Storytelling is in vogue. Communicators want to know how to develop and tell a good story. CommCore teaches that good stories have three elements: A strong headline or statement, facts that support the headline, and an example, anecdote, analogy or credible third party validator.
Today’s example is an analogy. In a recent Wall Street Journal article about the hording of aluminum in a Mexican desert, the reporters noted a fact that approximately $2 billion or 6% of the world’s inventory of aluminum had been stored in San José Iturbide, Mexico in an effort to corner the global market. But was does $2 billion worth of aluminum mean to an average reader. The article likened the amount of aluminum to 2.2 million Ford F-150s or 77 billion beer cans. Now, that sounds like a lot of aluminum.
This is a prime example of using an analogy to get readers interested. On the face of it, not many people will think twice about tons of metal secretly stashed away in Mexico. But once put into context of the number of trucks or cans it could make, you read a little bit more. The analogy helps answer a reader’s questions: So What, Who Cares and What’s In It For Me?
Let us know when you read or hear a great analogy and we’ll write it up.