Brand Storytelling

What is brand storytelling?

Brand storytelling is a type of content marketing that is designed to engage consumers emotionally. Content marketing involves creating and sharing material (commonly video, blog or other social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is absolutely intended to stimulate interest in its products (albeit indirectly). In other words, rather than use boring educational e-books or infommercial content about product features, you can instead use storytelling, best yet with lifestyle branding, to engage a consumer's buying mind via their emotional backdoor. In short, brand storytelling is a strategy to emotional stimulate consumers. 

What is a brand story? A brand story is the narrative or the reputation attached to your brand. It is what others may say about your brand, often the first thing they think of. It is useful to consider the term 'brand story' as a collective term because it is the residual idea that is left in a consumer's mind having interacted with your brand over an extended period in numerous ways. If your brand shows up in the world in a way that remained strictly consistent with the brand personality, a consumer's response when asked about your brand is likely to incorporate some key aspects of your branding design plan.

 

Examples of what some customers might say for the following case studies.

• Red Bull support extreme sporting events.

• Nike encourages athletes (of more conventional sports) to excel. 
• Coca Cola is about happiness and friendship.
• Harley Davidson's brand thinks people should enjoy life and feel free.  Notice that, rather than sell motorbikes or roller coaster rides, these brand stories sell the core belief. 
• Disney thinks people should have fun. 

Since the brand story is often known only implicitly, it is even more critical that a brand's content remains consistent and clearly aligned with branding goals. A brand suffering multiple personality disorder will find it hard to maintain a good niche of 'friends'.

Uses & Benefits of Brand Storytelling

Emotional branding. Research shows that stories trigger the brain to respond to stories in very affecting / moving ways and people are 22 times more likely to remember story-based information than fact-based information. Stories even encourage people to feel more emotionally connected to brands than otherwise. Using the brand story as a more organic advertisement is ideal. Your story should ideally include how you resolved their pain points, etc, the story will be even more beneficial. Read more about emotional branding (along with case studies for the emotions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear).

Differentiation. A compelling brand story can help to seal competitive advantage. After all, according  to the Content Marketing Institute's 2019 B2C Content Marketing Trends, roughly half (only 52%) of content marketers frequently use storytelling in their marketing. If you are fortunate to be in a market with even less focus on content marketing, you have even a greater opportunity.

Brand Story Tips

• Know the brand attributes. (See examples of brand attributes). This are essential parts of the brand and need to be communicated.
• Integrate all aspects of your business with branding so that it is consistent. 
• Red Bull marketing model is consistent globally. 
• Own and control your content without needing to seek third party rights. 
• This is the motivation behind the creation of Red Bull Media House.

• Generate quality, authentic content that truly is emotionally engaging. Focus on the brand personality and attributes, NOT the product.
• Red Bull tv tells real life stories of the challenges and triumps of its star extreme sports athletes. Red Bull does not show athletes holding the can of their product. They are relying on the audience to be so emotionally connected with the content that, when they need to 'feel revitalized', they will buy Red Bull. The subtle placements of their brand imagery is sufficient for the audience to know the source of the content.

• Create different communication media  products (video, blog, etc) based on your market's preference. 
• Red Bull creates its own featured films, episodic series, documentaries and so on. 

• Create valuable media channels that could provide 360 degree publishing. 

• Create innovative content. 
• Red Bull's events are often very innovative. A key case in point was the famous man jumping from space.
• Do not allow the brand story to develop by chance. After all, it can be implicit and left to perceptions of others (much the way any human being has a 'story' that can be concisely construed by observers). Take charge; direct how your brand story is told. For instance
• When creating brand awareness from the earliest stages of the brand's life and or when your target customer is still only at the top of the sales funnel (TOFU), expressly communicate the brand story in writing in the 'About' page. Essentially, begin training everyone about your brand's narrative.
• Brainstorm for brand stories from daily activities that relate to your brand's source of competitive advantage, featured employees whose practices reflect the customer experience that is integral to your brand's competitive advantage, things learned, etc  Examples include show how your buyer who is concerned with eco-friendly materials visits suppliers; show how you make the product is handcrafted with thoughtfully sourced ingredients.
• Articulate the brand story to anyone being recruited to provide content in one way or other, from employed content providers to customers about to write reviews or feedback. Prompt and guide these content providers accordingly.
• Have a communication marketing plan whose raison d'etre is to honor the brand story. For instance, establish details for managing each type of content element (above).
• Include brand style guidelines regarding types of content. What you say is just as important as the form you use to communicate it.
• Always make the target customer profile into the protagonist with problems and show your product as the hero or resolution to customer problems. (Focus on benefits NOT products and features). Use customer stories. This helps to showcase that customers love your brand. Publish customer reviews and stories that are compliant with your desired brand story. Whenever possible, use classic storytelling techniques; character development, a character's arch / transformation, etc. Wherever possible, be inspirational.
• Be social. Show your brand's human side. After all, customers have relationships with people. You can humanize your brand if you showcase yourself as the brand's founder, team, the office, behind-the-scenes activities, daily activities and so on. Consider that the KarJenner clan social media achieves this very well. The public has such intimate knowledge about the family members that their humanity is a people magnet that allowed Kylie Jenner's product launch to result in a complete sell out within hours, even though she was a teenager selling products that offer nothing extraordinary that can not already be achieved from other brands. Inclusions in brand story telling include stories about how and why the founder created the company.
• Teach others how to tell your story. As early as possible, preferably within the first few words of content, let customers be clear of how the brand adds value. Be concise to maintain the emotional hook. This is important because you are NOT the only one telling your story.  
• Take advantage of internet marketing tools. Examples include. 
• Use video contagion
• create a unique hashtag

CONTENT RELATED TO TELLING A BRAND STORY

• Emotional branding (with case studies illustrating the emotions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear).
• Lifestyle branding strategy
• Brand awareness & brand awareness srategy
• Unique value proposition
• Promotional strategies to build brand awareness
• As much as possible, encourage customer reviews and feedback to be compliant with the brand story.
• Measuring brand awareness
• Branding 101. See where this step fit into the process of brand strategy management.
• Brand personality
• Audience-driven content management