I was twenty when the overwhelming urge to head to the Southwest struck. I was a junior in college, living on a tiny island off the coast of Maine, and I was hungry to explore the alien landscape of slickrock and sandstone, to see arches and mesas and unimaginable rock formations with my own eyes. The canyons were calling to me, so in the spring of 1998, I took a Greyhound bus from Maine to Utah.

Five days and four nights later, I stood with my backpack on the shoulder of Highway 191. I was seventy miles shy of my final destination, Canyonlands National Park. Hitching for a ride hadn’t been part of my plan but it ended up my only option. When a park-bound father and his twelve-year old son picked me up in their minivan, I lucked out.

They put me at ease almost immediately as they began to tell the story of the ancient Pueblo people who had lived in the four corners thousands of years ago. It was almost sundown as we neared the campground and the van slowed. The boy pointed to our right, and I found myself staring at hundreds of petroglyphs carved into the stone panel of Newspaper Rock. Over millennia, images of deer, antelope, buffalo, riders on horseback and other abstract shapes had been inscribed into the hard surface. The rock was awash in characters and I was captivated by the stories they told.

Shelter, Sustenance, Storytelling

Storytelling is as old as humanity itself, and nearly as vital as nourishment. Archeologists believe that aboriginal people painted symbols on cave walls to help remind a storyteller of the plot. Researchers have found we are better able to learn facts when they are embedded within a story, and arguments are more convincing when presented in narrative form rather than based on legal precedent. This is because stories tell us about basic human motivations and emotions, which are immensely more relatable than cold hard data.

Narrative psychology contends that humans create meaning from experiences by portraying ourselves as protagonists within a story. The hero’s journey is an archetypal adventure omnipresent from ancient myth to the modern era; its appeal is universal. We are captivated by the hero’s story because, in author Mary McCarthy’s words, “We are the hero of our own story.”

Creating a Story around Your Brand

Advertisers who employ storytelling have been vastly more successful in building brand loyalty than those who omit them. Customers are more likely to connect with relatable characters or narratives than with empty buzzwords or jargon. A well-known example of the hero’s journey in brand storytelling is Apple’s origin story. Co-founder Steve Jobs was a college dropout who started the company from his parents’ garage. He suffered setbacks and challenges, was ousted from his own company, only to be brought back in time to rescue Apple from the brink of bankruptcy and revolutionize consumer technology.

When companies use stories in their marketing, they appeal to consumers in a profoundly human way, using the classic currency of connection. Stories have an unrivaled power to create emotional resonance and enthrall us. Technology may someday have us living on a colony beyond the solar system, but stories will remain central to our lives and we’ll never tire from being told a good one.

Just like the petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock and the kind father and son duo who took me there, an array of characters and perspectives exist for every story. All you need to do is find yours and tell it well. Engage your audience by appealing to the universal feelings we can all tap into.

Heather Candon is a writer living in New York.