The sun peaks over a narrow horizon. Early birds sing you awake from slumber and serenade the final yawns of last night’s sleep. But there’s something to do before thinking of the day ahead. Something to brew. 

You enter the kitchen as the aches of time awaken your body. You smile when you see it: Dark Roast, Premium Blend. 

You unclasp the seal and lift the bag to your nose–one big breath. The sensations of wakefulness ignite you. 

Hello world, you think. Good morning.

Stories have been a powerful way for us to connect for centuries. They can transport us to another time and place, make us laugh, cry, and ponder greater things. In the world of marketing, storytelling can be an unparalleled tool in building brand awareness, reaching audiences, and driving sales. 

When done well, storytelling creates strong bonds with the audience, fostering impenetrable brand loyalty, voracious engagement, and endless purchases. 

In this article, we’ll explore the power of storytelling in branding and marketing, and provide useful tips on how to use it effectively.

Benefits of Storytelling

As mentioned above, storytelling is an excellent way to establish relationships with potential customers. It allows you to define what your brand should mean to an audience while instilling in them a feeling of closeness and connection. 

This also gives you the ability to define your brand in the customer’s mind–creating a Pavlovian desire that only your brand can truly satisfy.

Additionally, effective storytelling can…

Build Brand Awareness

When people hear an impactful story that moves them, the story sticks in their minds. As it relates to your business, an effective story can make your brand more memorable by stirring strong emotions. This is because well told stories connect with us on a subconscious level. When we’re emotionally invested in a brand, we talk about it.

Well told stories create real connections with customers. When they hear about or engage with a product or service that they know, they’re more likely to feel like they understand what the brand stands for and the idea they’re personally investing in. This can lead to strong bonds between brand and consumer. Those bonds are rarely broken.

Good storytelling can also drive sales by persuading new customers to purchase your product or service. If you see or hear a strong story about how a brand has impacted others and can positively impact you, you’re more likely to buy from them. A good story creates trust. This trust can grow into credibility, as long as your business delivers on the promises made. 

That credibility invites customers to spread the word.

Connecting with Customers

Connecting with an audience involves more than simply making them feel good. A good story also expresses that your brand understands their hopes, needs, dreams, desires, and experiences. The right story develops a relationship with its audience and encourages their return. 

Here are some examples of brands that have effectively used storytelling to connect with their customers:

Coca-Cola 

Coca-Cola tells stories about happiness and togetherness. These stories help associate Coca-Cola with positive and social feelings. For example, their “Share a Coke” campaign, which encourages generosity and speaks to friendship, family, and building relationships. The messaging here is happiness and growth as a community.

Tide 

Tide tells us stories about the importance of clean clothes. On a deeper level, it speaks to love. Their advertisements rely on light situational humor that many of us have experienced as the parent, the child, the spouse, or other loved one. In addition to brightening our day, we feel a sense of joyful nostalgia, prideful commitment, and/or purpose as a caring human being. 

Old Spice 

Old Spice tells us stories about the importance of masculinity and confidence. The brand leverages over-the-top humor and self-deprecation to speak to the male ego. Whether it’s the Terry Crews driven “Make a Smellmitment” campaign, which leverages irreverent slapstick or their more recent  “Men Have Skin, Too!” campaign, which elevates relatable drama and social awkwardness-–the brand disarms us with humor while quietly offering to relieve insecurity.

All of these brands use unique storytelling techniques to attract and retain their core audiences, while subtly offering solutions for new customers. 

Well told stories persuade us to engage with products and services by establishing emotional connections that fulfill our subconscious desires–even if we didn’t know we had them. They connect with the individual and drive sales by creating hope, need, satisfaction, tribal association, social affiliation, and ultimately, commitment.

All of these qualities strengthen a brand.

Developing a Story for Your Brand

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Relevant to the target audience

Your messaging, storytelling style, and tone should speak clearly to the audience that you’re trying to reach. Before developing an idea or setting sail with some whirlwind tale, take the time to consider who you’re speaking to, what they need or desire, and how your product or service fulfills those needs and desires.

Authentic

In the age of social media and infinite content, the average person has grown adept at spotting fakeness and inauthenticity from miles away. When considering your approach, ensure that there’s some truth at the heart of your messaging. You don’t want to force ideas or promise solutions that your product or service simply can’t deliver on.

Engaging

No one likes to be bored. Make sure that the stories you tell have some hook or angle that will keep your audience invested in what you have to say and interested in the messaging you’re elaborating on. A good smell test is to consider whether or not the story would entice, excite, and hold your own attention.

Here are some additional tips to keep in mind when crafting your stories:

• Use strong visual messaging to tell your story
• Make stories personal and relatable
• Use humor to make your stories more engaging
• Get creative and experiment with different storytelling techniques.

The Quick Roast

Storytelling is an immensely powerful tool that can be used to great effect in your branding, marketing, and marketing campaigns. By following the tips in this article, you can use storytelling to build your brand, connect with customers, drive sales, and create brand loyalty that lasts a lifetime.

When you tell an effective story, you create a brand that is more immersive, memorable, relatable, and engaging to the audience.