Making brand stories work for your business and customers
Every brand, company and even person has a story.
Your story can have a history, include people and places, be funny, moving, exciting, or educational.
If someone tells you a genuine story about a subject that is close to your heart you are more likely to remember it, buy into it and share it.
In a digital world where we are connecting with like-minded people through sharing ideas and emotional experiences, the opportunity now exists to build fantastic groups of followers, friends and brand advocates.
In the last 10 to 15 years, the internet has made massive changes to business, education, shopping and to our lives every day.
Everything has become more accessible & immediate and we have more choice than ever before with any decision we make.
The most valuable asset we now have is time. With the reach that most brands now have, the world has become a global marketplace and so when we are looking to buy something, research something or learn something there are millions of companies to choose from.
This is great for the consumer and a global reach is good for the brand that wants it but brings a lot of competition to the brand that doesn’t.
The future is based on a digital version of the past.
Remarkable and great products get spoken about. They always did. The only difference now is that 1 to 1 marketing is now 1 to 1000 marketing.
We also can use different channels of media to engage our customers and tell our story not just in the place they are at, but also in the way that they are most reciprocal to.
80% of a purchase is based on emotion. A brand story with a great narrative can engage with your customer on an emotional level. Think back – the things you remember in your life are the ones that matter, the ones that touched your senses.
For example – Take a jar of blackberry jam. When I was young, my Mum loved to go blackberry picking. We would walk in the fields of Hertfordshire with our dog Cinders looking for those full and ripe bushes of blackberries. We would fill up our bags, the kids would get told off for eating too many, but my Mum was happy because she had collected enough now to make her jam. The next thing us kids would see and taste was the most delicious blackberry jam.
Now I don’t think that our family was the only one its kind when it came to blackberry picking and so if we could reignite the emotions of those young halcyon days through telling a similar brand story you would imagine that if you were in the market for a jar of blackberry jam that one might stand out more than another with no story attached to it.
As you can imagine the more emotionally attached you are to a brand the more value it seems to offer you.
This engagement creates value for both the customer and the brand owner.
Now our product is not a commodity. It has a niche market, its own audience to which it has an emotional connection, and it has taken a competitive advantage.
Well told brand stories with a great narrative told through the right media inform, excite and engage.
Your customers will share an engaging story with their friends, family and colleagues.
Brands that engage build brand advocacy
Everyone at TPMC is a storyteller. If you need advice, clarification or ideas we would love to help.