“We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.”
Jimmy Neil Smith
Storytelling is an art.
Brands are created through the power of stories, it’s a beautiful way to establish trust with their audience. Brands like Nike, Coca Cola, Disney, Starbucks have been building an emotional connection with their audience over the yesteryears and continue to do so.
Good stories unite communities and create a form of oneness with like minded people coming together as attentive listeners.
Like any other art form, it requires practice – and routine practice to reach a certain level of mastery. An art form where the audience cherishes the fact where narration is made simple and distinct, but in no form is it easy!
“Great storytelling can make the difference between someone paying attention to you and someone just tuning you out.”
Christopher S. Penn
The human brain is always searching for dots to establish a connection that is empathetic. The underlying asset of brand storytelling is that of emotions, thoughts and feelings. The reach of a brand’s message is directly proportional to the mentioned underlying asset.
Knitting a compelling story is at the very core of inbound marketing.
Yes, we are in 2023 and if one has to pause and ponder over – “How long has storytelling existed in relation to the human race, there is a story too!
Brief History
Historically, visual storytelling depicted through art was found in Egyptian Pyramids, Greek Architecture, Chinese tapestries dating back to 36000 years.
Humans in all societies have depicted drawings as an art form. Historians in several archeological finds have reflected how even the cavemen had a universal language of storytelling; of their survival and life crafted with a stick or hands, in mud or clay.
As per an article piece on Wikipedia there is some evidence conveying – writings on wall caves started as drawings and then evolved to scripts. The Indus script of the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization, the Rongorongo script of Easter Island dating back to 5500 BC – represent some form of authentic writing.
Studies of the bronze era, also suggests that a large population was not literate, which curtailed their ability to read and write stories. It eventually led to people involved in plays to narrate stories. Stories reached masses in the form of theatrical performances.
The art of storytelling evolved as people could read, learn and communicate. Oral Storytelling was powerful as a sequence of events had a place and purpose. Not long back in the context of mankind, around 200 B.C Aesop’s fables were written and are relevant today as it will be tomorrow.
William Shakespeare lived a short span of life by today’s standards but meaningful it was. In hindsight, his plays like Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet were the stepping stones in storytelling which till date are relatable and are adapted for drama, theatrical and film schools.
The evolution of storytelling reflects modern day human psychology and how consumer behavior takes shape.
The 21st Century, came in with the gift of photography, introduced to the world by Joseph Nicephore Niepce – the father and founder of photography.
Joseph Niepce 
The First Photograph
The art of Lithography was introduced to transpose negatives into actual photographs. Photographic storytelling started looking upon subjects as personas, interesting scenes and phenomena.
When words fell short – photographs of war – torn nations narrated a million words.
The journey of storytelling evolved with every decade and with each passing decade – music as an art form started gaining prominence. Music as an art form started engaging all the senses. Once senses got stimulated, the conveyed message – became relatable to more people.
Musical storytelling had the knack of appealing to the subconscious and compelling people to act thereby building an emotional connection. Music thus far has remained as a powerful yet invisible tool in influencing people to interpret the messaging of a brand.
From retail stores walk in experiences to tv commercials – it plays an integral part in affecting human emotions and ultimately guiding our purchase decisions.
The beautiful part is it all happens subconsciously somewhere in your brain’s gray area without buzzing you and the subtle art of marketing in some way has played its part.
Over several decades and a few centuries, we have transitioned through the evolution of storytelling. Storytelling in any form with a powerful narration that has a place and purpose historically has always registered its presence in the way we interact, observe and also the way we feel.
Social media today is a big influencer in the way each one of us is telling our story, sharing our day to day life events – it is indeed working as a time capsule for the entire mankind. We are already entering a new generation of visual and virtually augmented reality through VR and the world of MetaVerse.
What shapes up the world of Virtual Reality is a little far fetched and is a decade from now, but nevertheless it is an exciting time for marketers to pause and ponder on the plethora of mediums to choose from. To think, to evolve, to ideate and convey a powerful narrative of the brand to their audience.
Storytelling by Brands and well crafted narratives
Neuroscience has time and again proved that the human brain is wired to seek out great stories. There is something in it that likes to bake information from the past into memories and this will never change.
The above forsaken knowledge opens opportunities today and will continue to do so tomorrow for content creators and marketers. So, let’s take a look at how brand story structures have had an influence on their audience from the recent past.
How well crafted stories by marketers have cut through a cluttered marketplace and resonated with the people!
Airbnb
What started in 2013 with a couple of broke students who were running homeless; they scratched their own itch and a community for like minded individuals was born.
Airbnb was born!
The company had a simple message of “belonging” which later translated to a mission statement and their official tagline too – “ Belong Anywhere”
The co- founders wanted to create a symbol that had instant recognition and also representative of what they stood for and the logo took shape. Airbnb represents people, love at different places across the globe.
What airbnb did right!
Right from the start, they were community driven and people who were part of the community were at airbnb’s heart. They kept customers at the core and told their story through them.
They created high quality, visually appealing content and were also consistent with their posts on Youtube. High quality, user driven content with the community at its core.
Once the community started taking shape, user generated content spread across social and specifically across Instagram.
Now, Airbnb hosts Airbnb Open and celebrates the house hosts as the central part of its business.
Their Secret Sauce: “ Community driven Customers ”
Dollar Shave Club
Micheal Dublin – the Dollar Shave ad guy; firmly believed that if he could post blades to consumers at lower price and quality worth it – there is an empire to build.
Creating disruption in an industry where global FMCG brands like Gillette had a huge presence with an unending marketing budget must not have been easy.
All it took was one ad that was way more organically appealing to the end user.
Dublin had a background in marketing prior to starting Dollar Shave Club – and of course that helped when he posted his first video – which would change the face of viral video marketing forever.
Reports suggest it took $4500 to make and the success was huge. The company’s server crashed and they had 12000 orders that very day, on the very first day.
What Dollar Shave Club did right!
All it took was a simple idea, some product based innovation and a viral video.
Dollar Shave Club worked to solve the issue behind how terrible an experience can be of buying a razor.
It sold something customized to the needs of a regular blade user.
To top it all off, a delightful customer experience while delivering the blade boxes. Their packaging is minimal and the brand message screams out too.
Their Secret Sauce: “ Delight your customers ”
Old Spice
Old Spice, the age-old brand, faced the problem that the product is for old age people. There came a time when it only had an appeal for the 40-60 year old men.
It took some good analytics and some bold advertising for Procter & Gamble (P&G) to redefine the branding strategy for Old Spice.
Back in 2010, their market research team was soon to discover that 60% of their body wash was purchased by women.
Old Spice was able to set sail once again – this time onboarding the women on their ship. Their tagline “ The Man your Man could Smell Like” gained prominence.
What Old Spice did right!
What’s genius about their marketing strategy is – instead of approaching the young and millennial generation – for a brand that was positioned for Grandpa’s they turned their ship around.
The guy in the Old Spice ad directly appeals to the ladies who hold the purchasing decision for their household.
The ad is subtle and in no way over promises anything.
Their Secret Sauce: “ Targeted New Set of Audience ”
As the old adage goes: “ Facts tell, stories sell”.
Brand Storytelling is an art and the best advertising brands portray a relatable hero who shows how using a product or service positively changes their life for the better.
“Signing off, with the beginning – 50 Years of Nike“
Sometimes, to tell better stories, all that a brand needs to do is listen!
“Tell a relevant, targeted, transparent story, and the whole world will share it.”
Randall Lane
