As in any relationship, meaningful interactions build connections and familiarity. Brands require layered and evocative narratives to engage with customers, to foster loyalty.
A solid connection is needed to bond the customers to the brand with confidence and longevity, to constructively engage with the audience. When in competition, products and services are consistently out-pricing one another. The internet is a fast-paced space that offers up impossibly accessible products, retailed at close to manufactured cost. Price, convenience and delivery of a product or service are important factors that will influence a potential sale. However, personal identification with a brand is a far more powerful tool for building a longstanding relationship with an audience.
Too many brands overlook the potential of brand storytelling, favouring instant gratification, click-bait orientated tactics. To appeal powerfully enough to an audience and invest in a brand's success, a narrative detailing the origins and drivers behind company values is essential. Cohesively interlinking facts and emotions, brand storytelling offers insight into a company's internal workings, communicating an intimacy and familiarity which invites an audience to feel part of the organisation. Brand storytelling is an intelligent marketing strategy that essentially translates to increased impact and profitability, maximising visibility and qualitative engagement.
Communicate your brands narrative with authenticity
The internet is saturated with infinite content. With multiple platforms offering brands the opportunity to post as frequently as possible, quantity has replaced quality. Grasping for momentary recognition can do your brand more damage than good. Instead of conforming to social media pressures, seek alternative avenues for promoting your products and services' best qualities and values. Social platforms aren't just a place for instant gratification. Use these spaces to illustrate your brand's story, select emotive images depicting your brand's journey, offering insight into intimate moments from day one. Your brand's story is unique. Use your narrative to quote employees and founders achievements, along with the brands monumental challenges and anniversaries. Inviting your audience to celebrate, reminisce and feel involved with these special moments feels like a shared experience, bonding the audience with the brand. Rather than using a boastful strategy to convince your audience of your success, communicate on a level which describes your growth with authenticity.
Humanising your brand
Speak to the essential demographic which you want to call your audience. When it comes to illustrating your brand's evolutionary tale, you must know who you want to reach out to and engage with. Refer to Method's Buyer Persona feature to learn more about how you should begin to refine the language you use to speak directly to the individuals within your client base. Conceptualise the language and values you will use to communicate with your followers. Language is a powerful tool, especially in the marketing industry. Familiar words are evocative, channelling the power to convince consumers of your value and drive sales. Younger audiences will typically respond to slang style terms, whilst older audiences prefer more descriptive terminology and a thoughtful approach. When creating your brand story, research the communication style your direct competitors have embraced. This can help you evolve your language, identifying gaps in the industry you can address, offering solutions through your brand's story.
It can be helpful to study successful brands storytelling narratives. Some brands embrace the opportunity to tell their story through the eyes of their founder. Take Apple, Gymshark or Virgin, for example. Each brand promotes its values, mission statement and personality through its creator. This can be a valuable strategy to help the audience connect and identify with a product or service. Humanising your brand will foster an emotional connection between your product and your buyer. If you inspire trust between your audience and the brand, the preceding confidence and investment will flourish progressively, leading to them becoming advocates for your company.
Many brands make the mistake of taking a superior, condescending tone to achieve a prestigious image. Truthfully, this is a limited, two-dimensional strategy that will land isolated sales instead of building a loyal client base. Speaking directly to your audience, discussing solutions to everyday problems is a fail-safe tactic for engaging with potential customers with immediacy. In today's world, brands need to demonstrate an empathetic attitude to the planet and to our society. This is no longer optional. It's essential. By promoting worthwhile causes and validating struggle, a brand demonstrates that it is here for both the good and the bad times. Focusing only on the issues related to a company's internal workings, a brand appears self-seeking and blinkered. Identify a cause that has a relatable story to your own, then link your brand story directly to a charity. Virgin is an excellent example of this. Richard Branson passionately supports young people trying to make a difference in society and succeed with their ambitions. Virgins Young Change Makers Fellowship Programme demonstrates Branson promoting a programme he would have benefited from when he was trying to succeed as an up and coming businessman himself. Branson launched multiple failed enterprises before establishing a magazine that he sold for £50,000, establishing him as a powerful force who would be CEO of one of the world's most recognisable luxury brands. This communicates Virgins story effortlessly without the need for a faceless bio section on a website.
Brand storytelling resonates so much more robustly than a token, factually driven piece of copy detailing a brand's beginnings and workings. Use provocative adjectives to discuss the inspiration behind the companies launch. Don't be afraid to include details of struggles and failures. Transparency will endear you to your audience. Conceptualise your real-life brand story as you would a fictional tale about your characters. Illustrate the setting and include nostalgic detail which differentiates your product or service from the crowd.
