Branding is Storytelling is Branding
A brand experience is the accumulated action and behaviours of the business. Behaviours and actions are motivated by an internal story. That story is the heart of the brand. In essence, what we do in this branding business is storytelling.
What is a Story?
A story is not simply a play with a beginning, middle and end. That's theatre. Nor is it an anecdote, which offers a single flash of insight. That's wisdom. A story contains both: it starts close to the beginning and ends with an inner epiphany.
What does this mean for the world of business? Every brand has a story to tell. And every business has to realize that story – both in its marketing and in its operations – if it wants to be great at what it does. This is where branding's actions diverge from advertising, which makes things happen only at the surface level of perception.
Branding is introspective, combining the founder (or founders)'s dreams with the business realities of serving customers for profit. Authencity is achieved when the true story of the founder successfully motivates a group of people to action. Think of enigmatic founders like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.
Unless an organisation's founding mysteries become vivid and tangible, its story fizzles out in obscurity. Then it has no reason for being.
Like a good novel or play, a great brand story draws on the highest aspects of the human spirit: love, fear, hope, ambition and the will to succeed. It's not what people do that matters – it's why they do it, the motivation that gives life to their actions.
When we define a brand as storytelling, we go beyond mere marketing or corporate communications. We are designing the internal compass of an organisation that, when told properly, will influence everything from customer service to your social media post.
How do we tell brand stories effectively?
A good story has a good title. A good brand has a good name. Start there. Ensure your brand all the chances of success with a well thought out name. Choosing a name can be an exciting moment for entrepreneurs. But it should not be taken lightly: it is one of the most important decisions an organisation will ever make. Any name change will change everything for a brand – including the critical role of customer service – but this can be a positive change because it becomes part of storytelling.
Define your brand's value clearly. Do it early, with the founder(s) and early employees. Collect the DNA of your organization – its core beliefs, ideals, values and mission statement. This DNA is woven into your business's story in everything you do. It's also critical to making people feel good about your brand by connecting with them emotionally.
In your brand story, your customer is the hero. Not you. You play the role of the guide, helping your customer solve their problems and win. If your brand story is the Starwars movie, your customer is Luke Skywalker and you play Yoda. This is crucial. Your customers want to be the main characters. They want to beat the villains, who are probably problems standing in their way.
The climax of your brand story is victory. Likewise, in your customer's story, it is victory over yesterday's problems: saving a buck, getting a deal on something, beating a competitor. These are heroes' quests. Your customer is happy to have won and will tell their own stories with your brand as the hero of the tale.
To tell good stories about your brand or business, you must listen to yourself when you talk about it – about what makes it special or different from other companies in a similar industry or category. Listen for fundamental beliefs that differentiate you from others.
Design plays a crucial role in your brand story. Your brand design is the Mise-en-scène of your brand's story. It is the stage set, where your heroes (customers) go on their quest. Typography, photography, colours and graphics all influence the believability of your brand story. This is how we create memories – by remembering visuals vividly – and these emotions are essential to our humanity.
In summary, to tell good brand stories, you have to centre your customers as the hero on a quest, define your values and have an appropriate brand design.
If any of these sounds overwhelming, let us help you with The Creative Audit. Start now. Then let storytelling be your guide to making a brand people love.