What is Brand Storytelling and Why is it Important?
Brand storytelling is a useful marketing tool for any business, but what is it?
Engage the public with your businesses’ identity through storytelling. Brand storytelling focuses on the use of narratives to guide your customers through the history, development and values of your business. By adding brand storytelling to your marketing campaign, you can improve customer loyalty and humanise your brand.
Once you identify your story, you have something that is unique. No other brand can copy you, which makes your brand stand out. In 2018, Quantified determined that marketing campaigns which use stories are 22 times more memorable than campaigns which focus solely on facts.
What is Your Story?
Squideo has touched on the art of brand storytelling before, but how do you work out what story is the right one for you to tell?
The first place to look is your brand guidelines. Identify the core themes, particularly what your businesses’ values and aims are. Does your company prioritise customer satisfaction? Environmental sustainability? Quality production? Whatever the answer, it will affect the story you’re about to tell.
Brand storytelling isn’t limited to one piece of marketing content, like a poster or advertising video, so it’s important to be confident in your choice. The story will become part of your public persona, and that is hard to change further down the line. It’s also hard to fake, so ensure your story is true!
According to Brené Brown, only ten percent of organisations have operationalised their values into action which means they’re not real values. In the digital age, it’s hard to profess a commitment to something and not follow through without it quickly becoming apparent to your customers – which can turn them off your brand.
Brand storytelling should humanise your brand, demonstrating to your customers and the public that your business is deserving of their support and their money.
Once Upon a Time
Ready for some inspiration? Squideo has compiled five examples of excellent brand storytelling to get your imagination firing. Alternatively, if you want to save yourself the job of creating your brand’s story, get in touch with the Squideo team today and we’ll take care of it for you!
01. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Always gained notoriety in 2014 for its #LikeAGirl adverts. By focusing its storytelling on the obstacles menstruating people face, they showed their values and commitment to gender equality which humanised the brand and built customer loyalty. Their brand storytelling is backed up by action; Always has helped 18 million adolescent girls in 65 countries access puberty and confidence education.
There were plenty of statistics Always could have used to drive home its message, but by relying on a story narrative it was able to create an impactful and memorable advert. #LikeAGirl features no product placement, yet it proved a huge boon for Always with the video garnering over 85 million views.
02. The Tracks of My Tears
John Lewis’ Christmas adverts are something of a tradition in Britain, indicating the final countdown to Christmas Day. Their success hinges on an important part of brand storytelling – evoking an emotional response from your audience.
Retailers often focus their brand storytelling on ideals like quality products (Quality worth every penny, Marks & Spencer) or convenience (To create a better everyday life for many people, Ikea), and their products have a central placement in their adverts.
In John Lewis’ Christmas adverts, however, product placement is minimal – The Bear and The Hare shows an alarm clock, Monty the Penguin had a stuffed toy. The focus is to create an emotional bond between the audience and John Lewis. This is achieved through emotive storytelling, captivating music, and keeping John Lewis’ values at its core – caring about others. Every narrative in these stories consistently focuses on community and giving back.
03. You’re My Best Friend
Apple cleverly put their core value – customer satisfaction – at the heart of their brand storytelling by keeping the focus entirely on them. Their advertisements use existing customers as a case study for the effectiveness of their products and dedication to customer relationship management. As a result, their customers recruit new customers.
Behind the Mac explores the different uses for this product, inspiring existing customers and encouraging others to try it. During the pandemic, Apple invested in a new series of Behind the Mac, looking at the impact of lockdown, working from home, and the development of new communication methods.
04. Zero to Hero
Instead of seeking external representation, take a look within your business. Is there a specific legend within your company? A visionary like Steve Jobs? An endearing figure like Ole Kirk Christiansen? A historical figure like Levi Strauss?
Levi’s have leveraged its long history when creating its story. From the origins of the company and its first designs, Levi’s has grown into a global institution yet it uses storytelling to keep the spirit of their origins alive. By tying Levi’s to the California Gold Rush, maintaining the same headquarters for over 100 years in North Carolina, and keeping some of the same designs throughout its establishment, Levi’s has created a narrative that it’s more than a fashion manufacturer – it’s a historical institution.
05. It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Coca Cola adverts have a clear aesthetic – bold colours, sunshine, ice cold bottles or tins of Coca Cola and upbeat, energetic music. Christmas is different; not only does the aesthetic change but an entirely different vehicle is rolled out. Literally. The Coca Cola Christmas Trucks. Featured in the hugely popular Holidays Are Coming advert, they were introduced in 1995 in a wildly successful advert that was shown in over 100 countries.
While the look changes to suit the season, at the core there is still Coca Cola’s story – a product that brings people together. I Want to Buy The World a Coke (Hilltop) and Holidays Are Coming might look different, but tonally they are very similar: the theme at the core of their brand storytelling is sharing.
Happily Ever After
Ready to craft a story for your brand? Watch the video below to get a better understanding of how Squideo can help promote your business, then get in touch with us to find out more!
