Brand Storytelling Framework
To build brand storytelling, marketers need to set up the purpose, objectives, problems, and conflicts, assign heroes and villains, convey the story plot climax, and then close with a satisfying ending to a narrative tailored to customer perception. In the consumer's mind, a simple frustration is a recognizable villain of evil. The brand storytelling may start with faulty products, like cold coffee, melted ice cream, lousy customer service, a lengthy purchasing process, or unjustified higher prices. All the story characters need a name, identity, and recognition. The victim and the hero are the customers whose brand must resolve their problems and make them satisfied and comfortable. When telling brand storytelling, customers’ difficulties are apparent, and the escalation events will end with a brand's solution. Let "villains" come from the audience’s perspective, so they recognize themselves as heroes. A brand product or service would act as the hero’s guide in the consumer's struggle for a satisfying happy ending solution that ends their problems and frustration.
Brand storytelling must be remarkable, emotional, and authentic to inspire the customers to push them to consider buying a brand and keep them as loyal fans. A brand must help them step further towards their dream and feel they are not alone because both fight for the same values and cause. Building stories around a brand helps the audience remain connected with it. For example, Maersk is a giant Danish transport and logistics company. Its Instagram page has over 236,000 followers, dedicated to the staff’s pictures and videos of shipping vessels and shipping containers. Shipping containers! Yes! Strangely enough, yes! Its community is highly engaged, and not only on Instagram. It has millions of fans on its Facebook page, several highly active LinkedIn groups that debate industry trends and several other social media channels to connect with its niche audience.
In his book "Building a StoryBrand," Donald Miller mentioned a remarkable story about the evolution of Apple towards becoming a consumer-centric innovative brand. In 1983, Apple launched its computer, Lisa, with a nine-page ad in the New York Times showing its technical features. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple after running Pixar, the animation movie company, Apple became customer-centric, compelling, and transparent in their communication. The first campaign ad for Jobs was nine pages long and appeared in the New York Times. In 2007, the campaign message flipped 180 degrees to just two words on billboards all over America: "Think Different". When Apple started changing its communication to make it relevant and straightforward, it stopped featuring computers in most of its advertising. The customer is the hero in Apple's story. Customers do not buy the best products; they buy the products they can easily and quickly understand. Apple has inserted itself into their customers’ story like no other technology company, and as a result, they are in the top ten most significant tech companies in 2021.
Brand Storytelling Examples - The Values and Culture of Ace Hardware
To apply brand storytelling concepts, marketers can create stories around the customer using the brand. A story about why a brand was created and for what purpose, or a story about how a brand helped customers to change their lives for the better. Marketers can create a story about how a brand is disrupting the business environment for better consumer advantage. A brand is fighting the monopoly of other competitors who would not change their direction. Brands can tell the stories of staff and employees to emphasize a corporate culture and values. A story about dedicated employees, their motivation, and their passion for working for the brand.
On their website, Ace hardware states that they believe everyone has a story to tell. If you go through their website and social media accounts, you will be amazed at how many stories they tell around their brand, loyal consumers, and employees. They ask everyone interested to submit a story using the hashtag #HeartwareStories. One of the remarkable stories they posted about their longest working employee, Wally, from Miner’s Ace in California. Wally has been working at the company since 1958. The ninety-year-old Wally appeared in a YouTube video to discuss why he comes back to work each day for over 60 years. The story gives a sentiment of high emotions and dedication of a loyal employee who has a passion for both his job and employer, which is exceedingly rare in our current days.
Brand Storytelling Examples - Allstate Ad Commerical in The Sugar Bowl 2015
In 2015, during the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, Allstate, the Insurance company, and the advertising agency Leo Burnett launched a campaign highlighting the risks of over-sharing location sign-in posts on social media. The story aimed to make people aware that sharing their whereabouts on social media might tip off criminals when burglarizing their homes. Allstate found a real couple to announce the project and led them to believe they had won a prize. First, they visited the couple in their home, secretly taking pictures of their household items and duplicating their belongings. Next, they invited the couple to attend the Sugar Bowl and were given their private box. Then, Mayhemsale.com began auctioning off the couple’s belongings on national television during the game. People were directed to Mayhemsale.com for bargain-basement prices on everything the couples used. As the couple watched their possessions being sold on the big screens at the game, they panicked. Hidden cameras caught their reactions and broadcast them on live television. Of course, the couple’s actual possessions were safe. The campaign agitated fear in many Americans. U.S. news outlets, including ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, covered the story. Suddenly, the threat of criminals walking into homes as people announce distant whereabouts on social media became a U.S. national fear. The happy ending of a story was that Mayhemsale.com received 6,000 to 10,000 hits per second immediately following each commercial. The site received over 18 million hits during the game. Also, #Mayhemsale trended in the top ten hashtags during the game, and immediately after the commercials aired, surged to number one worldwide. Mayhem’s Twitter followers increased by 24,000 during the game, and the first commercial of the campaign resulted in over 20 million impressions on Facebook and almost 70,000 likes. Allstate had foreshadowed a potential failure for their customers during one football game. It sold insurance, protecting them, opening a story loop, and offering to close it in a single campaign.
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