“Brand story” and “storytelling” are new buzzwords thrown around by content marketers which have left many clients locally, feeling bamboozled. If you are one of those clients, after reading this post, you will be at ease.
Let us begin with the “Brand story.”
A “Brand story” captures the essence of your brand by recounting the events that led to its creation and the values or philosophies that drive the brand’s mission. The brand story creates an emotional connection with the audience beyond the functionality of the product.
Emotional appeal is the common thread that connects the “Brand story” to “Storytelling.” But while the development of the “Brand story” is a one-off process undertaken at the brand conceptualisation stage, “Storytelling” is a continuous process.
“Storytelling” is as old as man, and public relations practitioners have always used storytelling techniques to build goodwill for organisations and brands. However, “storytelling” has gained increased prominence in other related fields such as content marketing. Because of the rise of digital media, businesses can now share their stories directly with their audience without relying on feature editors, for instance, to get their stories published in newspapers.
So, what does it entail?
“Storytelling” uses a narrative to connect a brand to its customers emotionally. As previously stated, this has always been achieved in public relations by sharing human angle stories in the form of feature articles. So, it is nothing new.
The methods for achieving good storytelling are numerous. A business could choose to tell a story about its brand values and the commonalities it shares with its customers. Alternatively, it could be a story about how using its product or service saved a customer, making the brand the hero of the story. Or it may be a story about a back-end staff whose insight led to innovation.
Do you have a story to tell? Contact us and we will help you craft it most compellingly.
