What Is A Strategic Brand Narrative?

Brands have evolved from being a logo, the website and some identifying colors and marks.

Today, “brands” are the conversations and moments we share together—mostly because we also share the same beliefs—whether we are shoppers, users, customers, consumers, advocates, tribe, movement, crowd or people.

“When I think about how brands have changed over time, it’s really about building a belief system,” says Becca Hoeft. As former chief brand officer at Sunrise Banks, Hoeft successfully created the social platform for Sunrise, which ultimately became the most socially responsible bank on the planet.

“I think about building a Strategic Brand Narrative,” says Hoeft. “And putting that narrative into play, whether it’s messaging, activities, ads in the newspaper or events in the community.”

The Strategic Brand Narrative is a tool developed for Primal Branding enthusiasts to help them create those buzzy moments that help attract people to your community. The Strategic Brand Narrative is driven by the seven elements that help build belief systems: creation story, creed, icons, rituals, lexicon, nonbelievers, and your leader.

The Strategic Brand Narrative is “strategic” because it breaks down your enterprise into a sort of executive operating system. The moving parts that make your enterprise function. as a group of people who participate to create organizational (or personal) success. Each piece of your belief system is a point of differentiation. Your creation story, creed, icons, rituals, lexicon, nonbelievers, and your leader are seven subject areas for creating reasons to believe that are uniquely your own.

It’s “brand” because by attracting others who share your beliefs, you are building your internal teams of co-workers--as well as your external community of customers, users, followers, viewers, consumers, buffs, fans, supporters, advocates, the people who can’t live without you.

It’s “narrative” because the truth about stories is, that’s all we are. A cluster of stories that have told us who we are, what we’re doing here, why it matters, where we belong, where we don’t belong and who to follow (or why we should lead).

You may think that you've heard enough about storytelling and are ready to move on. But you will never tire of hearing stories. We learn through stories. We explain through stories. Stories (as you've probably heard) are what make us human.

We surround people, places and things (things include products and services) to help them make sense to people. To help people understand how they fit into their lives. The whole storytelling process, in fact, is about taking something that is meaningless, and making it meaningful. More later.

NOTE: The fun bit is that you can create your Strategic Brand Narrative and attract your tribe and build your technology, product or service in parallel.

This is foundational for tech and product startups who usually waste months of development time. At the same time they were in build mode, they could have been attracting people who shared their same needs, wants, beliefs. (Instead, they pop up searching for warm intros.)

In fact, creating Narrative will become the foundation of your success.

When people “feel better” about you over the other guy, that is called preference. And as everyone in growth and biz dev knows, preference pushes sales.

It is “Brand” because, today, “brand” means your community of users, fans, zealots?and others who share your beliefs, values and experiences.

This sense of belonging becomes your unfair advantage. People become so excited about your success, they create it themselves. They Like, reshare, download, link, tag, snap, pin, poke, retweet, and post because they feel they belong (or want to belong) to your community. And when they feel they belong to your community and not another, they prefer you among other choices.

It is “Narrative” because we learn and understand through storytelling and narrative.

Narrative helps people to “feel better” about you in ways they probably can’t articulate, which makes them no less real or actionable.

Story gives us an opportunity to take something that is meaningless—whether it is a person, place or thing--and turn it into something meaningful. You can have intention, you can have desire, you can have a dream, but if you don’t have a story, you’ll come to a bad end. ?

Ultimately, you distribute your Narrative via three buckets: social, digital and traditional media.

And it’s important to keep those distinctions separate.?

The goal of advertising, for example, is to not make it look or feel like advertising.

“As someone who makes work for multiple brands, [my] goal is to create ads that don’t feel like ads,” remarks London creative Dani Coyle, whose brilliant work for Balenciaga and Burberry appears on TikTok and everywhere else.

“Authenticity is everything and content that [doesn’t fit] on the platform sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s about creating work that has an inherent playfulness or vulnerability that feels really really native to the platform. Something that would live there even if you took the branded element out.”

TV work feels like it should be on TV, TikTok work looks like it should be on TikTok. People see through Brands who adapt one to fit the other. Sometimes blurring the lines confuses people. And the confused do not buy.

Here are two metrics to watch. According to a Edelmann PR global study, people in the USA need to see you five to seven times before they can exclaim, “Yes I think I’ve heard of them!” The second metric is that, according to sociologists, it takes 100 hours to make a friend.

These two metrics can give you (or your CEO and CFO) a sense of the media width and depth it takes to succeed. Ka-ching. That virile piece you launched this week? Congratulations, well done. But it’s just one of the five pieces of communications your target needs to see before you even begin to become relevant in their lives.

Which explains why traditional advertising, which used to steer everything, is now just another piece of media in the bucket.

And that's why YouTube videos--in addition to helping your SEO, helps you add viewing time to that 100 hours. (And if you can steer people to watch on your site, conversion will also be easier.)

Your Strategic Brand Narrative is the best build you can make. It not only attracts your external community of followers, but internal teams, as well.

Broken down and then built back up into proper executions across social, digital and traditional media, your product or service will have a optimized media surround that will help help people feel they are inside your community. Helping you to become resonant, relevant and a meaningful part of people’s lives.