How and Why Brand Storytelling Works
“Will anyone care?”
We live in the age of constant change, where the relentless march of technology has redefined our sense of possibility.
Social media, cloud computing, super-smart devices and the infinite diversity of the Internet 2.0 are just a few marvels of the last decade that have revolutionised how we work, how we connect, how we learn, and how we create.
The huge technological leaps since the turn of the millennium have shattered and re-shattered preconceptions of human capability.
For startups, the innovation wave has broken down barriers to bringing their ideas to life.
Across the neutral net, our specialized, global, sharing economy gives individuals access to experts and resources with mind-boggling ease. We can connect with a software developer in Ukraine or a food scientist in Bolivia with the same amount of effort as ordering a ride from a stranger on your way home.
Social media and search engine marketing provides a proverbial soap box for everyone selling a product, service or idea.
It has never been easier or cheaper for an individual to build a business from the ground up.
However, this technological wave brings with it new challenges. Increased competition, higher consumer expectations and the intensity of information overload have completely overhauled how businesses can connect with customers.
Founders can no longer rely on the “build it and they will come approach”.
The Power of Storytelling
Storytelling in branding is not the same storytelling as the escapades of Hansel and Gretel or the slightly exaggerated adventures of Chad, who swears he once covered himself in honey and ran through an apiary. However, it does borrow a bit from each. Specifically, effective storytelling in branding needs a coherent story arch that has a clear purpose, and it helps to have an exceptional detail to get people listening.
Storytelling is about communicating the essence of your brand and actually getting this in front of an audience — every business has got a story, but you also have to tell it.
In a broad sense, your brand story is a complex tapestry made up of your brand’s imagery, tone of voice, mission, social media presence, store / website, customer service and products (amongst other things).
When the story is coherent, consistent and inspiring, customers will recognise you quickly, engage with your content easily and feel an authentic want to use the products or services you provide. The best brand stories are self-perpetuating, where individuals who have interacted with your brand go on to tell their own story, bringing their peers into the fold.
In a day-to-day sense, the telling of this story happens with each piece of content produced and distributed. Every biography blog about the founders, every podcast interview about how you overcame challenges, every case study about people who benefited from your product, and every promoted video that pops up in the newsfeed at a relevant moment is an opportunity to tell a small tale that feeds into the larger brand story.
Why Brand Storytelling Works
Reason 1: Storytelling cuts through the noise
The power of storytelling goes beyond an emotional connection, it is scientifically proven to resonate more within human psychology. Messages told as stories can be more than 20 times more memorable than those communicated as just facts, figures or features. The power of the story is that it increases enjoyment of receiving information and also creates stronger, more contextualised links to recalling that information.
This is a useful infographic illustrating some of the the cognitive effects of good storytelling:
In the age of information overload, where everyone is vying for attention, your best tool to cut through the noise and get people to care about your message is to tell a story that resonates with their world.
Reason 2: Storytelling generates long-lasting brand love
The ethos behind storytelling is that it creates a link with your audience that resonates emotionally as well as cognitively. As they see, hear or read your authentic brand personality through the content you produce, they are drawn into an experience that they are more likely to identify with and remember.
While your story will never resonate with everyone, those that it does resonate with become not only familiar and engaged with your brand, but also grow comfortable and happy with its presence. This turns one-time customers into repeat customers, and repeat customers into brand advocates.
Everyone has had the experience of loving something that would otherwise be immaterial because of the memories it holds. Storytelling is about making new experiences that individuals want to engage with and turn into their own memories.
Originally published at playbookmedia.com.au on September 13, 2017.
