5 ways to craft your brand story.
Effective brand storytelling is considered one of the most powerful assets to successful brand growth. It can increase a company’s visibility, profitability and ultimately improve their relationship with their audience. The effect of COVID-19 has seen an even bigger shift towards digitally driven marketing. The digital landscape is overcrowded with marketing messages and campaigns, and every brand is trying to keep their place in the market and dominate their own market space.
Your brand story will help you stand out from the crowd, define who you are and build long lasting relationships with your consumers. ‘Nike’ is a prime example of a brand that consistently gets their brand storytelling right. Through campaigns such as “Just do it” and more recent ones such as “Equality”, they consistently convey their values with strong, believable and authentic messaging that aligns with their audience therefore up-holding their reputation across the globe.
Here are 5 ways to help you craft and communicate your own brand story…
1. Know who you are
Knowing who you are and what makes you unique is vital to brand storytelling. It’s a very crowded market place, with content being created and shared in unprecedented volumes. For example, 500million Instagram stories are shared, alone, each day. By knowing what makes you unique, you can tell your story in a way that differentiates your brand, and it can help shape your brand’s personality and characteristics. Think about what you want your audience to know about you. When they read a blog, visit your website or engage with you in-store, what do you want them to remember about you? ‘LUSH’ are a great example of a brand who knows who they are and what makes them different – they sell an idea and a lifestyle rather than an image, appealing to a more niche audience.
2. Be human
Authenticity is critical to brand storytelling, especially to a more modern Gen Z audience. Since most of us are now savvy to advertising and marketing messages, brands need to remember audiences are ahead of the game, and they know brands are trying to sell to them. Create a brand story that evokes an emotional response with your audience, talk to them honestly and openly through showing your understanding of their aspirations and pain points. This will help create meaningful relationships with your customers and install trust.
3. Build your tribe
Tribal marketing involves identifying your consumers as a group based on behaviours and characteristics, rather than demographics. Your tribe set themselves apart with a shared way of thinking, or similarity in lifestyle and values. Building an audience group who share common goals, will create reliability and trust in your brand. It shows a side to your brand that isn’t just about selling products or services – you are creating a community of people who will promote your brand organically and will spread your message far and wide. Your brand story will be the key component from which your tribe will grow. Be good to them, offer them content and insights that’s relevant to them, engage in conversations that they care about and bring them together through events both online and offline. Fashion brand ‘Misguided’, are a shining example of how to build a tribe. They have built an army of social media followers through their consistent posting and varied content from tutorials, new trend alerts, quizzes and affiliations with popular TV programmes like Love Island.
4. Convey your culture
Craft your narrative to share your history and culture. Part of your story is your brand’s culture, which ultimately influences your brand’s personality and value proposition and vice versa. Create a picture in the mind of your consumer about who you are through showing each part of your brand – your staff, your values, your beliefs and the origins of your brand and even how you’ve grown at each stage to adapt or change to societal changes or consumer needs.
No other brand can steal your story. It’s what makes you, YOU.
5. Get creative
You need to grab attention to promote your story. Use creative methods and messaging to communicate your brand and think conceptually. Video is a powerful tool to communicate your brand, it enables you to tell your story powerfully, through carefully crafted scenes which can communicate each aspect of your story. It’s also engaging and easy to digest. Know where your tribe is and ensure you’re communicating on their platforms. It’s important to align your story with your brand identity; consistent design will instill trust and improve brand recognition.
JWI can help you tell you craft your brand story through detailed strategy, inspired creative and well crafted content. For more information contact hello@jwi-global.com
