This is part one of an eight part post series detailing how the seven basic plots of literature can help you market your business in innovative and surprising ways. Today, we’re going to go over the basics of why stories matter, and why good storytelling can form the basis of a great marketing campaign.
Conventional wisdom tells us that marketing writers are really great linguists. This week I’m going to take that idea a bit further: behind every great marketing writer is a great storyteller. The wonderful thing about this is that deep down we’ve all got a storyteller in us, I think. We tell stories to our kids, to our family, and to our friends and communities. Marketing is the act of taking those stories and narrowing their purpose, or subverting them for our needs.
This isn’t a typical marketing blog series, as you can probably tell. This week I’m going to talk about the seven different basic plots of literature, and how understanding them can help you sell your stuff and make more money. The reason this works is pretty simple: the seven basic plots are really just an outline of our psychological triggers. More importantly, an outline of all of our psychological triggers, regardless of country or culture. Marketing is psychology, and the seven basic plots of literature represent thousands of years of psychological and market research.
If you’re still skeptical (and I don’t blame you) here’s some history to back all of this up. The easiest example is also one of the best known ones: the original version of Cinderella (or at least the earliest one with a date on it) comes from ancient China in 850 AD. A lesser known version exists in Greek culture: a young man finds Aphrodite’s sandal on a temple step. As of today, scholarship tells us that there are 27,000 versions of the rags to riches plot. Almost every culture has one that specifically involves shoes. Almost every fairy tale or myth that you can think of has at least 27, 000 versions, and almost every novel ever written can be reduced to one of these seven plots. The most amazing part of all this is that these stories exist in cultures that had no contact with each other.
We are these stories, and these stories are us. They contain what makes us tick, regardless of culture or upbringing. Knowing the psychology behind them gives you insight into not only yourself, but your customer. This week I’m going to spend a day on each of these plots and teach you some ways to use them to make your marketing more effective. Sometimes when we think about marketing we forget about the human level, and ignore the very basics behind how we think and act.
Join me tomorrow to get back to the basics, learn some fun facts about literature, all while learning how to make more money through stronger copy writing. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about quests, and how to be the kind fairy who benefits from the protagonist’s journey.
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