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I saw a commercial on TV the other day, and it got me to thinking.  In and of itself, that’s pretty amazing in the age of the information blizzard.  The majority of 30-second spots these days tend to induce a coma, rather than provoking thought or action.

The commercial in question was nothing revolutionary.  Or then again, maybe it was.  In fact, it was really a story.  A story about a typical family preparing dinner for grandma’s birthday.  Nothing too remarkable about the folks.  Mom, Dad, 2.5 kids.  All just trying to clean up in time for grandma to arrive.  Grandma is, apparently, a neat-freak.

Oh, by the way, they were using the cleaning product of the commercial’s producer to clean up.  But you didn’t hear one word about it until the logo appeared in a graphic at the end of 30 seconds.  No banal or, worse, contrived conversation about it (“Wow, Dad.  We’re so glad we’re using No-Smudge!  The last time we used that OTHER brand, Grandma cried for weeks!”).  No animated bluebirds singing about it.  Not even a wretched jingle.  Nothing beyond a little product placement in a couple of mini-scenes.

Now, nothing dramatic happened.  Grandma wasn’t kidnapped on the way over.  Nobody suddenly keeled over because of an aneurysm.   In fact, I don’t think any of the kids even spilled anything on the floor. 

But you know something?  It was mildly compelling. I paid attention to this spot for 30 seconds.  In what strange world is it compelling to watch an average family undertaking average chores on an average occasion?  Why, the same world where, from one channel to the next, we are compelled to watch all varieties of “reality TV” (although I discount the buffoons of “Jersey Shore” from that category—there’s absolutely NOTHING real about those people).  The same world where Joe Average keeps his own blog.  The same world where we get our news just as much from The Daily Show or Twitter.  We are, by our very nature, interested in what other people are doing.

This little cleaning product commercial, I believe, hammers home a lesson often forgotten in marketing and communications.   Whether you are doing business-to-consumer or business-to-business (“B2B” to those of us in The Biz), you are talking to people.  We might pretend to, but we really don’t check our humanity, our emotions or our prejudices at the office cubicle at 9 a.m. every morning.  We make business decisions with just as much imperfect humanity as we make our consumer decisions. 

So why do we constantly, especially in B2B, communicate with our prospects as though they’re robots, or worse:  lawyers?

To that end, I’ll say something I tell my clients all the time—whether speaking, presenting or writing.  Tell stories.  People love stories.  People listen to stories.  People remember stories.

No, not irrelevant stories.  Not pointless stories.  And please, not dirty stories.  But I’m willing to bet that your business has a story, with real people behind it.  And that story probably ties into your key message.  In fact, it may actually be your key message.  Whether you are advertising, using media relations or sending out a marketing piece, use it to tell that story.  Instead of broadcasting, try connecting.  You may find that your target market reacts very well to it.