Blog post

A cloudy, rainy day in August. Raindrops hit my window loudly. Banana in my desk is looking browner and browner every day, and I’m wondering what I should do with it– brown bananas are too sweet for my taste. I sigh and take another look at my computer. Almost endless number of choices available, and I feel I’m more insecure than ever before. Choosing my master’s degree’s major as marketing was a clear and easy choice, but continuing from that was harder than I expected. Past six months I’ve happily focused only on my traineeship, not thinking about the school at all – but now I have zero excuses to escape from my responsibilities anymore. I must focus on my studies again and choose what I want to do from hundreds of options.

I sigh again and start scrolling down the webpage again. My thoughts wander, and I think about a new Tesla which I just saw outside my apartment. Since I was working in an automotive industry, Tesla was a brand often mentioned, and their success with Model 3 was incontrovertible. For customers, it didn’t matter if some of the cars had some weird problems, such as they were leaking water, or even that it wasn’t always possible to test the car before ordering it – you had to just order it from the internet. Tens of thousands of people were willing to pay more than 50 000 euros in order to get something they maybe even had no actual experience of, because of...

A great story. A possibility of being part of something new, exciting, to some extent exclusive. Of course, Tesla is said to be a great car to drive and it offers a good performance and EV car range – but anyway, if a similar car would be offered by Volkswagen, Nissan or Renault, for example, would you be willing to pay a similar amount of money and take similar risks, such as ordering from the internet without even seeing it first? Probably not (especially if you are not an enthusiastic fan of those car brands). 

And this is actually what matters in a lot of cases – story. Since the company can communicate its ideas and practices effectively with a great story, you remember it, you get loyal to the brand and its products, you like (even love it!), and, most importantly, you’ll buy their products. Steve Jobs was an essential part of Apple’s story and was partially a reason why it has been the world’s most valuable brand already nine years. Oatly keeps telling its story in a fun and sometimes provocating way and it puts a lot of effort on sharing its story with you, wanting you to prefer their oat milk products over others. Whatever you listen from TedTalks, you probably watch it with interest and feel inspired afterwards – a good stories told by great speakers. 

Without a good, interesting, up-to-date story, it’s hard for companies to be known and remembered by consumers and offer consumers something they can rely on. Especially important this is when you have a small company or a start-up, and you don’t yet have the financial resources to get your message effectively through. Even though you would be lacking money, with a great story you can make even greater effect than big and wealthy companies and make your company thrive.

I scroll down the list of available courses in Aalto 2019-2020. 

Storytelling – a narrative approach for entrepreneurship?

Exactly what I’m looking for. 

Registered.