Last week, a pizza-maker at a chain (re)taught me one of marketing’s most important lessons: the value of a good story.
I was at a place called Anthony’s, where they make coal-fired pizza. We were there because the food is good, which is enough, but for Anthony’s, apparently good food is the bar for entry.
My 4 year old daughter wanted to see the pizzas being made so I brought her around the side of the bar they were using and stood her on a chair.
In the flurry of 6 people hopping around the two ovens, one asked if she’d like some dough. We’ve had the offer of a piece of dough to play with before at Mother’s Dumplings in Toronto for years, so that’s what we were expecting.
A minute later, another fellow yanked a full flattened pie of raw dough onto a plate, put it in front of us, and before I could ask what we were supposed to do with it, gave Pip a handful of cheese. He told her to spread it around. She asked for sauce, and he dipped a ladle in their pizza sauce and poured it on. Then he asked her what she liked on her pizza. She replied, he supplied, we decorated together, and he got someone to put the pie in the oven.
We went back to our table, told my delighted in-laws and Pippa’s jealous sister what happened, and Pippa alternated between gloating and being thrilled for the next 10 minutes.
When it came, she nearly exploded with excitement, but she let us all taste it. Naturally, to her, nothing was going to taste as good for a long time.
This was in Boca, where people spend most of each day deciding what they’re going to do for dinner. At Xmas, so their relatives were visiting. at 6:30pm, with a line-up out the door. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t take him much effort or cost him much. But the payoff includes:
- Guaranteed future visits from us
- Likely visits from my family (2 brothers and 2 sisters, each with spouses and 2 kids, plus my parents)
- Likely visits from people each of us tell about the story, and the people they tell, etc
- This blog post, which gets read by enough people when I post, but will be indexed by search engines and served up in perpetuity
It doesn’t seem to matter how many times you hear it from hallowed, New York Times best-selling marketing gurus, people just don’t seem to clue in to the power of good stories. Long story short:
- Stories travel in ways traditional communications can’t hold a candle to
- They last (sometimes getting more interesting over time!)
- We hear them from trusted peers, not brands
- If they’re good enough, people will write about them, increasing their chance of being seen
Let me leave you with 3 questions:
- Have you been witness to the creation of any good stories?
- Any thoughts on stories you can create for your organization?
- Can surprising and delighting people be part of your content strategy?
