Story Telling Through Branding

Tell Your Story!

Everyone loves a good story. Think about it—before you know it, when you watch a movie or read a book, you find yourself relating to the characters and becoming immersed in the story. An emotional connection develops. This is one of the main reasons stories are so powerful. But do you know that great stories also live outside of movies and books? With some thought and effort, storytelling can prove to be a powerful branding element for your business. Your brand story can connect you with and inspire your potential clientele.

Branding represents your company. To take it one step further, it’s what people think about and how they feel when they see your logo and your colors. Think about how you feel when you see common logos—Nike, Google, Ikea, Coca Cola, Play-Doh, McDonald’s. Each of these evokes an emotion and/or a thought when you see them. And like these larger brands, your brand can capture your audience’s attention and powerfully convey your ability to solve their problem. Your story can go a long way in helping your brand to evoke positive thoughts and emotions, which translates into graining and retaining clientele.

Do Your Research

If you do any research online about brand storytelling, you’re bound to come across toms.com. Tom’s does an amazing job of evoking a response from potential customers. Even if you don’t decide to purchase from them, you can’t deny the impact of their story. Phrases like “Wear Tom’s, Wear Good,” and “We are proud to wear our impact on our feet,” immediately let customers know that when they buy from Tom’s, they are part of something bigger. On the Tom’s website, they tell their story with written text and in video format. Both are powerful mediums for presenting their bigger picture.

The Foundational Elements of Branding

In this piece, Mediaboom contributor Frank DePino presents some essential elements of great storytelling and details items to consider when working on each one:

1. Conveying Authenticity
2. Showing Value
3. Evoking Emotion
4. Inspiring Consumers
5. Having Consistent Messaging

These foundational elements can provide a solid framework for developing your ideas into a powerful story that grabs and keeps your clients’ attention.

Branding is for everyone… including the Small Business

For some business owners, it may be that you are very aware of your story and you tell it every day in one way or another. It’s the drive that is front and center of all you do. For others, your inspiration could be heartfelt and personal, but more difficult to convey. Wherever you are, take some time to evaluate how you can best reach your target audience. What do they need? How can you better connect with them? What inspires them? What is it about your specific business that is different and powerfully unique to you? What is the fingerprint you want to leave in the lives of your clientele?

Know your target audience

Take time to research how others tell their brand stories. As you do, take note of what thoughts and emotions you experience. Pay attention to what inspires you and why. Then, consider how you can best reach your audience. Is it through video? Written content? A podcast? You have an amazing brand story to tell and people are waiting to hear it!
We love to help others tell their stories. Reach out if you need help developing or delivering yours!

Louis

I have a passion for using technology to make workflow and the day-to-day easier. Pier5 allows me to help businesses with digital technology, allowing them to focus more on what they love and are good at – their product or service!