Every person in the business world is talking about brand stories. A lot of importance is attached to creating a compelling brand story for the audience. So, why is it essential to create one for your company, and what makes a brand story successful? Let us dig deeper into the intricacies of a great brand story.
What Exactly Is A Brand Story?
A brand story is a business’s narrative of how its product, services, and company are helpful to the audience. Simply put, a brand story is the story of your business as seen by your customers and target audience. So, what is so special about a brand story? The uniqueness of a brand story lies in the emotional way it is communicated to the audience to create a unique perception of your brand.
The ingredients of a successful brand story are emotions, positivity, utility, and individuality of your business conveyed to it so that it can create a lasting positive impression in the mind of the audience.
Why Do You Need A Brand Story?
A good brand story is a powerful tool for a business to communicate its uniqueness and utility to its audience without annoying them with too many desperate marketing efforts. A brand story brings forth why someone should prefer your brand over your competitors through a compelling storyline of your brand.
Humans have always used stories as a powerful communication tool to captivate, influence, and engross the human mind. A compelling story can arouse curiosity and interest and involve the listener to the extent that he experiences the same emotions as the narrator. As a result, a listener does not merely understand the story but becomes engaged to feel like a part of it. So, the excellent brand story helps your target audience comprehend your brand purpose, accept the brand ideals, and thus build trust among its prospective clients.
How To Write an Amazing Brand Story?
A fantastic brand story tells a compelling storyline emotionally but is backed by a lot of research and thought by the business. So, the key is carefully creating a marketing strategy around the story and communicating it in a simple yet effective way that appeals to your target audience.
Clear Communication of What your Brand is About
Highlight your brand’s purpose, mission, and core values to communicate what your brand is about. The audience must understand what you are doing and why it is essential. For example, Marks & Spencer emphasizes ‘finest quality, ‘freshest supplies, and ‘keenest prices’ with its brand story around “This is not just food, this is Marks & Spencer food .”
On the contrary, McDonald’s promotional story launched around Father’s Day was accused of exploiting child bereavement. So, any ambiguity in the communication could kill the purpose of a storyline and diminish the brand value. Moreover, miscommunication of a brand story could lead to association with negative emotions and result in negative publicity.
Focus on Offering an Experience
Brand storytelling is making your product, service, and company memorable by aiming to connect at an emotional level. So instead of offering a product or service, focus on creating unique experiences that your target audience can relate to or be pleasantly surprised.
The Central Message is the Product’s Utility to the Prospect
The core of the brand story must be about your prospective client and how your product or service can be helpful to them or improve their life. Sometimes it may, especially in the case of a B2B business brand story, include introducing the prospective client to a business need that they might not be aware of or how your product can simplify their process.
Follow the structure of Setup, Conflict, and Resolution
The safest way to weave a compelling storyline for your brand is to stick to the structure where you first introduce the situation and character in the setup, followed by the conflict situation, and lastly, your product or service as the resolution. In other words, the consumer should be the central character of your storyline, with the conflict situation as the opposing character and your business in the supporting role as a solution.
The 5 Best Brand Story Examples
Apple – Inspiring People
uses a simple yet effective storyline that starts with “Think Different” to describe Steve Job’s and Apple’s contributions to changing the course of technology. The brand story is about challenging the status quo with new technologies. The story is widely used in its products, services, and work culture, becoming a source of awe and inspiration to billions.
Zendesk – Simplifying a Complex Concept
Zendesk has done a remarkable job as a software solution provider by highlighting its utility simply and straightforwardly. Its brand story around “Let’s get real” is a great way to communicate the complicated concept of customer service software and how it deals with the real-life problems of customers.
The brand story emphasizes that there is no need for fancy customer service but instead focuses on dealing with clients’ real issues while using customer service. The story is highlighted in all aspects throughout the company, making it memorable, relatable, and a practical solution.
Google – Emotional Impact
Google has always focused its marketing strategy on the story of people rather than using figures to establish its strong presence. Google is immensely popular; almost everyone knows its search capabilities and position as the search engine leader.
So, instead of repeating what the general public already knows, it highlights how it is useful and can change lives. Further, instead of establishing supremacy, it conveys that Google is your close ally throughout life.
The latest’ Parisian love’ is one of the best examples of Google stories connecting emotionally with the audience through what seems like a young man’s story where he goes to study abroad, followed by falling in love and ultimately starting a family. The storyline does not show the protagonist and conveys the story through his search history, which makes it interesting, unique, and relatable. It establishes the brand message and purpose without any solid call for action.
Dove – Addressing Societal Beauty Standards
Societal beauty standards are silent discrimination against people, especially females who do not fit the definition of beauty as conceived by society in general. Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign in 2004 aimed to make women feel beautiful by creating a trend that opposed societal beauty standards. Instead of professional models, Dove started using women of all colors, ages and sizes to help females feel good about themselves. Associating with the concept of ‘inclusive beauty was an effective campaign because it was thoughtful, memorable, and positive. As a result, the brand story was immensely successful and recognized by organizations through awards.
Old Spice – Recreating its Image
Old Spice is an old brand that has been immensely popular in the 1970s and 1980s. So, the brand faced a challenge where it could be looked upon as a Grandfather’s aftershave and could be replaced by new brands. So, the brand created a storyline around the concept “The man your man could smell like,” which attracted the new generation because of its catchy message and the use of the handsome model Isaiah Mustafa who is related to both acting and sports. Further, the brand story addressed females directly, making the brand message funny and memorable, with a clear CTA for males to use the products. In other words, the target audience was male, but the campaign was addressed to females.
Tips and Tricks for Telling your Brand Story Effectively
Here are some simple yet effective tips and tricks for telling a brand story effectively.
- Positioning your brand as a helpful solution is the main key to a brand story.
- Draw a compelling storyline to captivate the audience.
- Focus on benefits and not product features.
- Use the power of social media to share and spread your unique brand story. Tell your brand story everywhere to make it a part of the everyday lives of your target audience.
- Encourage the character to take a step to avoid the specific negative or unpleasant situation in the storyline.
- Make the character development and his journey entertaining and out-of-the-box.
- Your brand story should be simple, honest, and consistent.
- Be true to your target audience and honestly disclose the failures you faced that later became turning points.
- Be empathetic about social, political, cultural, and other sensitive issues.
- Keep evolving your brand storyline and adjust it to the changing client or market expectations.
The bottom line is that while crafting a brand story, aim to make your prospect want to be associated with your brand. So, add all the ingredients with a pinch of your personal touch to create a mesmerizing brand story.