How to start a movement?

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We have movements today that bring change. Every cause is not merely a cause. There is a movement behind each one. The movement keeps the cause alive and vigorous. It’s through the movement we feel connected with each other.

 

But how is a movement born?

 

By simply summoning it to existence. By simply declaring its start.

 

Hard to accept?

 

 

The movement does not exist and so no one belongs to it until you tell the first convert a story they relate to — a powerful story that they take as their own. For the skepticism, it’s reality distortion. For the believer to whom the story speaks to, the story is the reality. Their perception of the story is as real as they are.

 

The movement takes hold when the converts, through vivid folklore and storytelling, recruit others into their collective reality. Ergo, the movement is as real as the connection every individual has to the story.

 

 

Great brands, religions, and ethnic/racial groups pass on the legacy across generations by telling stories and altering them to the changing contexts. Movements have followers. They buy narratives.

 

That is why movements are powerful and yet could be squandered if not built for the right reasons. I digressed.

 

Brands have to tell stories but the story is just a tool. The job of the story is to get converts and to reinforce to the follower why they belong to a movement. The stories that the followers make as their own become the folklore. The folklore gives it the authenticity (booster shot) so that the stories’ extend their lives and recruit/influence/infect more people into the movement.

 

The story is a tool. The movement is the goal.

 

If it’s that simple then why don’t brands tell great stories? Why isn’t there a movement of self-expression that Apple does so well that others aren’t able to match?

 

It’s what we tell as stories. It’s not our stories. It’s theirs. The story is about the convert and not the brand.

 

I go back to the famous quote — “People don’t buy products. They buy better versions of themselves.”

 

Make it about them. They will tell others. Make it about them as well. Build a movement. Summon it to existence. Their collective perception is the reality. The movement is legitimate.

 

The story is the tool. The community is a spatial/temporal construct. It’s a wire. It’s not the electric power that goes through it. The movement is the reality. 

 

Best,

Ashwin Ramasamy

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