To Sell an Unconventional Product, Tell a Compelling Story
An analysis of products sold on Etsy suggests that customers are attracted to quirky items that have compelling stories attached to them. This research study identifies three storytelling techniques that are particularly effective.
Imagine you are an entrepreneur who loves to challenge the status quo. You’ve just come up with a new, unique, and quirky product but you’re worried that people won’t understand it. What should you do?
The answer, as research co-authored by Simone Ferriani, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) and the University of Bologna finds, is to create compelling stories behind the product.
The researchers analysed the performance of roughly 7,000 craft entrepreneurs selling unusual products on Etsy, the popular online sales platform where 'people come together to make, sell, buy, and collect unique items.'
These sellers offered the most atypical products on the site; items such as hand-embroidered, custom-made, purple women’s cowboy boots or earrings that look like two tiny packs of cigarettes.
Such unconventional value propositions face an uphill battle in attracting customers. Most people are, by and large, creatures of habit, and when they see something strikingly different, they do not instinctively embrace it. However, such products also have a remarkable potential to capture attention and interest. The study finds that the key to unlocking their success lies within the art of storytelling. A well-told story can engage audiences and persuade them to see a product or event from a different perspective. It can also make complex ideas relatable, by providing a context in which to place them and a framework for understanding them.
By using natural-language-processing techniques to analyse the sales narratives employed by the Etsy entrepreneurs in their sample, Professor Ferriani and Dr Cutolo have identified three storytelling strategies that dramatically boost the market appeal of atypical offerings.
Use abstract language
The researchers' econometric analysis suggests that when it comes to selling unusual products, atypical crafters who rely on more abstract stories to describe their creations sell 2,666 more items over five years than the average seller using more functional language.
Abstract language tends to widen the visual purposes of an object, while painting a more vivid picture of how it can be used and therefore appealing to somebody thinking about purchasing it – rather than just describing a product with details that most likely mean very little, such as what the product is made out of.
Language that evokes emotion was also found to be more successful.
Think cohesively
Storytelling that neatly links together concepts and characters allow consumers to form visual images in their minds more easily, with effective cohesion giving sellers of unconventional products 40 per cent more sales over five years than those without a clear story.
Writers use several strategies to strengthen narrative cohesion.
One way is causal cohesion. It is easier to appreciate unusual creations when they are embedded in stories that flow logically. For example, “I make beautiful cakes because I love baking, and I want to share my passion with others” is more cohesive than “I make beautiful cakes. Baking is my passion. I am Italian, and I love food.”
Another approach is lexical cohesion. For example, imagine the seller wants to tell a story about a woman who loves to bake. In that case, they might repeat the same word — bread, a synonym such as loaf, and a superordinate such as baked good – several times in the text to forge a sense of continuity between the sentences and paragraphs.
Finally, and more subtly, a seller can use semantic cohesion: the use of synonyms or semantically related words to strengthen relationships between concepts without repeating words such as oven or yeast or flour in the story about the baker. That builds a greater sense of unity and coherence in the narrative.
Familiarity breeds content
Atypical products are difficult to sell, in part, because people find them unfamiliar. By framing products within stories that connect them to a more familiar context, atypical sellers can get their potential buyers to think of their product as something more appealing than they had first imagined.
For example, a crafter selling handmade dresses that combine elements drawn from various styles could tell a story about how they learnt sewing from their beloved grandmothers, who were from two different countries. This story would provide a familiar environment and characters for the audience, encouraging a more immersive and emotionally resonant understanding of the clothing that makes it easier for the purchaser to perceive the crafter’s work. Similarly, a marketer who is trying to sell a one-of-a-kind product could invoke its uniqueness while at the same time stressing the ways in which the product is like other products that the audience already uses or how it aligns with the shopper’s own values.
The research finds that atypical crafters who manage to infuse familiar elements into their sales stories sell 11,464 more items than those who don’t.
In today’s fast-paced, innovation-driven economy, atypical ideas and solutions are important sources of growth, competitive advantage, and even societal advancement. However, new ideas often face significant barriers to adoption, as the public may find them difficult to relate to or even understand.
That’s where storytelling comes in. This research shows that stories can be used strategically by innovators who want to champion unconventional products. By adopting the three strategies outlined above, atypical innovators can make their unique offerings more accessible and appealing to a larger audience.
‘Now It Makes More Sense: How Narratives Can Help Atypical Actors Increase Market Appeal’ by Professor Simone Ferriani and Dr Donato Cutolo is published in the Journal of Management.
A version of this article first appeared in Harvard Business Review.
