What is brand Storytelling?
Are you artificial or flesh?
In a simple sentence, brand storytelling is: creating a narrative that makes an ongoing connection between customers and a brand. While that sounds easy, it’s a little like saying “moon landings are as easy as sending a couple people in a rocket to space.” As we ride along through this article, we’ll talk on what brand storytelling is and give you 3 tips on how a brand can tell their story.
Part of the features of a good brand, is that it should not be a company but a person. The story of ones past, their present, and possible plots of the future are components to stories you’ve been following for years . We’re humans after all and once we make a bond with something we stick by it. Whether it’s a sports team, celebrity, movie character, or your favorite charity you’ve gotten invested into a story and built a loyalty or joined the “community” by association. And due to these associations - more likely than not- you’ve spent a few bucks to join that world or spent some time to be a supporter to further the story.
So what does this mean to you and your brand? It means that with a little strategy and planning, your brand can make long lasting loyal connections, resulting in your brand staying strong and getting stronger.
3 TIPS ON HOW A BRAND CAN TELL A STORY
Tip 1: Figure out what YOUR story is
This is a pretty easy tip and seems rather obvious but it is crucial. As we touched on earlier, each person has their own story to share. Just as a person has a birthdate, so does your brand (though hopefully not as loud and messy). Start at the beginning of your journey and figure out why in the first place you started a journey that brought you to this article. Think of the reason it began - the good and bad roads it took to get to today. Think of the potholes in the road and the good times in the car that were had along the way. Write everything you can down and look at as many resources there are to answer this riddle.
Next, is everyones (least) favorite part. Edit. Review what you’ve taken down and decide what the major and most interesting events that have happened. Write them them down in a line-and-arrow format and see if they make sense. Try a couple of different sequences of events if you’re having a hard time choosing which ones are the best. This is your story. The one you want people to hear, so choose what you think is important.
Getting your story straight is important for more reasons than just having a solid alibi ready. Organized stories allow new and interested individuals easily follow the story and start to “feel” they are getting to know you (your brand that is). This in turn not only helps them form a connection with you but makes this easier for memory recall if they talk about your brands story to a friend.
Tip 2: Don’t be “corperate” be YOU
If being a brand is suppose to be like talking with a person, then communicating with a “corporate” liaison is like talking with an ice-cold loan shark with a nice smile or a sketchy used car salesman. The point is, no one wants to be sold to or bullied into something. If you’re building a brand then you are building a business of some kind at the end of the day. Granted, depending on the industry you’re in will depend on how “business-like” you must be to be viewed properly by your target audience. With that said, you always need to be personable. People want to deal with a person. A person they can trust and talk with. They do not want to correspond with a business where the client pocket is where the profit comes from.
JUST BE YOU! You are a person and that means you know how to sound like a person and how to talk to other people.
TIP 3: Strengthen brand loyalty with customer participation
How is your target audience part of your story? One of the key aspects of building good brand loyalty is by making customers feel like they are part of a community. People like to have input and influence. It makes them feel good, to feel like they have been heard. This can be accomplished on a spectrum of scales. One of the easiest way is to have followers of you social media accounts vote on something via your account story.
Another great way to get “buy in” from customers for you brand is to respond to messages sent and display your responsive activity (as long as it’s appropriate to do so). This shows that you’re not just another account who's posting promotions. It shows you care about what people have to say. In turn this can encourage more participation on your account which in turn helps you to grow when done properly.
Sometimes voting on your products design or ideas just isn’t practical for your business for one reason or another. Other ways of helping improve brand loyalty are featuring team members and the projects they are working on. If there is room in the budget, one great way to get a good name in the community is to assemble a team and let the company buy ice cream at a local ice creamery for random patrons or to volunteer for a community event that makes sense for your company. It’s a great way to get in front of potential new clients and a great excuse to get out of work a little early on a Friday.
BONUS TIP: What storytelling method works best for you?
Aside from recourse and market share reasons, not every company needs a short film quality commercial to play 20 times a day nationally like Apple or Cadillac does. Sometimes just consistently posting in a creatively unique fashion is the perfect practice you need for your coffee shop or second use bookstore. Your accounting firm has social media accounts to help spread the word but your biggest business net for catching new business may be from your SEO focused website. Whether this is your first time building a business or you're fortieth, one great way to figure out where and how to tell you story is looking at the competition. Your competition may have found an ingredient that would work great in your secret sauce of marketing. Take what lessons you can from you competitors and see what you can integrate into your unique storytelling format.
BONUS RESOURCES
If you want to learn more about brand storytelling or branding in general, check out the links below curated Evan, the CREATIVE242 CEO himself!
3 Reasons Why Brand Storytelling Is The Future Of Marketing by Celinne Da Costa
https://www.forbes.com/sites/celinnedacosta/2019/01/31/3-reasons-why-brand-storytelling-is-the-future-of-marketing/?sh=507a844255ff
What is Branding? Understanding its Importance in 2023 by Allie Decker
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/branding
The Importance of Logos for Businesses & Companies by Kristie Loretta
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-logos-businesses-companies-213.html
