We have heard many of stories as children. People have always been interested in stories. People like stories about dramas, celebrities, politicians and rumors. Storytelling is based on a real human characteristic; people like generally to hear and tell stories. Through stories, information, attitudes and emotions in the reader's mind can harmonize with new information. The story rearranges the information that already exists and combines it with new intelligences.
Harvard professor Howard Gardner has taken the traditional notion of intelligence and expanded it to give it a new meaning. Koreans have picked up on this and emotional intelligence has become in vogue in Korean. According to Gardner, when people think logically they use the brain's left hemisphere, the area that controls reason. However, when people make a final decision, the right hemisphere of brain, which manages sensitivity, takes over. Therefore, the story is the principle factor to stimulate the world of sense.
When people hear of the term story, most people imagine a novel. They have the misunderstanding that a novel is the typical standard of all stories, though stories extend over a wide range of genres. Storytelling means originally "telling a story" which is not a report but makes some story about an event, object or person.
-Marketing
Marketing is the method of explaining about the background of products and people in order to create a positive impression. A representative from Pungryuilga, the culture marketing company said the term "storytelling marketing" was established merely one to two years ago. Before then, advertisements had a story and were simply called series ads. Recently, storytelling marketing has increased rapidly and the methods will become more various and distinct. However, storytelling marketing is more effective to the businesses that have more interest in their balance sheet.
Storytelling marketing isn't advertisement oriented in that the content explains the function of goods, but at the same time introduces some stories to evoke interest. It contains certain meanings or individual story and is considered as objective and sensitive marketing.
About the question as to why storytelling marketing is in use to commercialize, the marketing consultant Kim Min-ju answered, "Because we appeal to emotion rather than reason" in her book There Is a Story in Successive Company. In former days, consumers paid attention to the goods themselves; however now there is little value in the commodities themselves and therefore consumers are likely to be influenced by sensitivity.
Thus, the importance of stories is getting bigger everyday. Products are hard to remember just through images alone. The strength of stories has spread to all fields; the distinction has become a critical factor to brand value. If a marketer tries to get a point across about a product with a story, it is easier to remember. The biggest merit of using storytelling marketing is to ensure brand positioning. Goods that contain an interesting story are more attractive to consumers than other ordinary products.
For example, the American house wares company Williams Sonoma, is famous due to their use of storytelling marketing. By topicalizing the story of each product using the themes of history, character and craftsmanship, they make full use of the story in their marketing. More and more consumers will focus on storytelling marketing that appeals to both the eye and mind, even though they don't perceive whether it is storytelling or not.
Storytelling is used in novels and is considered in technical terms, but it has spread to movies, games, ads and various other fields recently.
- Advertisement
There is an advertisement that shows a huge UFO in the dark sky like blockbuster movie. Giving out strong light from the UFO, a washing machine appears. It may upset viewer's expectation. Is it surprise? The name of its concept is "Surprise." It was publicized with certain copy such as "It will clear out the stain" in the past. But now, the advertisers focus on image and impression rather than information and fact. This is an example of an advertisement that uses the storytelling method. In these advertisements, their product or brand name are nothing but a part of total story. For example, the Anycall product is shown only a few seconds in the Anymotion ad and the same is true in recent BMW or GIORDANO ads.
- Exhibition
Recently, there was a very different exhibit at the 63 building: The Funny Funny Miffi exhibit. This distinctive exhibition used the storytelling method to offer visitors a personalized experience. For example, the visitors make Styrofoam igloos and dig out shellfishes in the pool.
From July 28 to September 9, "Child Emotion Design Exhibition" is being held at Kumho Museum. Many designers, child education experts and artists are participating in this exhibition to recover overpowered emotions. Children feel and experience various emotions in 5 rooms, named tear, laugh, hug, hissy and love. Each room was designed and well-planned to feel a different emotion. Lots of objects are arranged for a certain purpose and the sound and video help children to assimilate with the atmosphere. In the case of the hug room, its motif is that of a mother's womb. There are big balls soft to the touch and heartbeat sound in this dark place. The designer Rye Ji-heon said, "After playing and digging up balls, children should feel comfortable. Accordingly, they will be stimulated by the five senses."
- Literature
In the digital age, many people worry about a crisis in literature. However, anyone can participate in the transmission of stories and knowledge. Wikipedia is an open encyclopedia with content that anyone can create. Or an author could make a drama, novel, or poem in association with their Internet Homepage. Then, people read and link to this story and more and more people can read the story.
The literature works become storytelling, so a writer and reader participate together. Above all, replies and fanfics show a new literary trend in the digital age. Fanfics is a compound of Fan and Fiction and means the work of the fans, not that of the artist. Fans recreate original work and modify as they please. Also there are Internet novels, which features the use of emoticons and serializing on Internet cafes or Homepages and the author are not novelists. "To my Boyfriend," "The Guy Was Handsome," "The Wolf’s Temptation," and other works of "guiyeuoni," who is an Internet novelist that uses emoticon in his writing; these were the first Internet novels several years ago.
- Journalism
Park Sang-gun, an expert adviser of Korean committee for the Press, said, "The conclusion of newspaper and the text of Internet blogs avoid traditional journalism and change into private and subjective writings." Though the journalist writes on his own blog and uses storytelling techniques and emotional expression, fact and reality are fundamental to the work. Therefore new writing in blogs is able to connect to the recreation of journalism. In particular, the advent of the Internet changes the standard of news and conventional journalism and changes the customs of news reporting. Park said, "The journalists try to vary their descriptive style. It affects newspaper writing in a complementary way." These changes of writing strengthen sympathy with the reading public.
If a journalist writes a composition related to his concern or specialty, the reader is pulled into the story, feels really comfortable with the work, and expresses their opinion via replies. Besides, they convert literary style into dialogic and polite expressions.
-Book
The persuasive power of a level story has had an effect on the improvement in quality and service. For a year, Baeryeo, a traditional paper book, has sold approximately 70 million volumes, selling as many as one thousand volumes recently. The book sends a message of consideration through the use of interesting fables. The book introduces an earnest storytelling method, which makes it a hit with readers.
After just 2 years, The Magic Thousand-Character Text passed 500 million volumes sold, which is an unusual trend for a science or history book. If difficult information is put into story, students will learn the contents less stressful. Catching up with Robinson Crusoe is one such book. In the book, Robinson, who is trapped on a deserted island, lets the reader know about how to survive in the place. The reader becomes familiar with the interesting story and learns scientific information.
- Theme park
The theme park planner integrates storytelling into the concept of theme park. When composing new tourist attractions or festival, the program may be based on a local tale. Walt Disney used to take his children to theme parks and he thought that it was necessary for theme park to be enjoyable for the whole family—children and parents. Disney planned his own them park to be opened just outside Los Angeles, California, often redesigning architects plans to fit his exact standards. Opening in 1955, Disney’s Magic Kingdom was a place where whole families could experience a fairy tale for themselves.
How, then was the story made in case of Disneyland? Visitors are able to make their own story by experiencing a variety of events, fantastic structures and spaces containing characteristic themes. Consequently, Disneyland parks, including Disney World in Orlando, Florida, attract 35 percent of the total number of people who enter the top 40 theme parks in America.
Why are Disneyland parks adored around world? The reason is because they are story-based theme parks. Besides, their animation motif is based on popular fairy tales, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Mulan, and so on.
Furthermore, there are examples in Korea. There is Taebaek Park for a public safety experience , in which the main function of the theme park is safety education, experience potential accidents, leisure and so on. In Daegu’s Game Theme Street, the streets have been given the names of certain games.
- Game
In the game industry, the developers organize the scenario via epic stories. There is a character, materials, a background and some sort of conflict. Compared with other story creations, the game's core is different. In the regular telling of a story, one person makes a hero or heroin and the creator and reader accept the whole story as it is told. But a storytelling in game sphere, the player becomes the heroin of the game. Therefore, computer games can be transformed by the player’s taste or ability. It is also influenced by the digital environment and interaction among players. The whole experience is a product of collaboration between the author and the players.
- Animation
Korean creative animation director Lim A-ron said, "Whether it is 2D or 3D, it's not important. The next generation animation is made up of stories. Other Korean animation directors are also good at planning and making stories."
In conclusion, the soft power of culture gets ahead of hard power such as information and technique. In every quarter, the power of culture shows its real ability. The futurologist Rolf Yensen emphasizes offering dreams and emotions to consumers because they will become a critical factor and soon a "Dream Society" will arrive. Moreover, the story and dream complete added value in the future. Rolf Yensen said, "The Company should focus on Dreamketing. According to Rolf Yensen, a new Dream Society is now under way.
