If you are a business owner or a corporate marketer, you can connect with your customer base by forming a connection with them through storytelling. Advertising research has shown that consumers are heavily influenced by emotional response. Your brand’s story will set the tone by presenting a picture of who you are, what your company’s philosophy is, and why the public should care about you.
Related: How to Make Your Brand More Human
Brand Story Strategy to Connect with Your Audience
Your brand’s story is much more than a mission statement or a marketing message; it is the way you will communicate your brand’s purpose. By having a story people can connect with, you can show others the difference it has made in the lives of others, which will help them to see how it can also meet their own needs.
Related: 3 Proactive Questions You Can Ask to Form Your Brand Identity
You can create a compelling brand story by:
- Being genuine. Show your customers who you really are by using real people, real situation, and real facts to back up your claims.
- Offering a fresh take on your industry. This is your chance to show your clients who you are and why you are different.
- Telling a story about how your products or services have helped others to solve problems. How is your company making a difference in lives?
A well-crafted story will resonate with the public while also being able to be condensed into a recognizable sound bite or image. This is much different from a blog post, which may be created to demonstrate authority and ability, to inform about current events, or even to get search engine rankings. Your brand’s story will define who you are and what you stand for.
Your brand’s story can:
- Tell the origin story of your company.
- Help your customers get to know your company’s founder or members of the team.
- Demonstrate your dedication to your industry by telling a story about how you became so passionate about the products and services you offer.
Best Brand Story Examples
One example of extremely successful corporate storytelling is Weight Watchers. Weight loss can be a very personal and emotionally charged issue, and that is the secret behind the success of Weight Watchers’ brand story. By showing through personal narratives of not just how people can lose weight but why people lose weight, this company helped make their customer base feel empowered.
Perhaps one of the best examples of a company using brand storytelling is Nike, who has been relying on this style of marketing since the late 1990s. By focusing on the personal stories of youth who are aspiring to greatness, they tied their image in with the possibility for greatness that lies within everyone who uses their products.
Related: 3 Brands That Are Crushing It in the Apparel Industry and Why
Today’s consumers are more likely to shop with their conscience than ever before, and the latest research reveals that over half of consumers will not support companies they don’t believe in. As ethical concerns have become increasingly important in our society, it makes sense to use a brand story to show why your company is worth investing in.
