“So, what’s your story?” - Maarten Schäfer
In 2002 I started interviewing brands and my first question was, “So, what’s your story?”
The vast majority of interviewees started giving me a long official account or even showing me PowerPoint presentations. Which for me with my dyslexia and short attention span was of course hard to process.
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| Maarten Schäfer - Author 'Around the World in 80 Brands' |
A few years later it struck me: brand representatives have trouble telling their story for two reasons.
One, they know too much. They want to show you all aspects of the brand and therefore can’t distinguish between want to be complete and do not want to leave anything out.
Second, they aren’t dyslexic. They assume everybody has an attention span of 45 minutes or more, so they keep talking and think the information is being absorbed.
“Haven’t they ever heard of information overload?” I asked myself. “People
don’t want more information, they want your story!”
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| Maarten Schäfer - Cave diving in a 'cenote' in Yucatan |
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| Maarten Schäfer - Creative mind and storytelle |
Maarten Schäfer and Lenny Niemeyer
Maarten Schäfer - Creative mind and storytelle r for CoolBrands and CoolTravel . Traveling the planet meeting people, experienci ng cultures, taking pictures and writing stories.













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