Perfect your brand storytelling with this proven 4-step formula
Your customers don’t care about your business. Harsh, but true.
They don’t care about it beyond how it can help them make their lives better or solve a problem they have, that is.
But it’s not all bad news. You can use that knowledge to your advantage.
The biggest impact in marketing hasn’t been made by things like chatbots, machine learning, IoT, or even ChatGPT4.
Despite those buzzwords dominating our zeitgeist for the last decade.
What’s resonating with marketers, designers and entrepreneurs alike is storytelling.
So why am I obsessed with storytelling, and you should be too?
Storytelling is more than a buzzword
A terrible accident at 19 years old, where I broke my back* by falling off a waterfall fueled my obsession to try and understand myself, my body, and others around me*.
Actually, that’s not how my fascination with storytelling began. But I got your attention.
The universe didn’t conspire to ‘push’ me towards storytelling.
But that would sure make a great story.
In fact, that’s the story of how Jessie Inchauspé became the Glucose Goddess.
You see, people love stories. They appeal to the emotional decision-making bits of our brains in a way that facts and figures can’t.
And from a business point of view, you should know that stories can influence those decisions.
Consumers make purchasing decisions based on their emotions (feelings and experiences) rather than information (brand attributes, product features).
In fact, storytelling is more science than magic.
What will storytelling do for my business?
If you take the time and careful consideration crafting your brand story, it can work wonders for your business. Here are just a few potential benefits:
You will attract more customers who are the ‘right fit’ for your brand. Those you actually want to work with and those who want to work with you
You will keep more customers because they will feel a much deeper connection and a shared identity with your brand
Success stories for your business will become a lot more frequent and authentic. Your image boosting will become a lot more organic thanks to your new raving fans.
So as we see, when applied to your business, storytelling can be leveraged as a tool to attract better customers and build a loyal audience. But how? By building a brand story around your customer and showing how much you can help them.But, I would be providing a dis-service if I gave away the winning formula for generating a great brand story, without sharing some context first.
Why formulas matter
Some of you may be familiar with the ‘Hero’s Journey’ popularised by Joseph Campbell, or the Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker.
Both are Jungian-influenced theories, suggesting that you can distil any story in history down to one of these basic plots.
Ultimately every great story that’s ever resonated with populations worldwide adheres to a formula.
Formulas are used to create a predictable result. Formulas are a great way for someone to study something new and to learn why and how something works. If you want to become an expert in any field, you’ve got to master the formulas.
Every author, screenwriter, or public speaker has studied the ‘formulas’ for their respective creative fields. Why? Because they work.
Why formulas are meant to be broken
But blindly following formulas can get you into trouble too.
As Seth Godin says: “The problem with the formulas — let’s just pick an obvious category like screenwriting — is there are 10,000 hacks who are turning out formula-driven screenplays every day in Hollywood. Almost none of them turn into great movies. The great movies are the ones that broke part of the formula, right? It’s when you break one of the principles that you’re actually doing great work.”
So if you follow them to the letter, your new brand story won’t set your brand apart — which is a key reason for crafting a brand story in the first place. That means you’ve got to master the formulas so that you know how to bend them in creative ways.
That’s where the magic happens.
The winning storytelling formula for your brand
So without further ado, I’m sharing a 4-step recipe that will help you put together a winning brand story that builds relatability and trust.
Whether the story is about a hero who faces the unknown, and needs to overcome some challenging times to transform.
About a protagonist faced with defeating a powerful enemy that threatens everything and everyone.
Or about a hero who must seek out the help of the supernatural or a guide to grow.
If you distil down the Hero’s Journey or the Seven Basic Plots you will notice they all have:
The main character with a dream or problem
A conflict, challenge, or obstacle the character must overcome
A resolution, achievement, or success (unless you’re writing a tragedy)
And as we’ve learned, customers only care about how you can make their lives better, so to empower your brand story, a fourth, and the most crucial ingredient is necessary.
4. Make the customer the beneficiary of your story
Storytelling ingredient #1 — the character
Introduce your character/s to the story, in our case the person or people who conceived the business and brought it to life. Also, you want to set the scene of how things were before starting the business.
Have a look at some of these powerful brand examples:
From GoPro — “GoPro was founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman — a surfer, skier, and motorsports enthusiast in search of a better way to film himself and his friends surfing.”
From Warby Parker — “We were students when one of us lost his glasses on a backpacking trip. The cost of replacing them was so high that he spent the first semester of grad school without them, squinting and complaining.”
From Chobani — “In 2005, Hamdi took a loan from the Small Business Administration, bought an old yogurt plant, and brought a small group of passionate individuals together to make the real, wholesome yogurt that he remembered from his childhood.”
From Beats by Dre — “Beats by Dr. Dre (Beats) is a leading audio brand, founded in 2006 by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.”
Jessica Alba founded her company Honest because she “…couldn’t find one brand to trust for all her everyday needs”
Storytelling ingredient #2 — the conflict
Reading a story without a conflict would be like watching paint dry. At their core, all stories that resonate are those that deal with challenges and adversity. A problem can unite an audience in a quest for a resolution and can rally customers around your brand.
To refer to our brand examples:
GoPro Founder Nick “was in search of a better way to film himself and his friends surfing.”
The Warby Parker boys “were amazed at how hard it was to find a pair of great frames that didn’t leave our wallets bare.” whilst finding that “The eyewear industry is dominated by a single company that has been able to keep prices artificially high while reaping huge profits from consumers who have no other options.”
Hamdi from Chobani has “found that in America, yogurt just wasn’t as delicious or widely available as it was back home. He believed everyone deserved better options…”
The conflict that Beats by Dre seeks to remedy is front and center in their headline: “People Aren’t Hearing All the Music”.
Honest was founded on Jessica Alba’s belief that “you shouldn’t have to choose between what works and what’s good for you” and she “…knew that there had to be others out there looking for safe products, simple solutions and clear information about their choices.”
Storytelling ingredient #3 — the resolution
Without a resolution to a conflict, there would be no story. And there isn’t anything quite as satisfying as a ‘happily ever after’ that shows hope and achievement.
To use our brand examples:
GoPro “has grown into an international company that has sold over 26 million GoPro cameras in more than 100 countries.”
Warby Parker has found a resolution after realising that “by circumventing traditional channels, designing glasses in-house, and engaging with customers directly, we’re able to provide higher-quality, better-looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of the going price.”
Chobani has “grown from one man’s dream into America’s favourite Greek Yoghurt.”
Once Beats by Dre identified their conflict, the resolution became clear: “Through its family of premium consumer headphones, earphones, and speakers, Beats has introduced an entirely new generation to the possibilities of premium sound entertainment.”
As far as Honest, Jessica Alba’s mission for empowering people to live happy, healthy lives was so strong that “…she had to create…” the products that weren’t readily available.
Storytelling ingredient #4 — your customer
This is possibly the most important ingredient to our 4-step formula.
As humans, we are all wired to have needs. As such, once our basic needs of food, sleep and shelter are fulfilled we then shift our focus on more ‘meaningful’ needs such as self-actualisation, companionship, recognition, enlightenment and more.
We are constantly looking around for ways to meet those needs, so if your brand isn’t offering a way to serve one of those, then your business may as well not exist. And no amount of storytelling is going to convince them to care.
So even though you are writing a story about your business, make sure that your customer is the beneficiary of the story’s resolution.
Let’s look at how our examples handle that:
GoPro recognises that their customers are the ones who “humble and inspire us every day with incredible creativity that helps us see the world in an all-new way — and fires us up to keep creating the most awesome, innovative products possible..”
Warby Parker goes a step beyond, addressing worldwide access deficit to glasses and it “partners with nonprofits like VisionSpring to ensure that for every pair of glasses sold, a pair is distributed to someone in need.”
Chobani gives every full-time member of the company shares through their Chobani Shares initiative. It also has a continuing mission of “bringing better food to more people.”
Beats by Dre is clear in their mission, they are catering to all music lovers worldwide, seeking to capture the excitement that recording artists intended in their music: “The brand’s continued success helps bring the energy, emotion, and excitement of playback in the recording studio back to the listening experience for music lovers worldwide.”
Honest maintains social initiatives and community partnerships, which “…have ensured that more people have access to safe, effective options when they need it the most.” — again anchoring back yo how they are focused on benefiting the customers.
Storytelling: putting it all together
I know I’ve just unleashed a ton of information at you. Let me summarise.
Create a brand story around how things were, defining your main characters, the conflict or obstacles they’ve faced, and how they’ve achieved a successful resolution, demonstrating how that benefits the customers.
Simple, right?
The main idea is that customers don’t want to hear you tout your own horn.
Or sell them your product features. Consumers want to be part of a story.
Giving proof that you are the best solution to the problem doesn’t make the sale. If a customer figures something out or discovers it on his own, he’s a thousand times more likely to believe it than if it’s something you claim.
Craft a compelling journey that customers want to come along on.
Write your own brand story
Whether you’re using storytelling to craft an about us page for your website or creating an overarching story to inform your brand mission and strategy, make sure the information is true, relevant and inspiring to your customers.
Simply listing out your highlight reel and milestones, like so many other brands do, won’t resonate with them or make anyone care.
Instead, what people will relate to is a story of your journey. A journey in which you’ve faced and overcome obstacles in the pursuit of your goals, finding a path towards success that ultimately benefits those who you serve. Your customers.
*I actually did break my back when I was seven. Spending the subsequent three months on my back, tied up to a bed, pulled by springs. That time was mostly used for sharing and listening to stories with my fellow ward members. So I guess you could say that my fascination with storytelling has an interesting origin story.
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