The Chronicles of Marketing

 

The Chronicles of Marketing

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories” – Jonathan Gottschall

INTRODUCTION

Storytelling in advertising is largely the aggregate of key elements: practical replica and creativity. Your brand’s written and visible language must be painted collectively to create a constant narrative that engages your clients and highlights your offer’s value – all in a manner that feels genuine and natural. 

We've all encountered businesses that seem a little tacky, both due to the fact that their advertising doesn't shape their brand’s character or speak to their target audience. Good storytelling advertising is the antithesis of that – crafting a story that’s so compelling that buying the brand’s service or product seems like a "no-brainer."

In advertising, storytelling presents a way to connect with customers in contrast to any other. Brands are empowered to proportion and promote their values and character in a way that feels much less like marketing and more like a concerted attempt to bolster relationships with clients. To construct that "like-know-trust" factor, storytelling is your new advertising best friend.

BENEFITS

1. Convey Your Personality

Storytelling is the perfect platform to let your brand’s personality shine through. The stories you tell don't advertise your brand, but they create the brand itself and give it a persona of its own. Never be afraid to let the personality of your brand come through loud and clear via storytelling.

2. Bring Your Brand in Front as the Lead

Doing this will ensure the brand is intrinsically linked to the story’s message. This can range from ensuring your brand is known as one that will deliver quality results, to perhaps setting the brand above its rivals, be it as a champion, a maverick, or both. In either case, the brand needs to stand out, which sounds simple but can easily be forgotten, especially in an overcomplicated story.

3. Hit the Emotional Quotient 

Storytelling in itself is perhaps the best way to hit that emotional chord with your customers. Tell stories that are real or at the very least based on real stories and tell them in a way that evokes feelings and emotions and so on. Under no circumstances should you attempt to reach that emotional level simply for the sake of reaching it; consumers will see right through you.

Be genuine. Be honest. Be real.

4. Keep ‘Em Coming Back for More

Any brand on the planet wants its customers, and prospects, for that matter, to come back for more. And the ‘more’ can manifest itself in many ways, including sales, of course, but that gets old real fast. A better way to keep them coming back is through storytelling.

As Rachel Gillett wrote in Fast Company, “when we read a story, not only do the language parts of our brains light up, but any other part of the brain that we would use if we were experiencing what we’re reading about becomes activated as well.”

                 

IMPORTANCE OF STORYTELLING

1. Develops a deeper connection 

Story-based marketing brings values and human qualities to your business that make it more accessible and relatable. This builds a personal connection. People feel way more connected to the brand when they can relate to the story. Any product or service is created to serve people. Telling stories helps you bond with your community. And customers buy from people they trust and feel supported by.

2. Sells Without selling 

By telling a story that's engaging, entertaining or emotional, marketing campaigns can get potential customers to buy into the brand rather than individual products.

As Tim Fishburne said, "The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing." When you promote your company through a story, instead of directly pushing people to buy your product, you get a chance to share an experience and create a genuine connection while informing them about your business.

3. Engages with the audience 

In the world of marketing, telling a great story has the ability to cut through much of the monotony of today’s brand marketing by presenting something that is unique and captivating, making consumers stop and listen. Storytelling

acts as a powerful marketing tool as it completely engages and captures an audience's attention from beginning to end. Thus, making a long-lasting impression rather than a quick one.

STEPS TO BUILD COMPELLING BRAND STORY

1. Start with data

The first step in any successful story is the research phase. So, start to research your customers by creating a map of their buying journey and using this to develop your hero’s story. 

Do a complete competitor analysis and interview your sales team. 

The next part of this puzzle is creating case studies from previous customers to showcase that your product or service is the solution they’ve been searching for. 

2. Create a storyline

Now that you know how your product or service helps your customer, it’s time to write your story.

Your story must have two main characters: a hero and a helper. The hero is the ideal buyer persona or a person that needs your products the most. On the other hand, the helper is your brand. They take the hero from where they are to where they want to be.

Now let’s look at the third step. 

3. Build an emotional connection

In storytelling marketing, we don’t use reason to navigate our audience, we use emotions. 

As you continue to work on your copy, think about what emotional needs your product or service fulfills and then imagine that you’re speaking directly to a person to bring a human essence to your message.

Share their worries or fears and weave in how you’ve felt that at some point in your life. Make the story relatable for your audience. 

By digging back into your data, you can determine the emotional motivations behind your customer’s goals.

EXAMPLES

Disney is, of course, no outsider to fabricator, and this advertisement for Disneyland Paris shows off the brand’s chops. 

It’s the heartwarming tale of a little duckling who finds a book about Donald Duck and becomes hung up with his new hero. But a wicked downfall is approaching, and the duckling and his family have to take flight, leaving his cherished beloved book behind. 

The family endures a cold, wet night before the sun reappears and they arrive suddenly at Disneyland Paris, where the duckling is accredited by none other than Donald Duck. 

"As he comes beak- to- beak with his idol, our heartstrings are pulled so strongly they feel like they’re about to burst,” said The Drum. 

    

Storytelling marketing can be across all feathers of mediums, as this innovative augmented reality (AR) campaign by Coca- Cola shows. 

One of their stories shows a couple of youths getting their beach ball deflated by a beach pergola, while another shows an immature couple at a movie getting sacrificed and dropping their popcorn. Another features two rival football suckers who join each other in a friendly game when a football flies out of the can of Coke

CONCLUSION

Purposeful branding isn't pretty much nailing your target market concentrated on and the usage of statistics to inform your decisions. It's about infusing your logo's persona into each touchpoint, connecting with the client and having a clean cause.

Proper logo storytelling is all about having a cohesive message. Not only that, but your message needs to resonate with your target market. Often, organizations fall into the trap of attempting to force a logo onto their business—however, this may come across as inauthentic (and those who will notice).

Telling higher testimonies begins with a better understanding of who you're telling them to. Once you already know your customer, logo, marketplace, and competition, you may begin crafting stand-out messaging and innovation that answers your customers’ questions and positions your logo as the go-to in your space.