Why Building an Authentic Brand Is All About Telling a Story

 Everyone loves a good story. And no, don’t pretend that stories are only for the young (or the young at heart!). A good story isn’t just reserved for the kids, because even as adults we surround ourselves with them. Think about the daily stories that you engage in – a song on the radio, a magazine article, a quick flick through social media, even the daily soaps on TV, it’s easy to get swept up in a tale or two. Whether you’re rooting for the hero to win out or patiently waiting for the villain to get his or her comeuppance, the likelihood is you’ve found an emotional connection to the story that has you hooked.

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Which is why storytelling within your branding can be such a powerful ally.

Telling a story as part of your brand not only means that you can engage potential customers with your company history or culture but also gives you the opportunity to really connect with them on an emotional level and start to build that all-important brand loyalty.

Any branding experts will tell you that to gain a strong brand, one that your customers can really love, you need to connect emotionally with your audience. If customers have a good experience and, more importantly, get a good feeling when buying from or working with a company, the likelihood is they’ll go back to that company and buy from them again. In fact, recent research in neuromarketing has shown that an emotional link during the buying process for customers can influence up to 70% of their purchasing decisions.

Storytelling is a great way to help both create your brand and bolster it. And no, it isn’t just something for the big brand players, it doesn’t matter about the size of your company, in fact storytelling is perfect for smaller or start-up businesses because they often have some of the best stories to tell!

What do we all want from our brand really, when it comes down to it? Something that makes us different, that attracts customers and helps build loyalty. Well that’s exactly what storytelling can do for you. Your story will set you apart from the competition – it’s unique to you. Your story can help make you relatable and approachable to potential customers because it shows them a different, or maybe unseen, side to you. The best brand storytelling will hopefully affect your audience in such a way that they are pushed into some sort of action –hopefully, the action of doing business with you!

It needn’t be a large cost either, as you can tell your story in any way you want. With the wide selection of social media channels at hand these days, telling your story can be as simple or as comprehensive as you like.

So, where should we begin?

Well, actually your story is just that, yours. It’s personal and only you can tell it. And by that we don’t mean you need to be the narrator, we just mean that your

story must come from the heart of your company. It needs to be born from your own reasons for starting the business –the idea behind why you do what you do.

Again, don’t be fooled into thinking that restricts you to the story of how your company came about, the brand story you tell can come from anywhere - maybe from one of your staff members on the frontline, as it were, or even inspired by an interaction with a customer. As your company grows (which hopefully is your intention), your branding and the stories you tell can grow with you. With consumers leaning more towards shopping local, your stories can help make your company feel intimate and personal, rather than a big, faceless corporation – why do you think so many of the big brands use stories so often!

There are a few bits of advice that we will give when it comes to storytelling as part of your brand, the first being –base it in reality. Yes, creativity is key and you may need to embellish the odd bit of the tale and use a bit of creative license to make it work for you, but always, ALWAYS base it on a truth. It’s the reality of your story that your potential customers will connect to, the realness.

Likewise, always keep people at the heart of your story. By which, we mean aim your story at real people – their life and what they love. For the best impact, aim it primarily at your target market. Don’t tell a story about 20-something craziness if your potential customers are over 50. However entertaining and cool the story may be, you won’t be working your storytelling magic on the right people, and it will be wasted.

Ideally you want your story to echo the lives and emotions of your customers. Or at least resemble their ideals as much as you can. Homing in on what might persuade them to emotionally connect with your company. Your audience will empathise and understand your story more if they can see something of themselves in it. Your story could show how your business cares about the same issues that your customers do, for example, or that you understand the problems they face. And yes, your services or products need to feature somewhere but try not to make your story only about how great they are, your audience will see right through that and just think you’re bragging. Which in turn could harm their perception of your authentic brand. Instead, make it about the feeling those products or services evoke in customers.

Finally, don’t assume you have to use your branding story all the time. If the thought of creating something that needs to work across every marketing channel and be used everywhere leaves you feeling pressured, then break it down. The story can simply become part of your brand legacy, and you can use it as and when it fits. And hopefully, like any great story, it will lead to telling many more.

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