Brand Storytelling

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Value of brand storytelling

Brands storytelling is a way to use your content to tell the narrative of the business, and drive a really compelling story to convince and convert your audience.

We're going to have a look at a great piece of content now, from the master of the why behind selling, Mr. Simon Sinek. And a "TED Talk" that he gave in relation to driving brands storytelling home for consumers.

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4

So as you can see from Simon's examples in his presentation, customers rarely care about the what you sell, or the how you sell, they're more interested in the narrative and the story behind why you sell. This is why it's so important through your content marketing to take customers on that journey with you, to bring them through right through to conversion.

Case study: Kenco

Kenco imports a huge amount of coffee from Honduras, but the country is actually ravaged by gang violence. They wanted to create a campaign and a program that gave back to the nationals of Honduras. They worked with the Telegraph to create a series of digital content formats that show the stories of Kenco versus gangs, where they invested locally in training programs getting gang members back to work, and making them productive members of society again.

Over 5.5 million people engaged with this content because it showed the why of white Kenco cared. People really didn't see the aspect of the showy promotional sales driver, and actually the emotive element of the content really resonated well with them.

Case study: DKNY

Another great example is this example from DKNY, who showed how a potential crisis situation was turned on its head and was solved using their brand story. They inadvertently and mistakenly, used a photograph from a Humans of New York photographer, the photographer got online and really gave them a hard time. He wasn't very happy about them using the content without him being paid.

So what DKNY did was explain their brand story. That back in 1989, they've always been inspired by incorporating authentic New York imagery into their content formats, and ultimately they were really saddened to hear that this had happened accidentally.

They also agreed to donate a large sum to the YMCA, which the Humans of New York photographer was aligned to, and ultimately help change the narrative and the agenda around negative potential crisis issue by illustrating really great brand storytelling to drive their position, and their credibility on the subject.

Steps to creating a brand story

What are the steps to creating your own brand business story?

• Make sure that you define your personality and that you're true to your brand.
• Make sure you've identified your audience adequately and what they will respond to emotionally.
• Always map your story back to your customer personas to make sure that it resonates adequately with your target audience.
• Don't forget those business objectives. While you may be focusing on emotive content or you may be getting back to the root of the why of you're selling, you still have a job to do with all content marketing. So make sure it is delivering on those wider business objectives.