Back the Appeal with a Backstory

Products sell better when each item comes with a tale to give it distinction. Retailers of antiques, art objects, and handmade crafts find that easier to do than those who sell toasters or toilet paper. With the toasters, toilet paper, and other commodity items, the background narrative sometimes should best be about the store itself.
     A backstory can be related online and in a paper catalog. Recall the elaborate tales about product offerings told by the J. Peterman character in “Seinfeld.” That character was inspired by the owner of the real-life mail order retailer The J. Peterman Company, which carries the tag line “Traveling the world to find uncommonly good stuff.”
     In whatever way a compelling backstory is delivered, the entertainment prolongs the shopper’s attention, giving you the opportunity to dramatize the benefits the consumer would find in purchasing the product. Backstories also give your customers conversation starters as they generate word-of-mouth about your store and the offerings. Have product literature available to your shoppers to take away with them not just before they complete the purchase, but also afterwards. Invite them to come back to inform you how the purchase worked out, and when they come back with a happy tale, admire their skills in making the right decision. Then use snippets from those tales to build the backstory further.
     A backstory delivered face-to-face to the customer adds the appeal of exclusivity. The impression, deserved or not, is that the shopper is privileged to be told the tale.
      At one time, boutique retailer Valentino arranged for customers to meet the designers of cocktail dresses, handbags, and espadrilles so they could hear backstories from the sources. Gucci offered tours of the Florence, Italy workshop to selected customers who would be influenced by the sense that not everybody is invited.
     Yet you don’t need to be a luxury retailer to benefit from backstories. And the advantages work for your staff as well as for shoppers. Every new employee at every Nike store is told the magical tale about the track coach in Oregon who poured rubber into his family’s waffle iron to produce better shoes for his team’s runners—the innovation that inspired the Nike waffle sole.
     Every employee at every store is told the backstory? Well, maybe not. However, when people accept a story as possibly true, they are open to being informed and motivated.

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