A beginner’s guide to brand storytelling

What is brand storytelling?

At some point in the history of advertising, brands began to sell products through a narrative – a story that takes a viewer on a journey – rather than through presenting basic information to consumers. This kind of advertising – storytelling – is the antithesis to a crude ‘BUY ME!’ message.

But storytelling in a marketing context isn’t just about telling a story to advertise a product (think the John Lewis Christmas ad), ‘brand storytelling’ is more multifaceted. It’s about telling the story of a brand using a variety of methods with different tools and on multiple platforms.

In short: brand storytelling is about pushing out a consistent and authentic message which builds up a complete and trustworthy image of your company. It’s what people believe about you, based on the messages and signals you send.

Which brands are successful storytellers, and why?

To illustrate the above, I’m going to present five brands who are really good at brand storytelling, and extract the methods they have used. Generally, successful brands:

• put the consumer at the centre of the story
• adopt a unique personality
• have a clear sense of purpose
• don’t behave like commodities

1) GoPro

GoPro are great brand storytellers, as their ‘story’ is pieced together by the people using their products. The brand loves to share video content (stories, anecdotes) from their consumers, which builds a strong, memorable and authentic image of the brand.

Take the brand’s Baby Ava YouTube video for example. The consumer is at the centre of the story. It’s cute. People buy into GoPro because they believe in the brand’s purpose. The brand has a unique and clear community-led image, supported with lots of video content on various platforms.

2) Dove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DdM-4siaQw

Dove focuses heavily on telling stories. There is even a section dedicated to them on their website. I personally think Dove’s brand storytelling is a little inauthentic (because it’s ‘real beauty’ campaigns are patronising towards women) but on the whole the brand is a good example of a company that is unique and clearly identifiable. Dove’s “true beauty is more than skin deep” story taps into personal, consumer-facing issues: it carries a strong moral message.

3) Jack Daniel’s

Jack Daniel’s are successful brand storytellers, because their message is clearly focused on heritage and tradition. The brand tells authentic stories about its history, its staff, and its distillery process, and this content builds up strong foundations of trust.

4) Facebook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOWRQfo-RGk

Facebook tells copious amounts of stories in order to strengthen its brand. They’re emotional, and focus on users of the brand rather than the brand itself.

5) Moosejaw

Moosejaw, a US retailer and ecommerce store specialising in outdoor recreation apparel, has a distinct sense of humour and unique tone of voice that is consistently upheld on all of its marketing platforms.

The copy on their website, for example, is funny. It sounds like one of your mates, and establishes the brand colloquial and laid back.

IN SUMMARY

What can be learned from the examples above is that there is no specific set formula for a great brand story. Rather, each brand differs from the next, but are united in having a consistent personality and message that is pushed over various channels.

It’s no good making one great storytelling ad. It’s necessary to constantly build up a consistent and authentic picture of your brand through the stories you tell about it.