think his stories work so well because they are very enjoyable. He has created rich, satisfying, deeply pleasurable experiences for his audiences, who are his consumers. Whether it be a tragedy (such as Othello ) or a comedy ( A Midsummer Night’s Dream ) or a history (such as Julius Caesar ), Shakespeare always tells his story in a raw, unsophisticated manner that provides great joy to the viewer. His stories are designed to provide pleasure through dramatic, raw sequences – the killing of a great King in public, the sleepwalking of a queen with blood on her hands, the head of an ass being fixed on a young lover, or a ghost walking on the ramparts of a castle. As marketers, how do we create deeply pleasurable experiences for our consumers, through the brand stories that we narrate?

Shakespeare’s stories are also, at one level, very simple to absorb. A young school student would understand most of his stories very well. In fact, most school textbooks have traditionally featured one or two stories from Shakespeare. I remember that my own first brush with The Merchant of Venice was through my non-detailed textbook in Std V in school. It was very easy for all of us to understand and appreciate the wise decision that Portia made in this story, when she advised Shylock that he could extract a pound of the merchant’s flesh, as promised, but he could not shed even a drop of blood, because this was not in the contract. I remember that our classroom burst out into an instant and triumphant cheer when this part of the story was read out aloud by the teacher. Do we narrate our brand stories in an equally simple manner, where our consumers can readily understand them, and even burst into cheer when they are narrated ?

Touching human minds Beyond enjoyable experiences and simple stories, Shakespeare is such a great storyteller because his plays deal with fundamental and timeless human attributes and follies – such as ambition, jealousy, pride, indecision, love and lust. Because we are all afflicted, in some measure, with these human frailties, we identify greatly with his stories and characters, and happily go back to reading or viewing them time and again. Shakespeare simplifies matters for us by ensuring that each of his stories focuses primarily on one of these fundamental human drivers, rather than on many of them together – for instance, Macbeth is about ambition, Hamlet is about indecision, Romeo and Juliet is about love, and so on. As marketers, we need to ensure that our own brand stories, flowing from our brand propositions, are similarly based on fundamental human drivers or emotions. Only then will our brands resonate with our customers, all the time.

And finally, like all great storytellers, Shakespeare is a creative genius. He tells his stories with suspense, with twists and turns, great speeches, unforgettable lines and comic interludes. His stories are populated with sharp, colourful and memorable characters such as Lady Macbeth, Puck, Antony, Cleopatra, Falstaff, Iago and Prospero whom we can never forget. Many of his lines (such as “Brevity is the soul of wit”, “What’s in a name ?”, “To be or not to be…”) are unforgettable. While we may never reach close to the levels of Shakespeare’s versatile storytelling genius, marketers can take inspiration from his creative rendering of his stories and characters, to build memorable stories and advertisements for their brands. The truth is, we suffer from a surfeit of mediocre storytelling and advertising in our modern theatres of marketing, and often there is no authentic or interesting or unique brand story at all. In this run-of-the-mill world, Shakespeare, whose stories are over 400 years old yet are so vibrant and young - reminds us that superb storytelling can build great and enduring brands.

Harish Bhat is author of Tata Log: Eight modern stories from a timeless institution”. These are his personal views. bhatharish@hotmail.com

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