- Does your brand tell a story? If not, there may be a loss of connection between the brand and your consumers.
- A focused, simple, yet informative story that is packed with emotion can lead to empathy, which ultimately leads to consumers.
- Brand storytelling should have a beginning, middle and an end. A good brand story will increase the chances of your brand being remembered; it should relate a problem to a solution to a successful ending.
Brand storytelling and why it’s important
Brand storytelling allows you to bridge the gap between your company and your consumers. Storytelling has been a part of most people's lives for as long as humans have existed. Telling and hearing a story promotes an emotional stimulation of empathy in your brain. Humans are social creatures, so empathy is a powerful thing; it allows humans to assess a situation and decide where or if they are going to go further. When you meet someone for the first time, it's their story that provides you with an assessment of them as a person; their story tells you where they've gone, where they are going, who they are and what they believe in. If you have a connection to the story they are telling, it helps you decide whether or not you are going to move forward with this new relationship.
Brand storytelling is another way of telling your story, but instead of it being a story based on you, it is a story that can be related to your brand. If the story promotes empathy among consumers, it will help them to remember. The reason for this is because they will associate the story with the brand, and if they felt empathy for the story, it is the deciding factor on whether or not they are going to continue the relationship (buy and promote your brand).
Brand storytelling must be packed full of personality; no one wants to hear a rehearsed list of the events that led up to the development of the brand, they want to know who the hero is, who the villain is and the struggles or the odds that were overcome. Brand storytelling is emotional and promotes empathy and if the brand has this and more, consumers will remember it and they will want to experience the story through the brand.
Petal structure storytelling
Petal structure is a known technique of storytelling where you take unrelated stories and tie them together with one idea. Each story has its own narrative by itself but its foundation is the same, like the other story nodes that you have been telling.
The process of telling a story using this technique says you need to tell each story as a stand-alone tale, but eventually drive the focus back to the main plot. When you manifest how extraneous stories are connected through the same baseline, you emphasize the importance of the main plot and forge your message.
Mark out clear, differentiated territory
If the topic you're writing on isn't focused on your core product, you will likely be competing with someone who is writing about their core product. Make sure you differentiate what you’re offering – even if you end up in a very small niche. This will allow you to carve out a distinct space of ownership and authority and neatly avoid jostling for awareness with a massive competitor.
Ride wider national or international trends
A mainstay for getting exposure for your product after the first wave of interest has died down is latching on to topical issues covered in the press. They don't necessarily have to be related to your industry, but your content has to work as a bridge between the two.
Brand storytelling should be kept simple; leave the twists and turns for the next bestsellers list. In brand storytelling, the story you tell should be kept as simple as possible; focus on the problem and solution and the success within the story you are telling. The beginning of the story should be focused on the problem, the middle of the story contains the solution, and the end is the success.
Having access to unique content is great, but it doesn’t guarantee attention or press coverage. The success in getting your product noticed lies in building the right story around it.