A brand is as strong as its storytelling, and the business that it supports. By understanding brand storytelling as a whole – what it is, how it aligns with the business objectives and where you currently are in that storyline – marketers can get out in front of short-term communication objectives and better understand and control the whole story they need to tell.
What is brand storytelling?
We define brand storytelling as the use of narrative techniques to bring a brand to life in the minds of customers. Rich storytelling draw on 10 core elements to elevate the brand from just a product or service to the embodiment of an idea – expressed through a story. The goal is to bring the brand alive in the minds of buyers, so that it takes on value beyond its raw materials.
What does it take to tell a compelling story?
Seth Godin explains that, “Great stories succeed because they are able to capture the imagination of large or important audiences.”
They do that, he says, by feeling true to the brand and by appealing to our senses. A strong story makes a promise but also leaves enough gaps for people to draw their own conclusions. Interestingly, stories start small and depend on contagion to gain momentum. And they can do that because they build on what people believe or are inclined to believe.
“The most effective stories match the world view of a tiny audience—and then that tiny audience spreads the story.” That’s how they get to capture large-scale imagination.
Strategic narrative and brand story
Unless the organisation and the brand are the same, strong business storytelling should align two lines of narrative that tend to remain silo-ed: the strategic narrative, which sets out, in narrative form, the intentions of the business and where your strategy is going; and the actual stories of your brand and how you intend to present those through campaigns and various media.
The secret to understanding brand storytelling is realising that stories provide the best ways to engage people. They are journeys that spike curiosity and partiality. When we hear a story, listeners instinctively “pick a side”. They want to know how things got to be the way they are, and where they’re heading. They’re looking for challenges and resolution. You need a story that works for them and also that is competitive in its own right.
Data alone doesn’t give you that arc. Content may well tell a story, but it tends to be more momentary. Brand storytelling animates the story of your brand’s history, character, struggles, triumphs and future. It makes your brand relatable. But while many brand stories share these ‘chapters’, the stories themselves can vary greatly.
12 stories you could tell
For example, your brand story might focus on chronology – on the emotive and literal journey you have taken to get to where you are.
In which case, it might focus on your founder, or your founding product.
Or your story could be based on commitments – how you came to believe what you believe now and where that will lead you.
It could be a story of inspiration, or hard work, or discipline or innovation.
Or you may wish to tell a story based on reaching a goal that others thought impossible.
So it could be about a belief or a hunch or a mistake that led to a realisation.
Yours could be the story of a pioneer, or a laggard turned good.
It could be about the formation of a community.
Perhaps it’s a story of protest, justice, persistence or triumph.
It could be a story where potential has yet to be realised.
It could involve a battle with a brand enemy. Or how you came to join forces with an unexpected ally.
It could be a story of love or refusal to compromise, of no money or too much money, leading to disaster and perhaps redemption.
Further reading: Why linking strategy, culture and stories matters
Four things a story must always be
It must be a story that aligns with your strategy.
The story has to be true to your brand.
It needs to amplify people’s reactions.
And it must be a story that adds to how others see you and value you because it confirms what they already believe.
Finding the components for your brand story
One of the things we do in Long Arc, our brand storytelling workshop, is to look for the stories that people already know about you. These are part of your brand equity. If you are an established brand, the storytelling elements or pieces of story that you are using are contributing to how people see and relate to your brand. Depending on your strategy, some must stay and others will be less important. Some may be distracting or unrelated to where the future of your brand lies.
Equally, you may have “moments” (past, current and projected) that you want to include or re-introduce into your narrative. If you decide to keep some of those moments, then you will need to shape your brand storytelling around these.
By treating all these elements as contributors, you can establish how pieces of story and moments work with each other, and the cumulative impression they should be making as your brand storytelling unfolds. Here are 8 types of brand stories that you need to keep an eye on.
Understanding how your brand storytelling aligns with your products and services
If your brand is closely tied to a range or ranges of products and services, and you have a release programme for how new iterations of these will reach market, you can also align these market releases with your projected story.
Gaming companies and the big film companies are masters at this. Their products sit within what we call a ‘storyworld’ – an imagined universe that allows them to shuttle back and forth between the current, the history of how the story got to this point, and where the story s going next.
Product releases are slotted into the long story arc, enabling every new product or product improvement to be a reveal in its own right but also to sit within a context that is defined and cumulative.
Plotting the launch of your products and services against the trajectory of your overall story prevents what you sell being separated from what you tell. Instead, each acts as a proof point for the other.
Co-ordinating this can feel complex (especially for portfolios of brands) but it needn’t be.
The key is to establish the long story arc first. Then look for opportunities across your organisation to inform and add value to where your brand storytelling is going.
Next steps
If you’re interested in understanding why brand storytelling matters 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.
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Photo by Nicole Avagliano on Unsplash