The Story Economy

Stories do not live exclusively in the domain of fiction, the spoken word, or a physical gesture. Stories are composed of how we dress, what we eat, how we move, where we spend our money, and with whom we associate. Stories help us understand our immediate world and how to use it, from what we need to survive, like food, sleep, clothes, and the impulse to reproduce, to what we require to achieve self-actualization – our full potential (thank you, Abraham Maslow). 

Stories also live within us, privately and quietly - every day, every minute. They are our narratives, helping us make decisions and solve problems. Consider your everyday life, from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep and even during your dreamscapes. Throughout these everyday moments, we become conscious of many things. All of them are would-be stories. Those are the stories shared with other humans who share them with others. That is the way marketplaces, culture, and value remain in motion. Stories fuel innovation and help us evolve as a species.

The critical consideration is that today’s consumer is an activist, emboldened by technology and social connectedness. We live in a non-tethered, context-sensitive, multi-sensory, timeless, stateless, personalized marketplace. We live in a world of “customized ubiquity” where consumers can individualize and personalize their experiences in real or virtual environments on demand. This has led to a new economic condition I refer to as “personal economies,” where individuals are proficient at overseeing and managing their health, wealth, and aspirations, representing a new and emerging level of empowerment for consumers and a challenge for those who sell products, services, and experiences.

In the past, marketing was a simpler game: create an eye-catching image, pair it with a catchy slogan, and broadcast it to the masses, and products flew off the shelves. But today’s world is far more crowded with messages, and standing out requires brands to embrace storytelling as a core strategy to capture and hold attention. More importantly, organizations must cut through the muck of messaging and very quickly touch the consumer with stories that go beyond features and functions, and in the seconds we have to attract them, we must touch an emotional chord and tell a story that provokes an action, especially in a world where access to commodities, goods, and services is boundless, and parity is the norm. This must happen in our world, where an overabundance of novel information (stories) is generated and consumed at breakneck speed. 

Herbert Simon, American economist, said:

“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”

Have we reached a point where our attention has lost its ability to “allocate efficiently the overabundance of information sources that might consume it”? Have we reached a point where we, as a species, are suffering from a “poverty of attention”? Furthermore, have we lost our ability to tell stories that capture the attention of humans being? 

Stories are at the heart of human connection. They pull us into theaters, keep us hooked on binge-worthy shows, and have us scrolling endlessly on our devices. A compelling story does more than capture attention—it ignites curiosity and holds our engagement. Your brand’s story goes beyond words; it’s a foundation for building identity and meaningful relationships. It influences how others perceive you and motivates them to align with your purpose. When approached authentically, storytelling turns your brand into something people don’t just support—they celebrate, drawn by the values and deeper meaning it represents.