August 18, 2020
Why your brand story can make all the difference
Why your brand story can make all the difference

Your brand story can make all the difference 

We are wired to tell stories. We love listening to stories. Storytelling helps us connect and build relationships. 


A 2019 Forbes article suggested that storytelling is a ‘must-have’ in a brand’s marketing strategy and claimed, “in today’s fast-paced, overly-automated, and digitally-driven society, humanity is becoming the new premium…. businesses can no longer afford to be faceless entities”. 


As a brand owner, your brand story will likely not make or break your business, but it might just be the thing that helps the customer connect with you versus your competitor. If anything, this unusual season we’re in is creating an environment for brands to connect more deeply with their consumers whilst we’re spending so much time online and using social media.  


A brand, or company story, can be told whether it’s for a product you’re trying to sell, or a service you want to provide.  


So is it just marketing waffle or does it really work? 

I can only speak from personal experience and I have just made a reasonably large purchase decision where the brand story was definitely a factor. 


I have bought a lockdown gift to myself; an iSUP, or Inflatable Stand-Up Paddle Board, for the uninitiated.  


Choosing my iSUP however, took HOURS, because it turns out that even though I am familiar with some of the bigger water sports brands, SUPs are a category all by themselves and every brand was completely new to me. How do you choose a brand when you’ve never heard of any of them before?  


Is the brand story a consideration? 

I’ll be honest, when I’m choosing yoghurt in the supermarket, or ordering a new top online, I’m not googling to find out the brand story before I make a selection, but if I know and connect with the story, I often feel more inclined to buy the brand. I don’t mean storytelling as a clever marketing exercise either, I mean telling the real story behind the brand – like TOMs, or Innocent, or Pip & Nut.

  

If I’m going to spend more money, like I have on my iSUP, I do have a more considered checklist. I’m investigating the brand more than I would for a smaller purchase, but as you might expect, even after a lot of research, there are invariably lots of brands all saying very similar things. Perhaps the brand story can make the difference? 


What story should you tell? 

Very often I’ll look in the ‘About Us’ section of a company’s website. It’s there that you usually find the brand story. Sometimes it’s very corporate, but the ones I like best are more personal; where perhaps the aim is to make a difference in the world, to address a need or solve an issue, to disrupt the category, to give back. (This is also connected to Brand Purpose, which is a whole other topic.) 


After narrowing my iSUP options down to three, it was the brand story that was a significant part of my final decision. I chose FatStick (and no I’m not getting paid for this!)  

In all fairness their story is not that easy to find– I had to dig around beyond the ‘About Us’ section and into the blogs to find it. It also isn’t slick, or earth-shattering, but it is real, and it was enough to

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Advertising /  Brand Extension (licensing)

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