What's up brand builders! Stephen Houraghan here of BrandMasterAcademy.com and in
this video you're going to learn what brand storytelling is
so you can leverage the most effective communication strategy known to man
and hook your audience in through a journey that they're invested in.
now if you're new to the channel and you want actionable brand strategy tips and
techniques to grow your business well then click on that subscribe button
and the notification bell and you'll be well on your way
so what is brand storytelling well let's start with
what it's not it's not about John the founder
and where he's come from who his siblings are
what his dog or his cat's name are or what his teacher
said to him that put him on the road to success back in
1978 it's not any of those things it's not about the founder and I can't tell
you how many brand stories I've come across or how many business
owners or entrepreneurs come to me with the idea that a brand story is about
them too many business owners and entrepreneurs
believe that the limelight should be shining on them and that is not where
the limelight should be shining now when it comes to branding
and brand strategy you have some elements that aren't so sexy
and other elements that are really sexy so your brand purpose statement
your mission statement your competitive analysis
not really sexy don't really get anybody excited brand storytelling
on the other hand really sexy and will get those
stakeholders excited and those business leaders excited so
it's something that you can really leverage in your communication
so if the limelight is not shining on the founders then it makes it pretty
obvious where the limelight is shining and that
is the audience everything in business everything in
branding comes back to the audience who that audience is
where they're going what journey are they on what trials and tribulations
they're going through what challenges they're going through and that's what
brand storytelling is all about it's all about
understanding that audience understanding
that journey and bringing that journey to life
so what is brand storytelling so effective well
it relates to how we're hardwired as humans and you're going to be able to
relate to this so let me give you an example here let's
say your friend calls you and they talk to you all excited and
tell you that they have a story to tell you
and it's something really interesting and you have to hear this and
just as they tell you that your phone dies or they get cut off and
they don't get to tell you the story the anticipation that you will feel
to hear what that story is is tangible because
that is how we're hardwired as humans we want to know what the story is about we
want to hear the story and we're attracted to stories
because for millions and millions of years
that has been how we have learned it's how humans have transferred knowledge
from one generation to the next long before
computers and videos we've been telling stories
from one generation and passing on our experiences from one generation to the
next so over millions and millions of years our
brains have been hardwired to be attracted to story so that is why
storytelling is so effective now no doubt you already
know that storytelling is effective but that just puts it into context why it's
so effective on why we are attracted to it but when it comes to
brand storytelling what is the goal that you're trying to achieve with that
well essentially with a brand story or brand storytelling
what we're trying to do is we're trying to illuminate
the journey of our audience we're trying to paint a picture
so that we can draw our audience in and essentially what we're trying to do
is resonate with them we're trying to shine a light on a story that would be
very very familiar to them and that will make them feel like they
want to know more they want to hear what this story is all about
because they see themselves in that story if we're able to paint a picture
of a journey that they can resonate with and they relate to each and every step
of that journey well then they are going to be attracted to that story and that's
the goal of storytelling we're really trying to resonate
with who our audience is we're sick and tired of push
advertising today how many ads do you scroll through in your feed or
ads you ignore on the tv or the radio on billboards
we're just sick of push advertising and if we come across
a story that a brand is telling and we see ourselves
in that story we can hear the challenges that are related to our lives the
fears the emotions the you know overcoming and adversity well then we're
going to be attracted to that so that's the goal of
storytelling we're really trying to resonate
with who our audience is and the journey that they're on so how do you leverage
storytelling for your brand well again the trick here
is to understand who that audience is and the journey that they're on what
challenges they go through and where it is they're going what is that goal
that they're trying to achieve and if you can do that if you can tell
a story of a person a fictional person or maybe it's an actual client that's
overcome adversities or gone on to achieve success or maybe it's a group of
people with a shared challenge if you can weave
your brand throughout that journey on the road to
success then you're going to be able to align your brand
with the idea in your audience's mind that you are the way
to get to that success so that is how you leverage
storytelling by telling a story of the journey that your audience can relate to
and weaving your brand throughout now if you want to learn more about brand
storytelling then Nike is a great brand to look towards because
they do leverage storytelling really effectively and in
one of their recent campaigns the equality campaign
they shine a light on inequality now this doesn't represent
every single person within their audience and it doesn't tell
every single journey what it does is it focuses
in on a small part of a small segment of their journey and
tells that story and what they do is they
point to the adversity and the overcoming of that adversity and that is
a shared characteristic throughout all of their audience every one of their
audience can share that characteristic and that feeling of overcoming adversity
they all want to achieve they all want to succeed
and in order to succeed they have to overcome adversity so this is Nike
pulling out a small segment and a small part of the journey
of that segment and telling that story and in doing that they're able to engage
their audience they're able to point to that part of the journey and it helps
everybody to resonate with who Nike is as a brand they're
about more than just selling shoes they're about more than
just the products that they sell they are a brand that
talks to who their audience is their brand that looks at the journey
that their audience is on what challenges they're overcoming what
adversities they're facing and they tell stories about those
adversities so if you're developing your own brand
or a brand for a client and you want to help that brand to better resonate
with who the audience is well then really understand the journey
that they're on and pull out small stories of that journey so that they can
resonate with that story and they can see
themselves in it and if you're able to weave the brand
throughout that story they'll be able to associate that brand
with the journey to success but I'd love to hand it over to you now what is your
experience when it comes to brand storytelling do
you have any examples that you can share with us in the
comments do you have any challenges are you struggling to put together a
story for your brand or do you have a process in place that you
use in the brands that you build I'd love to hear from you
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resources on there as well but again I'd love to hear from you let
me know in the comments below what your experiences are what your
challenges are I'll do my best to answer all of those
until next time brand like a master and I will see you in the next video!