What's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this
video you're going to learn how to build a heritage brand using story so you can
tap into the emotion of nostalgia and earn trust through the association of tradition
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals and the
logo using strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit
that subscribe button and the notification bell if you want to fast track your results make sure you
grab the pro brand strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link is in the description now I
created a video recently on what heritage branding is if you haven't seen that yet check it out I'll
leave a link in the description below but heritage branding is a very effective brand strategy that
allows a brand to tap into emotion and gives their audience a compelling reason to choose
their brand when compared to the competitors so why is heritage branding so effective well there
are a couple of reasons for that the first one is story now as people it's in our DNA
to be attracted to story we're drawn towards story because for millions of years that has
been the sole way that people have passed down information from generation to generation so
that's ingrained within our DNA we're attracted to story and the other reason is nostalgia
now nostalgia is this sentimental attachment to a period in the past and that brings up
a lot of these deep-seated emotions and nostalgia is very very potent it's very very effective and
when story and nostalgia are combined together that makes for a potent combination so drawing
out your customers and appealing to who your customer is through story and through nostalgia
is a very very effective way to gain an edge over your competitors and really appeal to who they are
and resonate with their emotions but isn't heritage branding for old brands well it's
true when you think of heritage or you think of heritage branding you think of institutions that
have a hundred plus years behind them brands such as Mercedes-Benz or Hermes or Berkshire Hathaway
these brands have a lot of history and a lot of tradition behind them but there's more than one
way to leverage the brand heritage strategy and story is one of the most effective ways to do that
so how do you use story to build brand heritage well every successful brand in the world has been
built on trust they've earned that trust over years of interacting with their customers and
producing high quality goods or services and when it comes to heritage brands yes they do
have a leg up over younger brands brands with 100 years of history behind them have an added
advantage over younger brands but if as a younger brand you're able to tell a compelling story that
aligns itself with a sense of tradition then you can tap into that nostalgia and you can earn trust
for your brand but how do you create a story as a younger brand you can't just create tradition
that isn't there you can't create a hundred years that isn't there how do you go about
creating a story for a young brand well it's all about the origin it's all about the origin
of the brand where the brand has come from and where it's going to why the brand was created in
the first place and what led the founders to that place to that decision of creating that brand this
is called the origin story and if you're able to really open up the origin story and reverse
engineer that story back to a time when the idea came about or a sense of tradition or a process
in the past that led to that origin story that's when you can open up the world to heritage that's
when you can open up the world to this sense of tradition and if you tell your story in a
compelling way you can really draw your customers in so I'm going to give you a process that you can
follow to create a compelling origin story for your brand step number one document your journey
now although your brand might not have 100 years behind it most certainly does have an origin
that was the point in time when your brand was created for the very first time now
the reason that brand was created is a story in and of itself why was that brand created what
happened in the past that led to the idea of that brand being created and what challenges
lay in front of the founder as the brand was being created these are all a little series of events
that are a story in and of itself now if you're able to detail and document the origin story from
the very beginning from the initial challenges that the founder came across and the idea that
came from those challenges to create that brand and then open those up into vivid detail you
have the foundations of a compelling story step number two elaboration not fabrication
so you're creating this story but it needs to be steeped in truth you can't just go creating
a story or writing a fictional story it has to be steeped in in truth but you can take every single
element of that story and elaborate on that go into vivid detail bring in the senses bringing
the smells the taste the touch the sound and more importantly the emotion what kind of emotions
were going through the founder as the challenges came across as the winds came across
so really open up the detail of the story through elaboration but make sure that it's steeped in
authenticity and truth step number three humanize the story so as I mentioned before as people
we love a good story we're drawn towards it it's in our DNA but when those stories are about people
that we feel aligned with or when those stories are about people and specific challenges they've
gone through and wins they've had and objectives that they've reached or accomplishments that
they've achieved it really taps in to our ability to resonate with that journey and really feel the
sense of the journey from the beginning to the end and it really draws us in so if that story
is about people and what they've gone through especially if it's people within the business
who have had a very strong hand in building that brand then we can feel a sense of connection
to that person and to that brand so humanize the story and make it about the people step number
four extract the aligned narrative now brands don't tell stories for a sense of entertainment
we're not here to entertain our audience necessarily if we're able to do that through a
compelling story then great but there is a point to telling stories and that point is to align
with our audience to really develop that sense of connection and give them a window inside the brand
so that they can feel that connection ultimately storytelling is all about connection so we need
to understand exactly who the audience is and the journey that they're on and what it is that they
want to accomplish and they want to achieve and the challenges that they're going through and then
do our best to align our story with their story if they see themselves in our story if they see
themselves in our brand story then they will be drawn into it and they'll feel connected to it
and step number five evoke nostalgia through association now nostalgia is all about this
sentimental attachment to the past now for this to work you really need to understand your audience
you need to have completed step four to understand the journey thereon what they want to achieve and
the challenges that they're going through and then to align our story with their story and once we've
done that it's all about pulling out the detail and using that to tap into nostalgia using that
to tap into a sense of tradition or associations or align struggles that they have gone through
that we have also gone through as well when we're able to do that when we're able to align
those emotions and we're able to draw those emotions out through nostalgia it's a very very
potent and effective strategy so really take the time to draw out that nostalgia through the detail
of the story and associations with the past now as I mentioned before when we think of heritage
branding we tend to think of the old days like the sound of horseshoes on cobblestones or somebody
writing with a quill and ink or you know the sound of an lp crackling these old vintage images and
senses that were drawn into that's what we tend to think of when we think of heritage or
heritage branding but there are more than one way to leverage heritage branding and story is a very
good way to do that if you're able to uncover the story of your brand coming together that origin
story and really align it to who the audience is and then open that up in great detail using
senses and associations to the past you can earn trust from your customer by simply associating
with that sense of tradition and with that sense of history now as you know heritage brands and
heritage branding is all about emotion it's all about opening up those emotions if you want to
learn more about emotional branding and how you can use it to connect with your audience
and this video will help you out until next time brand like a master I'll see you in the next video