I just finished the book “Winning the Story Wars” by Jonah Sachs. I really liked it!

The idea of “Wining the Story Wars” is that current human culture has been out growing the myths that we have been telling for 10s of thousands of years. We are having a harder and harder time relating to these myths because of the advancement of technologies and science.

As humans we still very much seek myths to help guide us through our complicated and sometimes overwhelming lives.

The book talks about how marketing has taken advantage of this lack of modern myths and used it to manipulate people into buying products. A lot of companies have told stories that used fear, insecurity and greed to drive sales.

The reason that this has been so effective is because we were living in the broadcast era. Think TV and Radio. These one way systems were set up to broadcast information in a way that wasn’t interactive. But now as we leave the broadcast era behind with the invention of the internet we are entering a new era that much closer resembles our an oral culture. Similar to what we have had in the past. We tell stories peer to peer. If a story is good it gets passed on to our networks.

By studying oral culture we can understand the types of stories that were passed on in this way.

The stories that were passed on in this way are stories of inspiration and hope. Not stories that enforce fear, insecurity, and greed. The stories that were passed on call people to be heroes in their own lives, to live their personal values and to make the world a better place.

If we as brands want to increase our authentic connections with our audience and become a brand that is shared by word of mouth, we need to learn to tell these positive stories. We need to find the higher purpose behind our brands and tell stories of inspiration and hope.

It’s our responsibility as brand to create new myths to give people something to believe in.

It's our responsibility as brands to tell stories that guide and inspire our culture.

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