Storytelling is a powerful way to connect with your audience and communicate the essence of your brand. Creating a compelling brand story can help your customers understand who you are, what you stand for, and why they should care. Here are some aspects of your brand that you must be clear about before creating your brand story.
Key Components of Your Brand Story
1. Your Brand's Mission and Vision
Your brand's mission and vision are the guiding principles that define what your brand stands for and where it's going. By establishing your mission and vision, you can help your audience understand the larger purpose of your brand and how it fits into their lives when you tell your brand story.
2. Your Unique Value Proposition
Before crafting your brand story, you must identify your unique value proposition. This is what sets your brand apart from the competition and defines what you offer that others don't.
For example, Airbnb's Airbnb's real value proposition is to provide an alternative travel experience to traditional hotels by offering a community-driven, personalized, and affordable accommodation option for travelers.
This value proposition is reflected in the company's mission statement, which reads: "To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere." The mission emphasizes the idea of community, belonging, and the notion of creating a more open, connected, and accessible world.
By understanding what makes you unique, you can create a story communicating your brand's value to your audience.
3. Your Brand's Personality
Your brand's personality is a set of human characteristics that define its tone, style, and voice. By defining your brand's personality, you can create a story that feels authentic and relatable to your audience. This includes things like your brand's tone of voice, humor, and communication style.
Some steps you can take to define your brand's personality include identifying your brand's core values, conducting audience research to identify the personality traits and communication styles that are most likely to appeal to your target audience, choosing a brand archetype that aligns with your brand's values, and testing and refining your brand personality using market research.
4. Your Origin Story
Your origin story is the narrative that communicates your brand's history, including how it was founded, who the founders were, and why they started the business. This story helps to create an emotional connection with your audience and can communicate the values that drive your brand.
Your Brand Story Approach
Using the key components above, for many brands, it is best to apply the hero's journey narrative structure to their brand story. It is a narrative structure that has been used in storytelling for centuries based on the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell. By creating a hero's journey for your brand, you can create a story that resonates with your audience and inspires them to take action.
In the context of brand storytelling, the hero's story is about the customer, not the brand. The hero's journey can be used to create a narrative that positions the customer as the hero and tells the story of how the brand helps the customer overcome challenges and achieve their goals.
In this approach, the brand becomes the mentor or guide who provides the customer with the tools, knowledge, or support they need to succeed on their journey. By positioning the customer as the hero, the brand can create a more relatable and engaging story that connects with the audience and resonates with their values and desires.
By framing the brand's story around the customer's journey, the brand can communicate its unique value proposition in a more meaningful and memorable way to the audience. This can help the brand differentiate itself from its competitors and create a stronger emotional connection with its customers.
Following this narrative structure allows writers and storytellers to create stories that resonate with audiences and offer a powerful message of growth, transformation, and empowerment.
Bring Your Story to Life
Once you have crafted your brand story, it's important to bring it to life in a way that feels authentic and engaging to your audience. This can include creating visuals that reflect your brand's personality and style, developing a consistent tone of voice, and using storytelling techniques in your marketing and advertising campaigns. Then, you want to share your story.
Share Your Story with Your Audience
Finally, it's important to share your brand story with your audience in a way that is accessible and relatable. This can include creating content that reflects your brand's personality and values, leveraging social media to connect with your audience, and partnering with influencers or other brands to amplify your message.
In conclusion, brand storytelling is a powerful way to connect with your audience and communicate the essence of your brand. By following these steps, you can create a story that resonates with your audience, communicates your brand's values and unique value proposition, and inspires them to take action. So, start crafting your brand story today, and share it with the world!
From brand strategy to messaging frameworks to story development, contact VCM Strategies to help build your brand.