A brand story is more than just a catchy slogan or a catchy logo. It's a narrative that connects your brand with your audience, communicates your values, and inspires action. In this article, you'll learn how to create a compelling brand story with examples from successful brands.
A brand story is important because it helps you stand out from the crowd, build trust and loyalty, and motivate your customers to buy from you. A brand story is not just what you tell people, but what they feel and remember about you. It's what makes your brand unique and memorable.
Brand story assists you to connect with your customers on a more profound level, form trust and loyalty, and last grow your business. I assisted a client with selling sustainable clothing by telling the story of the people who made his garments. Customers were moved by the stories and purchased more garments. This experience taught me the power of brand storytelling. When you tell a story that connects with your customers on a personal level, you can build a stronger relationship with them.
A common misconception is that a brand story tells the history of a brand, of it's founder(s) or of the people who work there. Brand lesson #1: a brand is not about you. I hate to break it to you :), but people don't care about your story. A brand is designed to make a genuine connection with your target audience, that's why we build brand stories with proven frameworks. In this story, the target customer is the hero, and the brand is the guide that helps the hero overcome it's challenge(s) and leads them to the new world.
Crafting a brand story requires understanding your brand identity, target audience, and value proposition, as well as following basic storytelling principles such as having a clear structure, consistent tone, and compelling message. To get started, you must define your purpose - why does your brand exist? What is your mission and vision? What problem are you solving or what opportunity are you creating? Then, define your personality - how do you want your brand to be perceived? What are your values and beliefs? What is your voice and tone? Next, define your audience - who are you trying to reach? What are their needs, wants, and pain points? How can you relate to them and empathize with them? Then define your value - what makes your brand different and better than your competitors? What benefits do you offer to your audience? How do you deliver on your promise? Lastly, define the plot of the story - how do you tell it in a way that engages and persuades your audience? What is the beginning, middle, and end of the story? What is the main challenge or conflict that your brand helps your audience overcome? What is the outcome or resolution that your brand provides?
Crafting a brand story always looks like such a difficult task. But let me tell you a secret: it is not. The easiest way to craft a brand story is to start from the real story itself. Brands are made of people: try to search for the real stories of the people who built the brand, and go for the real stuff: the challenges, the ups and downs, the cries, the laughs. Then, craft them and twist them accordingly to your target audience and value proposition. Authenticity is key.
Simplicity is the key to making a brand stand out. It is easy to say, but much harder to do. It's not just true if you want to build a global brand. The easier it is for people to understand what you do, who you are, and what you want, the greater your chances of success. As an example, Nike and Apple became global brands based on simple models.
After defining your audience, brand values, purpose, positioning, and USP, tell the story of your brand's journey. How it all started? For eg, Amazon was founded by Bezos in the garage of his home in Washington. What challenges did your brand face and how did you overcome them? This helps in making your brand human and relatable. Include personal anecdotes or stories of how you overcame all the struggles and challenges. Infuse emotion into your story to connect with your audience on a human level. You need to establish that you understand them and that you can help them to solve their problems. Communicate this to your audience in a simple and compelling way without using any jargon. Be trustworthy and transparent.
A brand story framework is a tool that helps you organize and present your brand story in a clear and effective way. The hero's journey is one of the most popular frameworks, as it involves a protagonist who goes on an adventure, faces a challenge, and returns transformed. This framework allows you to position your brand as the guide or mentor who helps your audience (the hero) achieve their goals. The main elements of the hero's journey framework include introducing your audience and their current situation or problem, presenting your brand as the solution or opportunity they need, acknowledging any objections or doubts they might have, providing guidance and support, inviting them to join your brand community or journey, sharing stories of existing customers who have achieved success, highlighting any challenges they might face, celebrating their achievements and transformations, reinforcing the relationship with them, and having a long-term vision for your brand. By using this framework, you can show that you understand their needs and pain points, have something in common with them, have a unique value proposition and clear offer that appeals to their desires and emotions, address their fears and concerns with proof or credibility, have the expertise and experience to help them overcome their challenges, have a compelling call to action that motivates them to act, have social proof and testimonials demonstrating the benefits of your brand, have resources and tools to help them overcome any obstacles, have a positive impact on their lives that you appreciate and reward with loyalty and trust, and have a way to keep in touch and provide ongoing value and support.
The hero's journey is the most famous framework for creating relatable brand stories. In this framework, First, a Hero (your customer) is facing a problem and is encountering challenges in overcoming that problem. To solve that problem, you, the brand step in. The brand provides that solution by conveying its brand's USP. It presents the brand as the hero's savior and guide. The consumer recognizes it, takes action as per the brand messaging, and invites the brand into his life. The final outcome is a win-win situation for the brand and the customer. For eg, Nike through their "Just Do It" campaign, encourages people to eliminate self-doubt, and fear to emerge victorious through sports and fitness.
Once you have crafted your brand story, you need to tell it across different channels and platforms, adapting and optimizing it for various formats and audiences while maintaining consistency. To help you tell your brand story, use visuals such as images, videos, infographics, or animations; evoke emotions with stories, humor, metaphors, or analogies; back up your claims and benefits with data; showcase your success with testimonials; and involve your audience with interaction. Visuals can capture attention, emotions can create empathy and trust, data can demonstrate value and credibility, testimonials can provide social proof and validation, and interaction can generate interest and insight.
Once you've crafted your brand story, how to you actually 'use' it? Well, what you definitely shouldn't do, is simply copying the text and put in on your website or in your social posts. Instead, you can extract endless amounts of microstories from your brand story, so you can 'feed' your audience one microstory at a time. Over time, your customer will have all the pieces of the puzzle in hand to fill in the blanks, recognises himself as the hero and learns to trust you.
To inspire you, here are some examples of successful brands with compelling brand stories. Airbnb connects travelers with hosts for unique and local accommodation experiences. Their brand story is about belonging and community, expressed through their slogan “Belong anywhere” and logo that symbolizes a sense of belonging. Nike’s brand story is about inspiration and innovation, reflected in their slogan “Just do it” and logo that resembles movement. Apple’s brand story is about creativity and simplicity, communicated through their slogan “Think different” and logo of an apple with a bite or a bite of knowledge. All these stories feature real hosts, guests, athletes, and iconic figures who use the products to change the world.
Anyone can be a star — Manchester City Manchester City is an English football club with a global profile. The story they want to tell is one of inclusion: fans and players from all over the world, and a chance for everyone to celebrate wins together. Their profile on top women’s goalscorer Georgia Stanway is part of a series about key players at the club. But unlike traditional sports reporting, it doesn’t just focus on her latest successes or game statistics. Instead, it’s the story of how an ordinary young girl became a global star. This is a story with a powerful emotional hook. Many readers will relate to Stanway’s stories about her childhood and her fight to be the best while taking in Manchester City’s brand narrative.
In terms of brand stories, the following are the most engaging: Authentic Customer-centric A consistent message across all channels Detailed and simple with some vivid details Structured like a story Be true to the personality and voice of your brand
Brand story assists you to connect with your customers on a more profound level, form trust and loyalty, and last grow your business. I assisted a client with selling sustainable clothing by telling the story of the people who made his garments. Customers were moved by the stories and purchased more garments. This experience taught me the power of brand storytelling. When you tell a story that connects with your customers on a personal level, you can build a stronger relationship with them.