In the marketing business, one of the fundamental steps that you need to take is making a brand for your business. What will make you stand out in your business and what makes you distinguished is your brand. Your customers need a reason to buy from you, and one of the reasons you can give them is throughout your brand. There are many brands in a business, and if you want to have a successful business, you must make your brand stand out. What you can do to make your brand distinct from other brands is to strengthen your brand.
What Is Storytelling in Marketing
There are many ways that you can make your brand stand out and many reasons you can give to people, so they choose you instead of other brands. Methods such as advertising, creating a different shopping experience, etc. One of the best methods which will help you to make your brand distinguished from others is using a story. Storytelling is a great way that affects customers and creates an effective impression in their minds.
In this article, we will be showing you how you can use storytelling in marketing. We will also be giving you some examples of big companies using different stories for advertising and strengthening their brands so you can learn from them. At the end of this article, you will know how to use a great tale to improve your business.
Since we all were little children till now that we have grown up, we heard many stories and learned many good things from them. When we were kids, people would tell us different tales to teach us about the life ahead of us. Most of the narratives we hear have a message in them. That is what makes each story a unique story. Simply, the art of storytelling is sending a message throughout a story.
Why Is Storytelling Important in Marketing
We already mentioned what stories are and how they connect people to the storyteller. A listener or a reader can understand a story and evaluate it. Brands and companies use stories in their advertisements to show people how their products or services will add more value to their customers.
There are many reasons why storytelling is crucial for marketing. Here are some of the most important ones:
- Good storytelling will help your brand to connect better with people.
- Despite advertising, you can build more trust with your customers with storytelling.
- Your business gets more engaged with customers.
- With a good story, you can connect your content.
- If you have a vision or a perspective, you can share it with a story. Knowing your point of view will help people to have a better understanding of your brand.
- A story can distinguish you from other competitors and give people a reason to buy from you instead of a different brand.
- You can get your brand more popular with a story. If your story is good, people will promote your brand and talk about it more.
Have you ever been attracted by a story from a brand?
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How to Use Storytelling Effectively
If you want to use storytelling to strengthen your brand, you need to have a good story to cover all aspects of a good story. There are some principles that you need to implement in your fiction that help you achieve the elements we talked about earlier. Here are some basic principles that you need to put in your story.
Every pleasant story that we remember from our childhood, we remember it by its protagonist. The main character is what gives the narrative a face and makes it relatable. The main characters are like the bridges in a story that connects the story to the audience. Characters in a story should be defined and simple to understand, and if they are, they will leave an impression in the audience's mind. ScreenCraft explains how you can develop a protagonist or the main character.
Storytellers revolve a story around the main character, and because of that, a unique protagonist that can backup your narrative is very valuable. Later on in this article, we will show you examples where the main character plays a key role in the story.
A way to attract people is with a hook. Just like most things, a story should attract people to itself too. Instead of using all the good elements for the end, have them at the start so you can attract people and make them listen to the rest of your story. One of the best ways to do this is by having a great title. Your title must be attractive and short. You can see an everyday example of this in advertisements on the internet. For instance, instead of saying "How to become successful with affiliate marketing", use "Make $500 per day with affiliate marketing". You can see examples of hooks like this, commonly on Youtube.
Look at how people on Youtube trying to attract people with a hook.
- Create Conflict in Your story
If your story is straightforward, it may not engage the audience that much. Most stories that we remember are the stories in which the main character goes through many problems before reaching their goal. There are a lot of ways you can create a conflict in your story. One of them is GMCD that an author called Cathy Yardley uses. The GMCD method contains 4 elements:
- Goal: The goal is what the main character wants to achieve
- Motivation: The main character needs a reason to get to their goal. If you are using stories for advertising a product, use the properties of your merchandise as a motivation.
- Conflict: Conflicts are obstacles that stand in the way of the main character and stop them from reaching the goal.
- Disaster (the result): The outcome of the conflict you created in your story. There are 3possible outcomes:
- Your main character does not achieve what they want.
- Your main character does not achieve what they want, and something worse happens.
- The main character achieves what they want, but they lose something else in return.
When you want to use storytelling in the marketing world, you need to have your customers or users as the main character. After that, you need to create a problem and resolve that problem with your product. In this way, when other people see your story, they will value it because your product solved a problem and valued someone's life.
At first, the main character needs to fail. You can make your main character slip by creating obstacles on their way. This is the perfect time to introduce your product. When the protagonist meets your product and service, and with the help of your brand, the protagonist can pass the obstacles and get to their goals.
- Give Your Stories Authenticity
Usually, people enjoy experiencing new things or hear stories that they have not heard before. Your story must be unique, something that others have not heard anything like. If you steal an idea from somewhere that does not belong to you, that story will not turn out well. People can tell the difference between a lie and something that comes from your heart, so do not try to give them something that is not originally for you.
In your story, you must show your audiences what your brand is. A narrative should reflect your brand and its meaning. If you believe that what you are saying about your brand is true, people will have an easier time connecting to your story.
If you want your story to be successful, you need to make it easy to understand. Instead of focusing on a lot of things, try focusing on one problem that your brand can solve. Try saving solving that problem for the last parts of your story. In the end, we must mention that a story is not a selling advertisement, and your central focus must be connecting with customers instead of selling a product. When you do a valid job at connecting with your customers, that will lead to successful branding.
Dannijo is a good example of a brand that uses authentic stories to improve their brand. You can see an example in this YouTube video.
Best Examples of Storytelling By Different Brands
Now you know how you can use storytelling to strengthen your marketing brand. We introduced you to the principles of story writing and how you can use various methods to create a pleasant narrative for your audiences. Now, it is time we show you some examples of different brands that use storytelling effectively.
If you pay attention to these examples, you will learn many things from them. You might know some of these brands and some of their story. This shows how important storytelling is for marketing. Here are 10excellent examples of companies and marketers using storytelling.
Google Searches in the Year 2019
One of the best examples of storytelling is Google searches in 2019. Google launched a campaign that shows the search results that people made in 2019 about heroes. This campaign took everyday searches and connected them into a theme about heroes such as people with a superpower. The main goal of this story was to tell other people that everyone can be a hero.
With this move, Google told us stories about the searches we do every day. Google showed that the searches you make mean more than just a simple search, and they are a part of a bigger world. This story will help people to connect better with Google by valuing searches.
The New York Public Library Embracing New Technologies
It has been some time now that the New York public library started putting classic stories on their story highlight section of Instagram. The stories have animations and illustrations, and they are friendly to users. You can pause reading by holding the screen. This example of storytelling shows that you can combine classic fiction with technology.
You can see from this example that the older brands can embrace technology in their storytelling to please their audiences. Always try new things and new strategies.
Gillette: The Best Man Can Be
The main focus of this story from Gillette was to suggest it is time for men to become better because they are an example for the next generation. The story takes the slogan of Gillette, which is "The best a man can get," and shows how men can be better by stopping absent and toxic behavior.
Gillette points out a social issue in this story and gets a lot of support for it. This shows if you stand against a social concern, people will appreciate your brand as a supporter for a better life. With this kind of storytelling, people will know that your brand cares about their life and will value your concern.
Generation Lockdown March For Our Lives
Based on the information from March For Our Lives, about %95 of the kids who go to school learn how to deal with active shooters. Generation Lockdown tells us about this fact by telling a story about a young girl who teaches adults about active shooter drills. This story received the award of Grand Prix at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The story voiced many kids who were involved with active shootings in their schools.
This example shows us that the story that we tell does not need to be fictional. Sometimes real-life stories can connect people better to your brand because the problems are real.
Renault Clio: 30 Years in the Making
For the 30th anniversary of Renault, they celebrate their anniversary by showing a love story from 30 years ago. The story is about two women falling in love with each other. This story shows us how our culture has changed since 30 years ago and supports one of the communities that exist today. The community of LGBT+ appreciated this video and supported it.
One of the best times you can tell a story about your brand is your anniversaries. You can look back and tell people a story about how things have changed from the day you started your brand. You can show them how the culture has changed. For instance, in this story, we see how the LGBT+ community has changed over the past 30 years.
SickKids VS: This Is Why
The SickKids hospital in Canada tried to raise $1.3 million to renew their facility. They created a video that tells a story about the situation of their facility. They have managed to raise nearly $600 million so far.
A great story for your brand should answer W questions such as why, Where, When, Who, and what. You can do this by showing your viewers or telling them about your situation and how you help other people.
Disneyland Paris The Little Duck
We all know how Disney is astounding at telling stories. In this story, we see a duck that stumbles upon a storybook about Donald Duck and gets inspired by him, and one day, the little duck finally meets him. This story is an advertisement and shows people how Disney characters are inspiring for children and how happy they will be for seeing their favorite character.
This video is an excellent example of a storytelling advertisement. A story can have a huge emotional impact, and with that, it shows the reliable experience that your customers get from your brand.
IKEA — Improve Your Private Life
In IKEA's story, we witness how a sense of humor helps you in your storytelling. This video shows a private life of a couple that encounters many problems in their life (Conflict) and how they solve their problem with IKEA's products. This is also an example of real-life problems and their solutions.
In this story, IKEA gets personal with their audience. Do not be afraid of doing that. You can use your sense of humor to make your story more interesting, but remember to stand with the values of your brand.
How Warby Parker Makes Their Glasses
Warby Parker is an eyewear company, and in this story, they show their audiences how they make their products. From designing to choosing materials, they explain their whole process step by step. Through this story of how they make their glasses, people will learn many things about them and get to know them better. They have also managed to make around $250 million through their sales.
People will learn about the culture of a brand from this story. You can show your audiences what goes behind the scene. If they know about these things, they can trust you more easily.
BACARDÍ Presents the Sound of Rum: Dancehall Kings & Queens
This is a story that shows the culture of Jamaican people with the help of music.
People are interested in learning about different cultures around the world. Sharing a story that shows other people how culture works is a great way that you can connect with your audiences.
Conclusion
In this article, we talked about storytelling in the world of marketing. We showed you how to create a story that will help your brand to stand out. Now, you know the principles of storytelling for marketing, and you can create your own story. There are more examples that you can study and learn from their storytelling. Now that you know how they work, you can analyze them and see what techniques they are using.
