Lis Anderson, director, AMBITIOUS PR
The tactics used in PR and marketing are growing ever more creative; content marketing is king but the channels to communicate through have also exploded. It’s not just a case of print or online media, it’s social media, podcasts, newsletters and your brand’s own website. As the number of platforms have grown, there is an even greater opportunity for brands to go where it’s customers and potential customers are.
The currency in all of these endeavours is emotional connection: a currency so valuable that brands are willing to invest even bigger budgets in deepening this connection as they understand the extent at which it will foster loyalty.
But the greatest vehicle to deliver a meaningful connection with customers isn’t as high tech as you might think. In fact, it’s a tradition steeped in rich history: it relies on the ability to tell a good story about your brand.
Why is storytelling important?
Brand storytelling can be a memorable opportunity to attract your audience’s attention. It goes beyond the sales pitch and unoriginal marketing message often focused too heavily on the business. Instead, it’s a powerful tool to create meaningful connections and show the company’s ‘human side’.
It’s a chance to tell the story about why your brand exists, your company culture and your brand’s purpose. In the process, it’s an effective way of building trust and brand loyalty quickly.
To tell your brand story, two principles must apply. To create a compelling narrative in such a way that reflects an authentic brand story, your brand voice and brand personality must shine through.
What is your brand’s mission?
Working with a creative agency is a great avenue to help you unpick your brand’s story. It starts with a messaging session designed to help you establish core messages about why your brand exists and what you stand for, as well as the solutions you provide.
This forms your brand identity and will be compiled into a messaging matrix and shared with all key spokespeople to ensure that everyone is on the same page when discussing your brand.
It will also form the basis for your marketing agency to develop great stories to your audience. These stories don’t necessarily need to be told by your brand. Once your messaging framework is entrenched, you can also begin to identity other brand advocates. Some of the best brand stories are told by customers or third parties; it could be a story telling a great example of success gained through working with you, or personal stories of customers that demonstrate your shared values.
Another essential part of telling your brand’s story is through thought leadership or opinion-based articles. This strategy is so effective because it allows you to champion a topic; perhaps it’s a topic that isn’t often talked about for example challenging the status quo on a particular aspect of the industry you work in. Or perhaps you can offer a new perspective along with some expert advice on a topic that’s core to your industry; whether that’s the challenges of hybrid working practices on company culture or how to navigate the cost of living crisis.
The world of PR has transformed from the days of heavy press releases and company announcements to more creative content marketing-led initiatives. More and more press releases centre around storytelling in the form of calls to action and research-led announcements.
Choose the topics that reflect your brand story and keep the focus on your customers rather than your brand. What issues and challenges are they experiencing? How can you link that back to what you do as a business and the success you deliver for your customers?
Brand story examples
You don’t need to look too far to spot some great brand stories. Just look at some of the small online retailers that exist today. The success of these brands is in their ability to tell a great brand story about the reason they were formed. The strength of their story about their origins creates a strong emotional connection, to the extent that the ‘shop small movement’ has been formed. The thing that they all have in common is that their story is told proudly with webpages and social media biographies devoted to telling customers about their origins.
A brand that started from these small beginnings includes Scamp and Dude and through the power of its story it’s expanded with flagship stores and a turnover of £7 million in 2021. Brands with a strong charitable connection are also a great example of storytelling. The support of a partner charity allows them to tell the story about their values and creates a connection deeper than simple sales of a product.
This merging of ‘profit and purpose’ is exemplified by the retailer, toms shoes. By purchasing a pair of shoes, customers are supporting worthy resources that improve lives. The charitable story is woven through their entire brand with money donated to a charitable cause with each pair sold.
Brands that understand the value of storytelling can often spend big budgets in this endeavour. Take coca cola for example. To benefit from the anticipation of the build up to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, otherwise known as ‘World Cup fever’ it launched a big budget marketing initiative involving a FIFA World Cup trophy tour, a digital hub for fans to predict the outcomes of matches and a partnership with Panini the official licensed sticker album. Coca Cola is a long-term partner of FIFA and this latest ‘believing in magic’ campaign is a compelling story, capitalising on the excitement and anticipation of the event and positioning Coca Cola as an aspirational brand in the fore.
B2b brands can also tell a good story
But it’s not just large consumer brands that can benefit from storytelling. B2b companies can also have a compelling brand story which can be equally well received among existing and new customers.
B2b brands such as Xledger can also use charitable and community partnerships to great effect when telling their brand story. Other brands such as PillTime successfully use research when creating a PR campaign that will communicate their brand story by investigating the challenges of their target audience and providing solutions.
How to tell your brand story
Both B2b and B2c brands have been telling stories to great effect for years in a bid to attract more customers. Succeeding in an ever more digital world depends on a brands ability to create meaningful connections. It involves living and breathing your brand’s story and communicating your core messages in everything you do, from your company’s blog posts and LinkedIn articles, to thought leadership articles in industry press, podcasts and beyond.
