Storytelling has become an intrinsic part of building a brand and making sure it’s a successful one. Being able to convey what your brand is all about to your audience could well hold the key to capturing their attention, but it’s not always as simple as it sounds. Carefully crafting the right creative assets combined with a strategic edge can be tricky, but that’s where the team at SLG comes in.
Telling your brand story gives you a chance to reinforce what sparked the company’s inception, including the values you chose that are still brought to life today. If you can do this well, and with creative flair, you have a better chance of your audience remembering you and developing an affection for your brand in the long run.
With that in mind, here is some sound advice we’ve collected during our years of experience.
Brand stories work better when you’re able to highlight how the brand has overcome a challenge or encountered a conflict that needed to be resolved. Every brand has had its share of tension and conflict, especially in its formative years, and you shouldn’t be afraid to show that to your audience.
A conflict or time of adversity can stir an emotional response from the audience, as they have something they are able to relate to. Many brands have fallen for the misconception that they shouldn’t reveal any imperfections, for fear of putting off potential customers or driving them away. This can be a big mistake, when in fact customers can often have more empathy and loyalty to a brand that reveals its hardships and how they overcame them. Remember, a brand is the combination thoughts of feelings a person has when they interact with your business, products or services and you achieve a lot more authenticity, by being imperfect.
For every conflict there must be a resolution; something that helps to restore everything back to your brand’s status quo. Use the challenges in front of you to leverage an engaging story that explains why your business does what it does.
This can help to demonstrate the value behind your brand and its products or services, which in turn can help your audience to buy into your mission. This part of your brand’s story is crucial as it can explain why your customer needs your brand in their life, and what difference you could really make.
However you choose to tell your brand’s story, it should be done with a sense of real honesty. Today’s customers are savvy to brands that don’t appear completely genuine, and they are smart enough to do their own background research on you before they believe your marketing.
You should take the opportunity to tell the real story behind everything you do, and not just cherry pick the best highlights. Your brand’s path is unlikely to have been a smooth one, so let your audience know the hard work and dedication that has gone into making it where you are today.
