Brand storytelling: Crafting a compelling narrative for your business
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” – Seth Godin
Brand storytelling is an art that has existed ever since the world’s inception. People can survive without money but not without storytelling (well, metaphorically, but you get the meaning, right?)
Brands that tell their story correctly are the ones that are winning. One needs to be enraptured by emotions. The market is filled with plenty of brands, but why do people know the story of McDonald’s, KFC, Apple, and Amazon?
Because these brands are storytellers. Thus, each of their products has a unique story and a concept which makes it easier for the customer to associate with it. Companies may come and go, but brands prevail (courtesy: strong and compelling storytelling)
Why do people become fans of certain celebrities? Because their background is what captivates them.
These people know how to tell their stories and how to get to the audience. It is not that people are idiots, but they indeed are emotional fools.
Reasons brands need storytelling:
● To be remembered
As mentioned above, companies may be forgotten by people, but they will always remember the brand. Why?
Because people connect to them as they showcase the company’s values and ethics. In the ocean of the ordinary, dare to be unique and different and empathetic and emotional.
Harvard Business Review says, “Emotional connections pay off can be huge.”
Brands that can tell their stories and share values with customers are more likely to have loyal customers as compared to brands that focus on sales and profit.
● To build the community
Intelligent brands do not acquire customers, but they build community. Be it a product brand, a service brand, or a person who is a brand, will go long if they believe in building a community.
As you must have seen, there are specific influencers who have a particular set of fan base because they are honest towards telling about their journeys. They do not bluff or sugarcoat anything.
Thus building a community and getting people to associate with you requires strong storytelling. And that can be done by asking customers as to what they want and how. And, then, doing it with consistency without taking a break is the key.
● Sales
Sales are the apparent reason a person starts the business in the first place. However, that is not the only reason. As said above, companies focusing on profits won’t last long. Thus, brand storytelling enables people to invest emotionally in a brand.
And any emotional investment lasts long. No one invests themselves emotionally for a day or two. Sometimes it goes on for life.
Tips for doing Brand Storytelling for crafting a compelling narrative for your business
1. Keep up with the trends.
Trends are constantly changing, and if brands do not change with time, they will become obsolete. You cannot be stuck on Facebook and Instagram when Snapchat, TikTok, and Threads are taking over the world.
Having said that, classics will never go out of style, so being loyal to Facebook and Instagram will always be profitable. But not taking into consideration modern technology will ruin your brand.
On every platform, you’ll get loyal followers. Build a community and profit from it. But remember to be authentic. Because only honest and trustworthy brand storytelling will resonate with people. They will quickly call on the bluff.
Be consistent with your storytelling throughout the platform because a person on Facebook can be on Twitter and on threads. Thus, post the same kind of content on all the media.
2. Customer wants and needs
If you listen to your customers, they will be compelled to listen to you. Always keep the content interactive so that you can see what kind of feedback and comments they keep on giving.
Learning from them, you can give them what they desire. If you want to make your brand appeal, you need to focus on customer wants.
You need to know how they want your brand to be promoted, what products are expected by them, what locations they want you to open your next branch in, whether they want the content to be translated into local languages and dialects, etc.
One of the most prominent examples of this is McDonald’s. In Gujarat, India, they have introduced a vegetarian menu because 90% of the people living here are vegetarians.
Most global food and beverage brands have started introducing Jain recipes because Jains are scattered all over the globe.
Thus, the brand will be appealing to the customers only if it listens to them.
3. Value-oriented content
If brands will create the content just for the sake of making it and will put little thought behind it, then it is signing up for doom. The brand will only be able to tempt customers to come to it if it creates content that is unique, crisp, and emotional.
The importance of value-oriented content has been in existence for eternity. And if it is not creating any value for the customers, they will not spend even a second more on it and more on the competitors.
Thus, value-added content is a must for brand storytelling.
4. Create a unique brand personality.
Be it a logo, punchline, or a particular set of colors; brands need to create a unique personality. Again if we take the example of MacD, Yellow and Red colors are associated with it, and so is the clown – Ronald McDonald.
The same goes for Apple’s half-eaten apple. All these things make up the brand’s personality, and it is necessary to maintain consistency with it because that is the signature style, and that is how brands are remembered.
Lamborghini doesn’t promote its cars on television because it knows what its customer base is, and it wouldn’t be sitting in front of the TV all day. Similarly, Zara doesn’t do television ads because it produces a limited number of pieces to be advertised.
These brands are heavily successful because of their uniqueness and class-apart personalities.
5. Evoke emotions
Emotionally connecting the customers is what this article is about. The most significant part of storytelling is evoking emotions in the customers. It doesn’t have to be happy all the time; sometimes, it can be sad funny, or angry as well.
The stories that can generate raw emotions are the stories that consumers connect to, and that can be done by creating emotional content. You need to set the correct tone and flow of the content so it doesn’t feel like BLAH!
The audio-visuals should be set correctly, and so should the colors. Various colors are associated with multiple emotions, and you need to play on that. Go to experts for the same.
Contact the correct animators who can do justice to your content by adding a unique touch to it.
Final Thoughts:
Thus, this is not the time to ask if branding is right for your business. This is the time to make your company – a brand.
Put on your functional tennis shoes and go on the hunt for the best company that provides Branding Services. Or, if you are smart enough, simply contact top branding companies. Choose the company that you think will help you the best.
