The Secret of Strong Brand Stories

Strong brands are about people.

Let me illustrate by looking at a few well known brands.?

Nike is not a brand of shoes or sportswear. It’s a brand story about athletes and gladiators of the sporting realm.

If you or me wear Nike’s we are sharing space with the best of the Olympic best.?

Apple is not a brand of phones, computers or watches or applications. Apple is a brand story about dreamers, misfits, world changers.

If people like you and me buy Apple products we are sharing space with rebels, revolutionaries and icons of history.?

This is because strong brand stories are driven by characters.?

These characters have desires and dreams that are driven by ethics and morals that represent ‘us’ the customer of the brand.

People follow stories and characters that represent them and their ideals.?

This is because story is the foundational operating system[OS] of the human mind and heart.

No longer:

I think therefore I am.

Now it’s:

I imagine and remember therefore I am.?

Stories activate the logic part of our brain [understanding] while also activating the senses of memory, imagination and emotions attached to touching, tasting, feeling, seeing and hearing.?

Essentially stories help us to EXPERIENCE something through imagination and memory as though it’s already happened.?

Since strong brand stories show characters facing obstacles and overcoming them, customers see, feel and experience the overcoming and achieving for themselves.?

If you have a powerful brandstory, your customers can come to you feeling like purchasing your products and services is their idea.

They have in their mind already achieved the goals of the brandstory and now simply have to put them into action.?

The best brands do this powerfully and without being accused of being manipulative, pushy, underhanded or unethical.?

We all absorb brand stories every day. We watch ads, read ads, click on ads, drive by and walk by ads.

Since our brain is a story telling machine, we are naturally telling ourselves and others stories all day.?

Stories enter our brain and become part of our daily operating system.?

See the person in the cafe working on their Mac with a glowing Apple logo? They are wearing the badge of creative entrepreneur, spinning up something uncommonly beautiful, thinking beautiful thoughts and probably disrupting the world right now with an edgy project.?

See the person running in the park with their Nike trainers or leggings. They are wearing the badge of the gladiator who gets up at 5am in the snow and dark to train, even when things are hard. They do the extra secret hours above and beyond their peers to excel and achieve despite the odds. They are the few who really don’t hold back and strive for greatness.?

If we begin to tell ourselves these stories, it’s only natural that next time we are looking for a new swimsuit or pair of tennis socks, the Nike brand is our first choice.?

It doesn’t matter that Apple or Nike are more expensive than the other options on the shelf. We choose premium because we identify with it.

The action part, buying the thing, is simply catching-up on a story that we have been living in our imagination and memory for quite some time now. It’s simply taking what is thought and making it reality.?

As you can see brand storytelling is an ultimately creative process.?

We sow the story in the minds of our audience, and if we resonate with the right desires and ethics, we will successfully embed this story in their memory and imagination.?

From here, our story grows to become the narrative of choice among all the other narratives in people’s brains. The next step is to make ideas reality.?

Humans do this every day. They visualize, plan and act.?

Because your brand story exists in the visualization part of people’s mind, then they will remember, imagine, plan and act accordingly.

They will not notice anything abnormal about moving from unpaying customer to paying customer because the decision making process occurred for them long ago.?

If you want to tell powerful brand stories, then comment below or DM me on LinkedIn and we can set up a short call.?