3 Inherent Values of Brand Storytelling

Once upon a time there was a princess named Sabel. She lived in a glorious castle in the District of Columbia (Of course shorter than any of the historical monuments) where she could exude her marketing skills and munch on cupcakes with her Corgi, Maven, anytime she wanted.

On a day much like today while she was walking Maven, she tripped over the terrible cobblestones in Georgetown and realized she had a deep problem with her marketing skills — Storytelling.

Sabel knew all about stories, I mean she’s a princess for goodness sake, but she didn’t really know what they did for her brand. She understood that she needed to tell a story, but what benefits did she get from telling one?

Ok, I’m done with the princess act; however, I think it helped to get to my following points. I’ve heard consistently that storytelling is very marketable; however, the inherent advantages seem to be left out.

First, stories are easily remembered and identifiable.

I think I can guarantee that most of you reading this will remember this princess story and if given the chance to meet me after this story most will identify me with this ridiculousness. But it does in fact help prove my point — the story, as absurd as it is, will be easily remembered.

Now, you’re marketing story doesn’t have to be as silly as mine, but it has to have traits that will make it the things above. Simplicity, short and personable are characteristics that make a marketable story memorable and attributable to your brand.

Second, stories help sell or market your brand.

A post I just read from the Buffer blog caught my attention — What listening to a story does to our brains. Leo Widrich began with a story on the beginnings of the sandwich and how came about. Even though I read the “story” about a couple months ago, Widrich points out “What’s interesting about this, is that you are very likely to never forget the story of who invented the sandwich ever again.” Widrich’s next conclusions dive into how the brain reacts to stories; however, for marketing purposes telling this story made it easily remembered because it was:

  1. Something relatable that majority can connect with. Ex: A Sandwich (We’ve all had one at some point).
  2. Short and sweet.
  3. Identifiable story to the point of the piece.

Well you could just think I’m some crazy woman, or you could connect that you wanted to be a prince or princess at one point too. I could be stretching that a tad, but stories simply do help sell or market your brand.

Back when I was working at a retail store, I truly established the basics of selling to a customer. Now, B2B sales are a whole new ballgame, but the fundamentals of selling rarely change in their premise.

Now, when I was working as a salesperson in the retail store my job was to sell customers clothes. I do have to pride myself on that I was quite good at selling clothing to people in the store (a telling sign of this might actually be my closet as well because I was actually good at selling to myself too). However, it wasn’t just “Hey customer, buy this red shirt.” It took a little bit more finesse and appreciation of the product.

A customer would often approach me about having a problem finding a pair of jeans. For me, along with the multitude of other people, jeans are probably the hardest thing to buy for. I would often exclaim to this customer that it wasn’t just them, I had the same problem too. I would tell them that before I constantly had troubles finding denim that fit well. Whether it be too big in the waist, too tight in the leg to being just too long, I was in quite the conundrum. It wasn’t until I struck denim gold and found the perfect pair of jeans at my current employer at the time.

Telling this story to that customer gave them not only something they could remember and identify with that brand, but helped me sell the product I was trying to offer them at the time.

Lastly, the stories that you tell from your brand’s voice establish a connection with your audience.

Using my retail experience story one last time also shows that my denim problem showed that the retail store was there to connect with the customer on their problem in order to help solve the issue with what they are projecting. It’s hard to get people to engage with material that is dry and an overall cumbersome way to interact. In fact, in a stuady done by Latitude regarding storytelling, only 12% of the people they surveyed preferred a completely passive media experience.

12% is certainly not enough to establish a reputable connection with.

Now, I can’t say that it was the same for every salesperson at the store, but I know that my relatable storytelling skills helped form a bond with thecustomers and to help to notion what the retail store was trying to voice. Customers were given the chance to be an active participant in my story. Granted they were actively trying on denim, but that doesn’t detract from the original association.

Your story can be goofy, scary, historical, or just real, but it helps to signal to customers what you are trying to say and in turn hopefully establishes a connection that you will surely be able market to.

Storytelling in marketing isn’t always the tales you heard before bed, but they are things that can be built upon that will reap more of the benefits above. Setting the tone with a relatable stance can effectively establish the importance of the marketing in your business.

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