by Jen Johnston, CHHC, senior marketing services account manager 

No matter how great they are, your product’s features and benefits alone are probably not going to sell your product. Features and benefits are like informational data, and consumers don’t buy based solely on reason and logic; most purchase partially based on their feelings.

In this Fast Company article, "Why Storytelling is the Ultimate Weapon," Jonathan Gottschall says, “When we read dry, factual arguments, we read with our dukes up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally and this seems to leave us defenseless.”

Perhaps the best story to tell is that of your mission. Don’t have a mission? You had better get one if you want your company or brand to appeal to the under 40 crowd. Millennials support brands whose missions align with their own values, and their generation is larger than the baby boomers. In fact, it is estimated they will control $24 trillion dollars of wealth by 2020.

Here’s another reason to have and share a social mission – investors may demand it.

Other stories you can tell include how your brand or company came to be, what your staff/company culture are like, and what your advocates are saying about your brand.

Marketing that addresses both logic and feeling will fare well, but be authentic. Consumers can easily sniff out inauthenticity, and the last thing you want is a social media PR nightmare on your hands!