Have you ever noticed that there are certain brands you inherently trust and are loyal to?
You’re not alone. You’ll find that many people stay loyal to certain brands for years and even advocate for them.
Consider iPhone users who swear they’ll never switch back to Android phones or people who prefer a specific toothpaste brand and would not even try something new. That’s the power of brand loyalty.
If you dig deeper, you’ll find that most brands that commend such loyalty and trust have a great brand story.
So, what is storytelling in branding, and why do you need a compelling brand story?
We’ll answer these questions and more in this article. Let’s start with the basics.
What is Brand Storytelling?
Brand storytelling is a marketing technique that involves using specific narratives to build a unique and distinct brand image and build emotional connections with an audience.
It incorporates a brand’s values, purpose, and mission into a narrative structure that is easy to understand and remember.
Why Do You Need a Good Brand Story?
A story is one of the most engaging and memorable content formats, as it allows you to share crucial information in a simple and fun way.
People tend to remember the information they heard in a story far longer than that gained through any other medium. The image below explains how our brains react to stories and what makes them so powerful.
A good brand story can help you communicate your brand values to your audience and connect with them on an emotional level. Stories humanize your brand and give it a personality.
Let’s discuss some of the key benefits of brand storytelling to understand this better.
Creating an Emotional Connection with Customers
Stories can help you convey your brand values and purpose in an emotionally engaging manner. By telling a good story that evokes specific emotions in your audience, you can build authentic connections with them.
No matter how many facts you spew, you won’t be able to connect with your audience based on facts and numbers alone. Storytelling helps you convey information in an engaging manner, making it stick.
Through effective storytelling, you can tell your audience what your brand stands for and what your core values are. If they share those values, they’ll form an emotional connection with your brand.
Building a Unique and Memorable Brand Image
Stories are more memorable than any other form of content. By telling your brand story, you not only form an emotional connection with your audience but also create a distinct brand image.
When you consistently use your brand story in your brand communications, you reinforce that brand image, strengthening it with each interaction.
A recent research study confirmed that brand storytelling helps engage customers and make the brand more memorable.
Boosting Trust and Influencing Purchase Decisions
When you tell an authentic story of how your brand came into being and what drives it, you build trust with your customers.
According to a recent report, 59% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands they trust.
As such, brand storytelling can indirectly influence purchase decisions and get more people to buy from you by building trust and emotional connections.
How to Create a Compelling Brand Story
Here is a simple guide to help you craft your brand story
1. Identify Your Brand Values and Purpose
Every brand story starts with a clear sense of what the brand stands for. So, identify and define your core brand values and purpose before you craft a brand story.
Start by understanding and defining the key purpose of your brand. Why was it formed? What market need does it fulfill?
Then, list the core values of your brand. This could be anything from honesty and transparency to sustainability and eco-consciousness.
Create a brand purpose or mission statement that summarizes these.
Google, for example, has a crystal clear brand purpose, as shown below.
2. Understand Your Target Audience
You need to keep your audience in mind when crafting a brand story to make it impactful.
That’s why it’s important to understand and clearly define your target audience. Who is your primary audience? What are their demographics, needs, and preferences?
What forms of brand storytelling would be most engaging for them?
Answer these questions, collect user data, and create detailed customer personas.
Your brand story should resonate with your target customers, so be very thorough at this step.
3. Define Your Brand Identity and Personality
Every story needs a good protagonist—someone people root for and connect with emotionally. Your brand is the protagonist in your brand story, so give it a distinct and vibrant personality and identity.
It seems like an abstract concept, but it is quite practical. All successful brands have a clear brand image and personality.
Harley Davidson, for instance, has a rugged brand personality and a gritty and rough tone of voice. Its Instagram profile is filled with pictures of its bikes or people doing stunts using its bike. Everything from the imagery to the color palette reinforces its rugged brand personality.
Create a unique brand personality by following these steps.
- List the key brand traits you want to communicate to your audience.
- Incorporate branding elements, such as a logo, brand colors, and a tagline, that showcase those traits.
- Create a brand style guide with details on the kind of language and tone of voice you want to use in your brand communications.
- Consistently use your branding elements and tone of voice across channels to reinforce your brand image and personality.
4. Craft a Compelling Brand Narrative
Now, it’s time to create an actual brand story, which you can communicate in various forms. You can create a brand story video, add it to the “About Us” section of your website, and share it on social media.
Here are some tips to create a compelling brand story.
- Be Authentic: The most compelling brand stories are real and authentic. That’s the only way to form a genuine connection with your audience, so pour your heart out and tell the real story of how your brand came into being.
- Build an Emotional Connection: Use human characters in your story to humanize your brand and connect with your audience. Also, use visuals, narratives, and other storytelling elements that evoke certain emotions in your audience.
- Highlight Your USP: Your brand story should always highlight your unique selling proposition. What makes your brand stand out? Why should someone choose your brand over countless others?
- Leverage Visual Storytelling: Bring your story to life with stunning visuals, colors, design elements, illustrations, and motion graphics.
- Have a Clear Brand Message: Lastly, ensure your brand story has a clear message that you want to deliver to your audience. You can, for instance, communicate your brand values and what your brand stands for. The idea is to create a distinct brand identity and leave people with a clear message.
Check out this brand story video by Netflix. It tells the story of how Netflix revolutionized the way people watched movies and replaced CDs and DVDs.
It highlights the cool new features that the platform introduced, such as the option to watch media in different languages. It also showed clips from popular TV shows to create nostalgia and evoke positive emotions in the audience.
The point is:
If you like Netflix for the convenience it offers, you’ll love the brand even more after watching this video.
5. Keep it Consistent
Once you have created a brand story, incorporate it into your communications across all platforms.
Your core values, brand personality, tone of voice, and other brand elements should remain consistent. This will help you reinforce your brand image and make your brand story stick in people’s minds.
With time, you may need to tweak your brand narrative a bit, but the essence should remain the same.
Let’s understand this with the help of an example.
What comes to your mind when you think about the beauty brand Dove?
Real beauty, shattering toxic beauty standards, and focusing on inner beauty are some things that come to mind, right?
That’s the result of the brand’s consistent brand storytelling over the years.
Dove has constantly challenged beauty standards, and all its social media, website, and other brand content reinforce that. The world may have changed, but Dove’s brand story remains consistent.
This recent video and its description are a good example.
Ready to Engage Your Audience with Effective Brand Storytelling?
Storytelling is a powerful communication technique that can help you deliver crucial messages to your audience in an engaging manner.
Using narrative techniques that evoke emotions can help you form strong connections with current and potential customers.
Leverage the tips we’ve provided in this guide to create an engaging brand story and a distinct brand image. Consistently use storytelling in branding to reinforce key messages and maintain your brand image. All the best!