Express Yourself. Tell Your Brand Story.

The artist Will Pay was commissioned by Contently to paint this in their New York office.

Did you know that consumers would not care if 94% of brands disappeared? Most people don’t care if a brand disappears one day and is replaced with another the next day. They are apathetic to brands. Loyalty has no place in the lives of consumers.

The 6% of brands that matter to consumers are in the minority club. They are deemed meaningful in some way by the people. Google, Amazon, PayPal, Visa and Samsung are perceived to make consumers’ day-to-day lives better. These brands are relevant to people’s lives and add some kind of value. Whether it’s having the best service or the best product.

Now, there is no magic formula for brands to learn how to be more meaningful. It’s more of a case of understanding your consumers, where they like to congregate, and give them information that they want. When I say ‘information’, I don’t mean a stream of boring product demos. This ‘information’ are in fact neat entertaining packages called ‘stories’.

Let’s use GE as an example. Its interesting stories are told through the people behind its products. To make the cut for GE Reports, its managing editor Tomas Kellner looks for the angle. All journalists are trained to do this. Stories would follow a similar structure (a protagonist, a challenge, and a resolution), a well-known narrative arc used by writers. I mean, how else would you make engines and turbines meaningful and relevant to consumers?

GE focuses on a narrow set of themes — science, innovation and technology — and fleshes out stories in a myriad of ways. From partnerships with publishers (BuzzFeed) to owned content (its award-winning online magazine GE Reports, Tumblr and Instagram), it has created a rich content ecosystem that’s entertaining and immersive to express the personality of the brand.

“You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.” ~ David Ogilvy

Behind every brand, there is a story. Start telling those stories and communicate to people who you are. Through the stories, you will begin to share with them your ‘why’.

So tell people stories. Entertain them. Earn the right to be in peoples’ lives.