Creating a Brand Story That Resonates: Part II

In its simplest form a good story is about a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. Beyond that you need to channel your high school rhetoric class and look again at the elements of plot, conflict, back-story, theme, and setting before you start writing your brand story.  This process will help you better develop brand communications that differentiate you from your competitors and emotionally resonate with your target audience.

In addition, every brand story should includes the following elements:

Great Stories Have Memorable Scenes – In Rocky, his cousin takes him into a meat locker so he can punch giant slabs of beef, and in Titanic Jack and Rose hang off the bow of the ship with the wind in their hair.

Brands create memorable scenes through meaningful consumer experiences.  A few years ago, Subway shook up its popular “Jared” campaign by putting him on the road.  A double-decker bus crossed the country giving consumers the opportunity to interact with the brand and have some fun taking pictures in Jared’s old size 46 pants.  Brand experiences can allow you to create interactive memorable scenes with your consumers.

Furthermore, look to your past innovations or prototypes that are now sitting in a closet somewhere that can tell a memorable story for you.  Bill Bowerman’s waffle iron may tell the most compelling brand story in the history of brand stories.  Imagine his wife’s horror when he started pouring urethane on to it one morning instead of batter.  His waffle iron launched a revolution.

There’s Beauty in Tragedy – When writing your brand story don’t leave out your mistakes, your blunders, and your failures.  It gives consumers the opportunity to connect with their own story.  Audiences love the honesty that comes with the open admission of failure, as well as the integrity that comes with reflecting on why things went wrong.  Apple’s failure through the non-Jobs era of the 1990’s actually contained advances that helped with their revitalization later on.  Many marketers might not want to tell that chapter of their story, but their story would not resonate without it.

In his book “Building Brand Authenticity: 7 Habits of Iconic Brands” Michael Beverland says “…marketers are urged to tell stories of customer-driven orientation, careful targeting, and innovation success.  In contrast authentic brands celebrate failures and admit when they were lucky.  These activities provide the brand with a rich history and more importantly a story that reflects our own humanity and desires.”