Much is made of the idea that your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. However, brands are defined by more than reputation, and stories are told and spread by more than just consumers. Some stories you control. Many you can’t. Here are 8 types of brand stories you need to have on your radar.
Forming pixels in the minds of buyers
Stories and fragments of story (or anecdotes as Shawn Callahan calls them) come together in the minds of buyers to form an overall impression of the brand.
The story that the brand tells
Let’s start with one of the most obvious types of brand stories. Every well-strategised brand has a story that it is keen to tell the market based on its strengths, its ambitions and its purpose. Advertising may tell that story overtly or it may simply underpin whatever the company says in public. The basis may be history, intention, defiance, product or ubiquity, but the role of the story in shaping how people see the brand and what they believe about the brand as a result is undeniable. Great brands set their promise to the market through their story.
The stories that consumers tell themselves
These are the alignment stories. They help consumers to compare and contrast the stories they are telling themselves with the stories that brands are telling. Such stories are a powerful example of confirmation bias – we’re drawn to brands that tell stories that reinforce what we believe. That said, many stories will never get through, because they don’t mean enough to win and hold our attention.
The stories that consumers share with others
Increasingly these types of brand stories revolve around experiences and reviews. We judge the authenticity of the stories brands share about themselves by what others have experienced and the stories they tell of those experiences.
The stories that the media shares
These are the stories of public record. They are the stories of validation or disapproval around a business’s behaviours that help consumers decide whether a brand remains on-brand for them. Brands like BP and Volkswagen have found their brands deeply blunted by the stories that have emerged of their conduct.
The story that the culture shares
This is the internal business story. It’s the story that the company lays out for itself behind closed doors. Too many senior leadership teams look to present their people with a facts and figures explanation of the road ahead. In fact, they should be using story much more often to present the future state in ways that people more readily identify with. Increasingly, when decision makers share stories, they engage people more closely and get them more involved, more quickly. The converse is also true. Where stories are not told, a culture will quickly tell itself stories that set out a range of expectations around what is acceptable and what constitutes “us”. Shawn Callahan refers to this as the counter-story: the narrative that a culture tells itself to prevent unwelcome change.
Further reading: Why linking brand strategy, culture and stories matters
The stories that employees share
These are the stories of endorsement and internal proof that employees share with each other to bring the story alive for them. In disconnected cultures, forward-looking stories seldom exist, and so the culture lacks the momentum and the belief to advance the brand forward together. In connected cultures, not only is there a sense of a story for all, but within that the many experiential stories of individuals, told by one and shared with many, come together. These small stories weave in relevance and context to make the bigger story more immediate.
The story that the company tells investors
The investment story is actually critical for consumers and employees too because it signals the priorities of the business. The money story also quickly becomes the value story. For consumers, that story shows that a brand is true to its word or not. For employees, the messages that the market receives, and the expectations that are placed on the brand as a result, decide what will be prioritised internally and how success will be judged. Sadly, and for reasons that remain mystifying, too many businesses see no need to align the external story they tell customers with the external story they tell investors (and that the media duly reports to consumers).
The stories that competitors tell
These stories provide alternative narratives that counter-balance the story a brand tells and prevent one brand telling a one-sided story. In that sense they are healthy and balancing. We doubt whether consumers consciously compare these rival stories, but they are more inclined to believe, or like one story, over another.
Finding the types of stories you already have
It’s important to understand brand storytelling, the core elements that make for great brand storytelling and why it matters. Story can infiltrate and influence every aspect of how people think about brands. You only get the benefits of storytelling if you know what your types of brand stories are, you know where to tell them and you are willing to do so. You also need to understand the reactions you are looking to amplify. Some brands tell the different parts of the story better than others. Too many though continue to treat each storyline as separate (or not worth sharing). As a result, their brand feels unfocused. And many more have yet to confidently spot their own stories and filter those from opinions.
Four questions should underpin the development of every one of your brand’s storylines:
- “Does this make sense as a storyline in its own right?” Have you unlocked a competitive brand story?
- “Does it align with everything else our brand has said elsewhere?”
- “What can others add that will make the story richer?”
- And most importantly, “Why will those reading or listening care enough to take notice?” Will the story align with what people want to believe?
Next steps
If you’re interested in understanding brand storytelling and seeing where your story could take you, let’s talk about what could work for your brand. Please contact us to make a time to chat.
Acknowledgements
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Note: A version of this post has been published elsewhere under the title 8 Brand Storylines.
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