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November 30, 2020

Storytelling for Market Research

Storytelling has existed for thousands of years. Humans have always relied on storytelling in various forms to communicate with one another. From ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics to movies and TV shows today, storytelling is a big part of our lives. As society has changed and developed over the years, storytelling has changed with us, and we’ve found more ways to utilize it.


Not only is storytelling a part of everyone’s personal lives, but it’s also an essential part of being successful in business. One area where storytelling can be especially important for businesses is market research.

What is Storytelling?

When some think of storytelling, they might think of some of the more obvious examples, like being read a story as a child. While this is a great example of storytelling, and it can be just as simple as that, storytelling is actually all around us, and you likely don’t even realize when it is happening. The movies, shows, and any other entertainment you consume are all types of storytelling. Storytelling isn’t only fictional, either. Watching the news and giving others information are also types of storytelling and occur all the time. This is how we communicate and inform others in ways they can understand and keep them engaged in what we’re telling them.

Why is Storytelling Important for Market Research?

There’s no doubt that the business world is over-saturated with information. Some people are inclined to understand large amounts of it. However, many people can get overwhelmed with the amount of information that may be thrown at them, and important parts can be forgotten or ignored. Gathering data is extremely important but isn’t the only or best way to gather and present information. While data can provide factual information, it doesn’t always give you a full understanding of things.


This is important for those in market research to keep in mind. Market research is all about finding out more about your target audience. You want to learn more about the real people using your business, and research alone doesn’t give you an accurate representation of who they are and their behaviors. While this surface-level information doesn’t help you fully understand a group of people, storytelling can, and can be much more memorable than staring at countless numbers and graphs.


Storytelling can help put more meaning behind that information that market researchers collect, making it much more compelling. This explains more about an audience than research can, giving businesses more valuable insight to make decisions based on. Listening to people’s stories allows us to learn more about them and using storytelling as a way to relay this information can make it easier to understand and care about. You shouldn’t neglect traditional research findings completely to focus more on insights and storytelling, but these two methods together can be far more impactful.

Trust Professionals With Your Market Research

At Focus Forward, we know the value that market research has for businesses in all industries and know how to conduct it effectively. Our market research professionals can obtain meaningful insights from your target audience to help you understand how to give them a better experience with your business. Focus Forward knows what it takes to get the right information from consumers and how to give your business more than just data. We offer a range of services that can help you learn more about your audience, such as qualitative recruitment, focus groups, and surveying.


Contact Focus Forward today to learn more about how we can help your business conduct market research that makes a real difference.