What’s Your Story? Storytelling For Brands
Nike believes that sports can inspire, create community, and provide a platform for positive change, and they use “Brand Storytelling” to tell millions of consumers why they should buy their products.
The “Best Day Ever” film, which was inspired by the ambitions of a new generation of athletes* who are redefining tomorrow, was featured in the latest chapter of Nike’s Play New campaign.
“Best Day Ever” highlights the future of sport’s belief in creative, inclusive, and limitless possibility, while demonstrating how a better tomorrow for athletes is on the way through the joy of movement and the creativity of play.
Sha’Carri Richardson, Michael Johnson, A’ja Wilson, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Mike Trout, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and others appear in the film.
Nike has been telling captivating stories over the years and after every campaign, their sales go up. Following the release of the Colin Kaepernick advertisement in 2018, analysts reported a 31% increase in Nike’s online sales in the United States, with the ad winning a Grammy award.
Nike, like many others, has taken up brand storytelling as a marketing tool to solidify its relationships with its customers. In this article, we will dive deeper into ‘’storytelling for brands’’ and how you can tell your brand’s story.
Introducing Storytelling For Brands
In the realm of marketing, storytelling for brands is gaining popularity, and for a good reason. Science has shown that stories may capture someone’s interest. In reality, stories activate the brain. Our neurons begin firing when we read or hear a plot point—and not simply in the area of the brain that governs the language centre.
However, the concept of brand storytelling is somewhat unclear. Like content marketing, storytelling for brands is a concept that’s being bandied around a lot, but agencies, businesses, and thought leaders don’t necessarily agree on what it means. So, using our definition, we hope to address that.
What Is Brand Storytelling
A brand story explains how the sequence of occasions that led to the founding of your business still informs your mission today. Your audience will remember you, feel empathy for you, and ultimately care about your brand if you can create a compelling brand story, just like the characters in your favourite books and movies.
Characters, setting, conflict, building tension, climax, and dénouement are all elements of a brand story. Your audience can simply follow along with a story and remember it if you establish these elements.
It’s important to remember that your customer, not you, is the major player in your brand story. To make this work, your consumer must act as the protagonist. The road map is your brand.
Let us take a look at the brand story of one of the largest eyewear brands in the UK, Warby Parker. Warby Parker has a vision of who they want me to be – smart, stylish, and possibly savvy – and it shows in their brand stories.
One of their founders missed the first semester of graduate school because he lost his glasses on a backpacking trip and they were too expensive to replace. He and his team decided to address the issue using a plant-based frame construction that is better for the environment.
Everyone does not have access to eyeglasses; 2.5 billion people worldwide require glasses but do not have them. When you purchase a pair of Warby Parker sunglasses, a pair is given to someone in need. That is, your purchase alters someone’s life story by allowing them to work or learn.
Warby Parker built their brand on a meaningful story, and they use their channels, such as Instagram and YouTube, to expand on that story with expert insights about vision and interesting stories about people who wear their glasses.
Why Is Storytelling For Brands Important?
Brand storytelling is significant because it gives businesses the chance to individualise their image and establish stronger ties with their target audience. Your audience may learn more about your brand, your mission, and your products by creating a compelling brand narrative.
The market is more saturated than ever, making it harder to stand out than it was even five years ago. When combined with a buyer’s journey in which the client determines the course of the transaction, buying is now social, self-directed, based on trust, and transparent.
Stop pushing your items so hard and concentrate more on the reasons why your company is even in existence if you want to connect with a customer who is deciding what and when she will buy. Customers that share your values will be interested in your narrative when you express them.
Finding those who share your beliefs increases the likelihood that they will remain devoted to you (though we know that even brand loyalty has changed).
Your story then becomes your company strategy, which propels your brand forward.
3 Reasons Why Brand Storytelling Is Important In Marketing
No Other Brand Can Copy Your Story, Hence Your Brand Becomes Unforgettable
Focus on building a meaningful, enduring, and authentic brand rather than bombarding your audience with figures, facts, and testimonies. Put your point into a narrative that engages audiences, clarifies facts, and elicits a feeling. Share your brand’s history, difficulties, triumphs, and value propositions through narrative; no other brand can replicate YOUR brand story
There are millions of pieces of content being produced and exchanged every day, making it a crowded industry. Worldwide, businesses spend billions of dollars vying for consumers’ fleeting attention while they are inundated with similar messaging. Due to its accessibility, the internet has democratized marketing, but it has also made it more challenging for high-quality firms to stand out.
Having a high-quality product or service is not enough; you also need to know how to market it in a way that sets you apart from the competition. The brand narrative is crucial because of this.
What do you want to be known for when you look back? What message do you want to get over to your audience? What do you want them to remember forever?
Every time a member of your audience interacts with your brand, keep that emotion in mind. Though they might forget what you said, your audience won’t forget how you made them feel.
Not only will presenting a story make your business more appealing to your target audience, but stories can be up to 22 times more memorable than facts.
Boost sales and creates superfans
Marketing is no longer the primary competitive difference in the modern world. Customers are asking businesses to demonstrate how their actions are having an impact, advancing a cause, and producing outcomes other than financial gain. Ironically, the motivation consumers need to spend more is the knowledge that a firm cares about something other than its own bottom line.
A brand narrative has the ability to have a significant impact in addition to helping you reach your ideal audience, stand out from the competing messaging, and increase sales.
How can your brand become more human? The oldest and most potent method of successful education is storytelling. A memorable brand story is just what people need to feel connected to your business, form a favourable impression of who you are and what you stand for, and become devoted customers. We are biologically predisposed to appreciate and respond to stories.
Helps build a community of loyal customers
It takes much more than just your product and service for a company to succeed, and that’s where storytelling comes in. Consider the feelings, principles, and concepts you can convey to your audience. When people interact with you, how do you want them to feel? What kind of benefit do you provide them each time they interact with your content? What does your brand represent to them in addition to what you sell?
Use your story to make a strong emotional connection with your audience by striking up discussions, requesting involvement (with no conditions), and including them in your company’s operations. You can change clients who buy your goods or services because they need to solve a problem into a fanatical tribe that will cheer for your success, stick by you, and keep coming back for more if you turn your brand into an experience they can devour.
Your audience will be more likely to make a purchase from you after they know, like, and trust you. You will, at the very least, have built connections with people who will support you in the future.
How To Tell Your Brand’s Story
Ben and Jerry’s Peloton. Nike. REI. Shoes by Toms. Warby Parker Yeti.
These brand names alone evoke vivid images of who they are and what they stand for—not to mention that these brands all have incredibly passionate audiences to boot.
This is due, in part, to the fact that each of these companies has a genuine brand story. A brand story is a narrative that conveys a company’s history, purpose, and values to consumers and makes audiences feel emotionally connected.
How do you develop a story like this for your company?
Understand Yourself
To create an authentic brand story, a company must take a firm stance on the problem it wishes to address, define its positioning, create alignment between positioning and operations, and be completely transparent throughout its development.
Maintain a Clear Vision
Once a brand has established its identity, it must remain true to itself and consistent, according to Molly Hocks, client and account services manager at digital marketing agency Aimclear.
“Show them, don’t tell them.” “Start from the ground up and approach the process with good intentions,” she added. “Rather than trying to sell yourself to people, explain who you are as a company.”
This also includes how the company has evolved and what distinguishes it.
Discover Your Narrative
A brand’s signature story could be a standalone story or a series of stories that form part of a larger narrative.
If you are not using a single standalone story [such as the founder’s story], mini-stories can create a narrative about the brand by recreating real-life experiences of customers, workers, providers, and others.
Consider the founders of the eponymous Vermont ice cream company, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Their story began in 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington, and they have built a global brand by remaining true to themselves and their values over the years.
Be Human
However, in order to connect, brands must select and embrace personas.
Modern brands act as social actors, constantly interacting with other users, stories, symbols, and discourses in an ever-changing context.
Consumers want to know about your services and products, but they also want to know about your brand personality and who is on your team.
The Time Has Come To Tell Your Brand’s Story
It only makes sense for marketers to utilise storytelling to get inside people’s heads. Storytelling excels at everything we are trying to do, from grabbing attention to forming emotional connections with customers and influencing behaviour.
Your brand stands out from all others thanks to your tales. Stories will help you stand out because of this. People will love, care for, and purchase your brand when you tell them a compelling story.
Every brand has a story to tell. What is yours about?
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