A brand that can convey its personality through creative storytelling can triumph a loyal following and even gain more customer visits, downloads, donations, sponsorships or purchases.
“Stories are an elegant solution to the problem of too much information. Humans are wired to process stories and understand them.” ~ Duncan Stuart
Storytelling has been a part of all our lives in some way or another, for instance - we have been brought up with captivating stories being told to us, some told by our grandparents, our teachers our mentors, or through our television screens. In addition, each and every one of us is a living story, or living to tell a tale; the same applies to a brand.
“Every brand, every company, and every person has a story to tell, and visual storytelling is a very effective way of sharing your brand’s message and engaging with your customers.” ~ Mridu Khullar Relph
In marketing, creative brand storytelling is an art form created through one or more persons vision that develops and grows over time. Expectedly, every brand has a story and will have many stories to tell. With this in mind, a strategic story building approach can be an effective technique to help a brand connect and engage with its desired audience.
“You can’t be a good storyteller without a good story, yet how something is communicated is often as important as that which is being communicated.” ~ David Paull
A great or even just a good story will grab the attention of an audience if told well. Naturally, people will listen, process the information, and emotionally connect or resonate with it. On the other hand, if a story is poor or badly told then the outcome will utterly be the opposite.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories, you tell.” ~ Seth Godin
Furthermore, in marketing it is considered that consumer behaviour is influenced by their personal thoughts and feelings towards your brand and any past experiences with your brand (good or bad), thus, it is imperative to have a well thought out storytelling strategy in place from the outset. After all, you’ll want to build trust and forge long-lasting relationships with your audience.
“Great stories are almost always driven by great insights. And great insights almost always reflect an insight into a behaviour or an attitude that, when brought to life, leads to a key business decision.” ~ Russ Rubin
Great stories are almost always driven by great insights. Great insights hold great value. A good marketer can understand your customers on a much deeper level, helping your brand tune into what your customers care about the most and making a persistent effort to advance old content and create new content that will be of ‘value’ to customers’ needs or desires at the present time.
Overall, brand storytelling has become a powerful marketing tool for many brands. Prime brand storytellers include Red Bull, Go Pro and Airbnb. Powerful brand storytelling campaigns include Nike Equality campaign, Dove Men+Care #RealStrength campaign, and Always #LikeAGirl campaign.
