Charity appeal story with a tribal stigma anti-climax twist – consequences of revealing unanticipated information in storytelling

Abstract

Most charity service organizations have inspiring tales to tell; therefore, they utilize storytelling techniques to communicate stories and engage with potential donors. However, not all stories result in positive outcomes. Specifically, when a story introduces an anti-climax plot and unanticipated information is presented that does not draw from a stock plot, it runs the risk of disengaging the audience from the story. This might subsequently drive potential donors away from the charity organization. Building on storytelling literature, this current research contributes to marketing communication literature and practice in philanthropy in several areas. This research uses foreign charity appeals as the context of an anti-climax plot in a charity appeal story, and examines whether charity donors respond differently to names of foreign countries revealed at the climax point of a charity appeal story. An experimental design uses video stimuli to narrate a charity appeal story to 243 consumers. The results suggest that the charity donors vary their behavior depending on whether they are exposed to the name of a rich or a poor country.

Keywords::

• charity
• storytelling
• services
• narrative
• narrative transportation
• content marketing