How to be a better brand storyteller [guide + examples]
Your brand story helps you stand out from the crowd and build human connection into your business. Here’s some of our favourite brand stories and how you can become a better brand storyteller.
Digging deeper into the story of your brand might not be something you have explored before; however, it’s a crucial part of your marketing. Brand stories can be described as narratives that release the motivations, narrative and feelings of your brand, helping to spark a profound connection with your customers.
Let’s get all scientific for a moment... research has found that when we are told a story, it activates the special neurological sensory regions in the human brain. Juicy, right? Simply telling your customers boring facts and figures will send their neurological sensories straight to sleep. However, telling them a story will turn on the bright lights and trigger an emotional response towards your brand.
But, why is this important? Consumers are attracted to nourishing emotions (such as personal feelings and experiences) rather than frank information when making decisions. Facts are facts: we’re all bored to death of being talked at and sold to. That’s why it’s time for brands to humanise their business and build genuine, authentic and emotional connections with their audience.
What makes a great brand story?
A great brand story is crisp and tells the customer the unique narrative of your brand. IT customers into your brand by telling them where you come from and where you are going. A story that creates impact is key and must be authentic, true and sincere - removing you from the corporate box and placing you into the circle of trust.
Our brains process not only stories, but the human emotions behind them too. Understanding each other's thoughts and feelings has brought us the ability to empathise and construct real emotional connections. We, as people, earn connections that turn into trust and as for brands, these connections hopefully will turn into revenue. This is why it’s essential for your brand to tell it’s unique and amazing story.
So, let’s get started. A great brand story consists of:
Mission Statement
Stories that uncover the passion and dedication behind your business will help your customers to see your business’s goals. When customers realise your passions and goals, they will want to be a part of that magic.
Problem Solving
Yes, telling a story to your customers will bring the bubbling excitement into your business, but to see a boom in your sales, you need to make sure you link your story to your product. You put your heart and soul into your product, so why wouldn’t you shout from the rooftops about it? Show customers how your product solves their pesky problem and boom… a conversion is made.
Understanding Audience
Sure, it’s easy to write a compelling story, but if it doesn’t resonate with your ideal customers, this can cause some damage. Do some digging and find out more about your wonderful customers. Find their pain points, their passions and goals to really see that connection flourish.
Brand Personalities
To realllllly create a jaw dropping brand story, you need to understand who your brand is at its very core. Brands have their own personalities and understanding yours will help to take your customer on a journey that builds deeper and emotional connections. Brand personalities are called ‘archetypes’. These are similar to fictional characters to help the reader understand their motivations and actions; they are designed to take your audience on a journey through your brand.
Why brand stories are important
In a sea bursting with resemblance, brand stories will make your brand unforgettable. There are countless brands out there leading the way with their storytelling. Take a look at some of my favourites:
Uber
Archetype: The Innocent
Uber works hard to connect with their audiences through authenticity and emotion. They touch on key elements of their brand surrounded by safety as they create new technology into their cars and rebuild their brand mission.
Uber provides their customers with the ability to tell loved ones where they are so there’s help if something unexpected happens. As Uber works to solve the problems of their customers, their customer loyalty grows bigger and bigger.
Spotify
Archetype: The Magician
Answering the prayers of their customers, Spotify developed their platform in 2006 as a response to the piracy problem the music industry was facing. Their brand story is super powerful and empowering for all music lovers in the industry. Their mission is to unlock human creativity by giving creative artists around the world the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it. *Chef’s Kiss*
Beats
Archetype: Creator
Beats’ success helps to bring energy, emotion and excitement into recording studios and to the listening experience for music lovers globally. This stylish brand uses their story to mainly focus on sparking emotion from their viewers. Various celebrities have been used in their marketing such as Serena Williams and Simone Biles leading to eye-grabbing adverts for the Unleash Beat earphones. The adverts show customers another side to the celebrities by showing their arduous path to success. These empowering adverts sure do provoke inspiring, dynamic and heart-warming responses from customers, helping to build that solid foundation.
Patagonia
Archetype: The Explorer
In 1973, founder Yvon began sustainable clothing brand Patagonia with the mission to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”.
Yvon was an active climber and environmentally conscious, so he noticed the damage his climbing equipment was having to the rock faces and knew he had to make a change. He began making his own equipment and this effort became the driving force behind the ethos of the business.
Today, Patagonia is one of the leading environmentally friendly clothing brands. The brand is committed to teaching and training the next generation of environmental activists and are continuing their mission of finding solutions to the ongoing environmental crisis. With their overall goal and mission being at the forefront of their brand story, customers will be inspired and ready to be part of the positive change.
TOMS
Archetype: The Caregiver
Shoe brand TOMS have been working hard to improve lives across the globe. While travelling through Argentina in 2006, founder Blake saw the hardships faced by children without shoes. This went to inspire TOMS (Tomorrow’s Shoe) and create a for-profit business with giving at its core. And that’s pretty impressive.
Similarly to Patagonia, their brand story is centred on making positive changes and impacting the world. By showing customers their visions, they will begin to follow and help bring that vision to life.
How should you use your brand story?
Overall, having a brand story can enhance your marketing plans and reach new audiences; it’s an art and If done correctly, it can transform your brand.
If your brain is running wild with the endless possibilities now, you can immediately start to weave your brand story into your marketing platforms.
Put your brand story page on your website
Whether you create its own dedicated page or include it on your ‘About Us’ page, having your brand story will help provide customers with a deeper insight into who you are and business motivations. It isn’t a sales pitch… It's about you being authentic and human with your customers.
Social Media channels
Once you’ve grabbed a pen, paper, your burst of creativity and scribbled your thoughts away, you’ll have a piece of written story content that can be repurposed across multiple channels; including social media. Share your stories on your website, blog posts, social media captions and much more.
Create marketing content
You can also create graphics, videos, podcasts and much more to help really get your key messages across to your audience. For more ideas, check out my blog: 5 Brand Storytelling Mediums (and why they work).
