Seth Godin: All Marketers Are Liars Tell Stories
Seth Godin chose to change the title of this book less than a year after it was published, because his audience—marketers, primarily—did not appreciate the heavy-handed joke. Regardless of his distracting preamble of how the stories we tell ourselves about products are essentially fabrications (nobody needs bottled water), Godin makes a compelling case for the power of authentic storytelling in marketing communications. As he puts it, either you tell stories that spread or you become irrelevant.
Chip Heath & Dan Heath: Made To Stick
The Heath brothers—a Stanford professor and a consultant from the Aspen Institute respectively—examine what makes messages memorable and persuasive. Building on a term borrowed from Malcolm Gladwell, the authors name six (why is six the new magic number?) qualities of stickiness. Number six quality? Storytelling.
Daniel H Pink: A Whole New Mind
Hilarious and profoundly important book. Pink charts the demise of the Information Age and the transition—well under way—into the Conceptual Age, in which right-brain thinking (what he calls R-Directed Thinking) is a necessity for professional success. Amid globalization, automation, and rising standards of living in much of the developing world, reasoning and analysis are important skills, yes, but will increasingly be carried out by computers or outsourced. Pink identifies six (…) human abilities critical to business and career achievement in this new age. Number two on the list? Story.
Stephen Denning, et.al.: Storytelling in Organizations
Denning, a former World Bank executive, has become the principal voice for leadership communication through storytelling. Here he teams up with other expert communicators to make a case for why narrative should be part of organizational and management thinking. The result is a virtual how-to guide for using storytelling as a change, knowledge management, and education medium.
Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks: Storytelling for User Experience
For anyone on the design side of websites who needs to share research, large bodies of data, or complex information in compelling and effective ways, this is an excellent resource. The middle section of the book is the most interesting, with instructions on how to incorporate stories at all stages of the user experience process.
Kendall Haven: Story Proof
Haven has collected a staggering amount of evidence and expert opinion supporting the power of story. Drawing on neural biology, cognitive science, knowledge management, information theory, and a range of other fields, he tackles the difficult questions of what exactly makes a story and why stories so affect us. Have trouble convincing a CEO of the validity of all this story stuff? Wield this book like so much garlic and holy water.
Ardath Albee: eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale
Most B2B websites fall woefully short of B2B customers’ needs. They are internally focused, fail to answer questions, and block prospects’ path as they research companies to place on their shortlists. Albee outlines how you can use e-marketing to support B2B prospects’ throughout the research and buying process to shorten time-to-sale, increase productivity, and grow revenue.
Carolyn Handler Miller: Digital Storytelling
If you want to take the building blocks of storytelling (character, inciting incident, plot, conflict, etc.) into the digital realm, you can’t do better than with this absorbing and educational book. Handler Miller covers transmedia storytelling, mobile entertainment, user-generated content, and much more, and she peppers every section with case studies.
Annette Simmons: The Story Factor
Want to persuade, motivate, and inspire people in and outside of your organization? Simmons’ how-to of storytelling techniques, complete with hundreds of case studies from business and government, is a great place to start. Less about marketing than person-to-person and person-to-group communication, this is still essential reading for anyone seeking to understand narrative in a business context.
Margaret Mark & Carol S. Pearson: The Hero And The Outlaw
The seminal work on archetypal psychology as a basis for meaningful marketing. Most advertising and branding dollars are wasted because the businesses spending them fail to apply deep human insights and constructs to their marketing efforts. Pearson and Mark tell us how to build brands that evoke real meaning.