Establish empathetic connections with the market through storytelling

Many of our clients develop innovative products, technologies, or services that solve problems, improve lives, or promote health. They're incredibly impressive, and the depth of expertise behind them often leaves me, as an outsider, struggling to come up with scripts.

During pre-animation interviews with clients, I frequently hear them confidently describe their unique, cutting-edge technologies that have earned several patents. While I'm still trying to grasp their complexity, clients are already listing multiple leading-edge technical specifications, often derived from authoritative research reports or papers, that we must include in the animation to showcase their capabilities.

It's natural to feel proud of years of research and innovation, but if you constantly communicate with the market using technical jargon or insider "lingo," you may fall into the trap of the "expert blind spot".

When we dive deep into our own areas of expertise and accumulate more knowledge, it's easy to fall into a psychological bias, assuming that our audience has similar backgrounds and can understand our technical communication. This makes it harder to detach from our expert roles and put ourselves in the shoes of outsiders who may feel confused and overwhelmed by complex topics.

In reality, everyone is too busy to care about topics unrelated to them. Moreover, our brains tend to avoid things that are difficult to understand.

So, if your product or service is so complex that only you and internal experts can understand it, I suggest you start "storytelling." As Morgan Housel mentions in his book "Same as Ever : A Guide to What Never Changes":

"Morgan Freeman can make a shopping list sound moving, while a scientist with a groundbreaking solution might go unnoticed if they can’t communicate it well.

In a world full of information, people need to filter through data and seek rational answers. However, captivating stories are far more powerful and persuasive than cold statistics, especially for busy and emotional audiences."

Statistics and technical specs can be dull, but stories capture attention. In today's world, attention is even scarcer than time or money.

Therefore, I often encourage my clients to find ways to tell stories about their expertise. Because no matter the product or service, there are always "human-being" behind it.
Where there are people, there are opportunities to uncover stories.

How can you find stories about your expertise? Here are 3 questions to help you think:

1. Who is using your product/service?

Are they male or female? What is their age? What are their professions and family backgrounds?

Specifically, you can imagine the profiles of your friends and family, which aligns with the marketing concept of "personas."

2. In what context does your product/service make an impact?

For example, "This material has a low thermal conductivity, ultra-low density, high fluidity, and high-temperature resistance" is a technical specification, while "This material reduces boiler temperature by 30%, making the work environment more comfortable and safer for workers" is a story.

Another example: "This technology has earned 260 domestic and international patents" is a specification, while "This technology helps 100,000 couples around the world achieve their dream of having a baby each year" is a story.

3. What pain does your product/service solve, or how does it improve people's lives?

For example, "A mother who had failed ten times with IVF finally succeeded in her eleventh attempt after undergoing endometrial receptivity testing" is a story we used at the beginning of one of our client's work.

So, try stepping out of the office and talking to your users about their feelings and experiences. I believe you'll uncover new insights.

—

In summary, it's not that technical specifications aren't important, but in today's world, to capture people's attention, we need to think more empathetically.

How can we make our expertise resonate with those we aim to serve or influence?

I believe that by starting with empathy and using the above three questions, you can find stories that package your technical highlights and make a greater impact in the market.