How to structure your brand story

Great stories make an impact. Well, that’s good news! But wait, this sounds vague. How do you know if the story is great? How do you know if the story is only mediocre? How does a story make an impact??

A story that makes an impact is one that inspires the person consuming it to take action. In some cases that might be to think about a particular problem or to think about a particular brand.?

The difference between successful and unsuccessful stories are purely based on the execution and structure of the story.?

The execution of the story is very important as there are a lot of things to cover. The structure is important because if we don’t grab the person's attention, if we don’t have a hook, if we don’t have a problem to be solved then the audience will not be engaged with us.?

There are different stories that people talk about and it’s important to distinguish what kind of story it is.. Is it an advert, is it a movie, is it a documentary or is it a social media video??

We are talking about the foundation - the core - the brand story.?

I wrote the following structure in my book Not Another Pair of Shoes:?

The 5 What’s:?

1. What do you believe in?
2. What problem do you solve?
3. What is the obstacle to overcome??
4. What is the solution?
5. What do you do?

Once you have the foundation of your brand story it’s easier to navigate later. In your communication you can focus later on communicating the problem you are solving, the solution you provide and what you do. Like every brand story it can be always changed a bit, based on the story and on the brand - but the mentality is the same. You start off with what you believe, you communicate to people what problem you solve.?

This is the most effective way to create a brand story. It will help your audience understand more about what you do beyond selling a product/service and differentiate yourself from the rest.?

Once you have your brand story it will help you immensely to create an emotional connection with your audience.?

The goal of a brand story is to help you differentiate, make sure customers don’t put you in a box of being a commodity and create an emotional connection.?

Great stories make real change happen.