Brand story is nothing new, but with the emergence of new media and technology, the way of narrating a story has taken a different path.

Marketers have been telling brand stories for years by using various forms of advertisements. But writing a compelling story that draws people’s attention is challenging enough.Telling a compelling story is more of an art than a science.
Only a few veteran story tellers understand the critical element of fiction writing, which are the skills that only few marketers have formally trained to do.

In this age of competition, where every brand is struggling hard to make its foothold strong by keeping other brands behind them.It becomes essential for marketers to learn some lessons on how some of the best brands in the world approach their prospects with story telling.

While it might be difficult to have the budget to pull off these kinds of campaign, but a marketer can definitely adopt many things on the art of story telling.

What is Brand Story Telling?
A brand story is a complete narrative that explains your whole business. It shows not only how you do business but also how your uniquely qualified product or service can help your customers to solve their problems. A compelling story telling puts life into your business, which facilitates the more relevant connection between you and your customers.

Why Tell a Story?
Over 100 years the world of marketing has seen a sea of changes, but the one thing that remains consistent is the importance of telling a compelling story. Even a great brand also rely on compelling stories to attract the attention of its prospects. That is why the business barons invest heavily on crafting beautiful and persuasive advertising campaigns around stories.

People can easily remember a brand when the brand message is delivered through a good story, and they are more likely to share it with others. When company lunches any product or service through a story, it is far more liable to be well received by a consumer.

Case Studies:
Despite being outrageous for preaching customers with some false promise, there remains truly some marketing campaigns that get launched each year and leave a mark in the audience minds. While the majority of marketing is ignored, we have explored those marketing campaigns that which are truly storytelling at its finest.

Dove – Beauty Sketches:

One of my favorite campaigns was Dove’s Beauty Sketches which was aired in the year 2013. Dove always by evading the society norms tried to get vocal for the inner beauty of women. However, this ad campaign shows how a lot of women worry about their appearance, and so they overlook their own natural beauty. The campaign shows that often the way others see us is very different from the things that we naturally get caught up on.

What we can conclude from this campaign is, know who is your target audience, understand their problems and be empathetic to things they worry about. When people see a brand like Dove can have such a profound understanding of the problems consumers face, then the potential customers get emotionally connected with that brand.

Ariel – Share the Load:

Ariel ad campaign shares the load one of the most powerful ad campaign that was ever made. This ad campaign encourages a man to share the load of household works. This story is told in the perspective of a father, who sees how his career minded daughter juggling between office and her home. She is managing everything single handed and fulfilling the requirements of everyone. This add throws spotlight over the decade old tradition that believes it is only women’s job to do all the household chores. He then composes a letter to her daughter where he apologizes for the fact that his own behavior has contributed to her situation and promises her to change it by helping her mother at home.

The take away from this campaign is, Ariel has tried to give a social message by targeting those who are the primary users of their product. By pointing out a problem which is generally get overlooked, Ariel owned the hearts of million women those who are really struggling hard to compose their life at home and outside.

Secretes that a Brand Story Teller Harness to Emotionally Connect with Consumers:

Honesty and Transparency:
While writing your brand story, you should keep in your mind that honesty and transparency prevail in the story. Yes, you are crafting a story, but this should be rooted in the reality of your brand. Don’t try to give false promises. If you promise something that you know your brand can’t fulfill then your customers get confused. And they ultimately turn away from your brand in search of another brand that meets their expectations. Be creative but don’t stay too far from your brand promises. Because confusion is the number one brand killer.

Infuse Brand Personality into Story:
Brand stories aren’t marketing materials. They are the brand ideology. So if you are thinking it as your sales pitch, then you are wrong. Brand stories should be told with brand persona. Only instigating people to buy or use a product will create a boring story which will fail to attract and retain readers.

Brand Story should have a Beginning, Middle and End:
Fiction stories usually follow a structure that includes a beginning, a middle and an end. Your brand stories should follow a similar structure. Begin the story by establishing your story setting and the characters. The middle part should explain the problem that the character is facing and present conflicts that get in his or her way. And the story ends with giving a resolution to that problem.

Conclusion:
Composing a compelling brand story is also part of your brand building effort. Your goal is to surround your customers with the brand experience, so they able to self-select how they want to interact with the brand. Give them the full authority and multiple ways to enjoy your brand story, and you will find your self-moving closer to achieving your brand marketing goal.