What’s Your Story?
Over the many years I’ve spent in the marketing world I’ve learnt that there is a lot of new money for old rope.
Every few years a shiny new thing arrives that carries big promises of a break-through in thinking that supposedly changes the world.
People-centred design was a revolution in its telling that claimed to actually consider people in the design of things. Scratch the surface and you find good old qualitative research with Post-It notes.
There was a huge kerfuffle in brand strategy when people discovered Simon Sinek’s TED talk on his Golden Circles model. Grounding your brand on a “Why?”, or brand purpose, suddenly raised cries of “eureka!”. How had businesses managed to survive without knowing why they are there in the first place?
There is also the ongoing debate about the importance of creativity in communication. To my way of thinking this is a bit like the axiomatic argument that food is better if it tastes good.
Another topic du jour that has grown in prominence in recent times is storytelling.
Two main practical drivers have swept storytelling to prominence:
1. Content marketing. The growth in content requirements as marketers have increased their investment in digital marketing. Websites, blogs, customer emails and social media all need content to fill their posts with.
2. Differentiation. With the proliferation of competition in most categories it is harder and harder to achieve sustainable differentiation with products. However, one thing that a brand can own is its story.
There is also a deeper, more fundamental role that brand storytelling plays in marketing.
Pretty much all products, whether they are FMCG, durables or services tend to be inert per se. They are things.
Marketing’s job is to create demand by making those things desirable to people. To do this we use brands as a way to attach human values to products in order to make them more relatable and appealing.
This works because human behaviour is driven mostly by instincts and emotions rather than cold rational thought. People are hard-wired to relate empathetically to stories about emotions and the human experience.
Consequently, a brand story is a means of wrapping human values up in an ownable narrative designed to cultivate sustainable attraction.
In this way:
A product + human values in the form of a compelling brand story = a more desirable product = the source of enduring demand = something worth paying a premium for.
Whittaker’s is a great story of pioneering dedication to chocolate perfection that trumps Cadbury’s global giant status.
Lewis Road Creamery has been satisfying foodies with beautiful products made the way they are meant to be made - before industrial compromise took over.
Essano is a great success story of providing premium pharmacy and salon products at grocery prices.
There is a craft in making your brand story one that people want to follow. It is not just a matter of haranguing people about your product and its features. We’ve all met people like that.
Great brand stories draw you into a tale of passionately believing in something and pursuing it with purpose, authenticity and flair. They are stories about brands you want to have in your life and what you choose to prefer over alternatives.
Great brand stories that you buy into leave a residue on your own story as a person.
What do the brands you love say about you?