5 Reasons Why You Should Have an Interesting Brand Story
Building your brand story is more than just establishing what your business is and what it does. Your company is more than just a product and a service.
The goal of a brand story is to connect with your audience and come together with a collective focus that people feel strongly about. You are selling yourself as well as your service.
Whether you are building your brand story through advertising, social media, or word of mouth, what does your target audience feel about what you are trying to do? Success can be built on great brand stories.
From Budweiser to Zappos, larger than life businesses focus on creating a story.
Here are three companies with interesting brand stories and five reasons you should have one too:
- Beats by Dre
- Nike
- Goldie Blox
Establishing Great Brand Stories
As you start to construct your own brand narrative, it’s a good idea to see how other successful companies have made a name for themselves. How do these brands establish their products and connect to their audiences?
Beats by Dre focuses on bringing authentic excitement and quality back to the listening experience. Founded by Dre himself, the iconic rapper was inspired to create a listening device to meet his own personal standards when no other product was available. He took advantage of a big market opportunity, used his influence and personal investment, and sold his product to Apple.
Nike, on the other hand, builds its brand focused on telling the story of sports rather than just selling gear. Whether they have a commercial about Michael Jordan’s career, Colin Kaepernick’s struggles, or their work with charity donations, they focus on the human aspect of sports to make a lasting impression.
The newcomer, GoldieBlox, featured its brand story in a Super Bowl ad. This company’s goal is to focus on a bigger conversation topic: girls bored with “girl toys.” With a goal to encourage more young ladies to take an interest in engineering as well as support a growing number of girls with a passion for STEM education, this brand establishes an audience with a growing collective.
After observing these three examples, here are a few common themes that make the brand story crucial for establishing good business.
5. Brand Story Inspires!
Whether it’s a personal mission to make quality gear or something that inspires generations of athletes to “Just do it,” brand stories are a way to motivate others and stir possible connections.
It is incredibly difficult to build up a customer base without a common ground. It is not enough to have a product. What personal interest or goals do you have for your business and how will that help your community? Like with GoldieBlox, the intent is to create an interest in a budding concept.
4. Background and Expertise
Your business should start from a place where your background and expertise are top-notch. With authority and focus on a specific area, you can show your personal growth and connect on that level. Like with Beats by Dre, you want to establish yourself as an authority on the subject and sell your dedication to your service or product. The mission is more than selling; it’s helping develop your market for future generations.
3. You are invested.
Nike is no stranger to controversy; they also own their choices as a brand. They invest in their campaigns, whether backing a particular athlete or by making public donations. What kind of company are you building? Your brand story isn’t just telling the story of your company.
It’s a reflection of your personal journey and how much you’ve invested into the market. Show pride in your accomplishments and spread your story via social media, personal branding, or by word of mouth. The more passion you exude, the more others will catch the fire.
2. Establishes a Human Connection
When a business gets so big, it is hard to put a human face on it. So many brands are out of touch with their customers and that could cause some serious damage. Why would anyone want to support a big corporation like Nike, or a successful musician like Dre?
Additionally, why should we give money to an unknown company like GoldieBlox? The answer is the personal connection these companies have with us through their brand stories. Whether it’s an interest in athletics, sports stories, feeling the music, or being the first girl in your family to graduate with an engineering degree, brand storytelling builds a compelling human connection.
1. You’re selling more than just a product or service.
Regardless of the product and service you provide, you are selling yourself to the consumers. As the owner of your business, whatever transaction transpires is taking a part of you and casting it out into the world. Your brand story builds with every customer interaction, blog post, and social media selfie on your business’s behalf.
You are the future of your market. As times change and tastes evolve, brand storytelling is crucial for growing and staying the test of time. You’re selling more than just a product; you are establishing your legacy.
