I returned to my journalism class at Northwestern University empty-handed. My instructor had assigned a small event to cover and I was quite bored. I left early and told him, “There was no story.”
“There’s always a story, Gallo!” he yelled, loud enough for the rest of the class to hear. I was embarrassed and he was right. I never made that mistake again. There is always a story.
In journalism the story sets the stage. If you read a quality newspaper like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, you’ll find that nearly every article that involves a substantial, complex or provocative topic begins with a story. It’s easier to relate to one person, family or business than it is to relate to large numbers.
In movies and music characters are introduced through “backstory.” Nobody cares about a central character until they’re involved in the person’s journey. The first act of most hit movies builds empathy by establishing the characters and their struggle. We want Rocky to go the distance because we empathize with his hardship. The same holds true in the music industry. The best songwriters are masters of backstory.
Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run is a rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece because it so perfectly evoked the imagery of working class life in America’s dying factory towns. You might recognize “Mary,” from Springsteen’s Thunder Road, one of the first popular songs that was all backstory and no chorus. The story begins with a screen door slam and Mary’s dress waving as she dances “like a vision” across the porch to a Roy Orbison song. She breaks hearts. Boys scream her name and haunt “dusty beach roads in the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets.” It’s admired as one of the greatest rock songs ever written because Springsteen beautifully blended music, poetry and story.
I could go on because backstory is so much fun. Who doesn’t love Tommy and Gina in Bon Jovi’s Living On A Prayer? Tommy works on the docks. The union’s on strike and Tommy is down on his luck. Gina works at the diner all day and dreams of running away. We all want her to take Tommy’s hand. They’ll make it, I swear. The backstory gives the audience a reason to care about Tommy and Gina. We want them to stay together no matter how many times we hear the song.
Backstories serve a purpose in business, too. A compelling backstory can instantly add value to a product or a service.
For example, a friend gave me a gift. It was a nice looking pen. I looked at it, thanked him, and assumed I would put in my desk and forget about it.
“There’s a story behind this pen,” he quickly added. “It’s not just any pen. It’s made of wood from the USS Constitution—Old Ironsides—the luckiest ship in the navy.” Old ironsides got it nickname in the war of 1812. Enemy canon fire would bounce off its strong, wooden hull. She never lost a battle. Sailors would take splinters of wood from the ship because they believed she was protected by a force far stronger than anything they could imagine. It’s a true story and gives the pen its meaning and its value. In about a minute or so, what would have become just another pen in my desk became a cherished item. What had changed? I learned the backstory.
The backstory. Every product has one.
After a business trip I was sitting in a restaurant at the Seattle airport and I began talking to a wine distributor from California. “I used to send bottles to my customers, but now I fly here to meet them in person.”
“What changed?” I asked.
“I learned that when I’m face-to-face and I can share the story of where the wine came from, the families behind the estate, and how the wine is made, my customers always order more. Substantially more. In fact, they place orders that are so much larger that it more than pays for my trip.”
The distributor had discovered what journalists, authors, screenwriters, and musicians all know—a backstory is the key to getting people to care. And if people care, they’re more likely to buy and to share the products’ story with others.
There’s always a backstory. Don’t pitch a product without one.
The backstory. Every product has one.
After a business trip I was sitting in a restaurant at the Seattle airport and I began talking to a wine distributor from California. “I used to send bottles to my customers, but now I fly here to meet them in person.”
“What changed?” I asked.
“I learned that when I’m face-to-face and I can share the story of where the wine came from, the families behind the estate, and how the wine is made, my customers always order more. Substantially more. In fact, they place orders that are so much larger that it more than pays for my trip.”
The distributor had discovered what journalists, authors, screenwriters, and musicians all know—a backstory is the key to getting people to care. And if people care, they’re more likely to buy and to share the products’ story with others.
There’s always a backstory. Don’t pitch a product without one.