When most people think of branding, they tend to confuse it with advertising. The crucial difference being that advertising is about selling products, while branding is about selling the story behind those products. And therein lies the keyword: "story".
It's been an exciting past few years for creatives. With Gen Z entering the workforce, technology and communications being forever changed with the maturing of old social media apps (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and the advent of new ones (TikTok, Discord), brand marketing has undergone a revolution. One that centers inspirational storytelling as the way to showcase who you are to your audience.
All organizations would do well to take notice of these prevailing trends and allow their creatives the leeway they need to bring their stories to life. Forget about the "hard sell". It's an obsolete tactic and will earn you nothing but disdain from audiences who don't have the patience for anything that doesn't engage them. The challenge is how to make them hear it again with a fresh take.
The visibility that social media has granted businesses has basically guaranteed that there isn't a single product or message out there that your target audience hasn't already heard of. The goal is make them feel like they're hearing it for the first time again.
All originality stems from authenticity and it's felt most strongly from a storytelling format.
Society in general has become numb to advertising precisely because it's everywhere.
On our social feeds, before and in between our Youtube videos and in the middle of our mobile games. We don't like them because we don't like being interrupted, which is why many of us opt for ad-blockers. What we do like however, is to be intrigued.
In a world engulfed with information, we yearn to be captivated. We want a hook that will snag our attention away from the endless scrolling and make us feel something. Only the power of storytelling can do that.
The question that should be preoccupying companies isn't "How should we sell this?", but "How do we make people vibe with us?".
Let's go through a few brand storytelling methods and strategies that can help you captivate your audiences.
This isn't necessarily in the cards for every organization, but for those whom it is, if you have the budget don't hesitate to spend it on a good animation studio.
The best quality that animated storytelling offers is in how it's already a medium that's popularly perceived as fun and engaging. Effortlessly winning half the battle when it comes to appeal.
It's also effective due to its versatility. Contrary to popular opinion, animation isn't a genre, but a medium. You could tell comedic, romantic or tragic stories while still being to reach all audiences.
Here's a great example.
Entitled "Love Story", by Fiz Animation, it was commissioned by Chipotle to promote themselves.
Why did it work so well?
Because nobody knew it was an ad right up until the last few seconds. Within just over four minutes, pushing no products, Chipotle was able to tell its audiences all about its brand.
The message was subtle, but felt: 'We are farm-to-table. Our ingredients are always fresh. We stand for small enterprises against larger, unhealthy, competitors' .
The aim of branding is to make selling redundant and that's exactly what this video did.
This one's tricky.
Emphasizing tragedy is about creating an effective cautionary tale that moves your audience towards your product or service. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. And one that should be approached very carefully.
Using tragedy as a centerpiece of brand storytelling is usually done by NGOs and charities to elicit attention or donations for a worthy cause. These organizations get a pass to make liberal use of tragedy to promote themselves because they are non-profit and serving a noble purpose. Not everyone can, or should, do the same without coming off as incredibly insensitive.
If your organization is involved in a product or service that allows for depicting some tragedy, be subtle with the emphasis. Bad news doesn't always sell. Especially not to a millennial or Gen Z crowd that likely sees it all the time on their feeds and tries to avoid anything too depressing.
A good example to follow in this respect would be Thai Life Insurance and their brand of "sadvertising".
Life insurance itself is a service tinged with strong sentiments, but if your goal is to hit those same pressure points, you should still take a page out of Thai Life Insurance's playbook.
Check out two of their most well known videos, "Unsung Hero" and "The Silence of Love".
In both those commercials, tragedy was a present and powerful theme, but never the ultimate message. Rather it was used to showcase emotive storytelling that emphasized compassion, social welfare and family. All part of Life Insurance's "brand".
With a whopping 90 MILLION VIEWS(!) from Unsung Hero alone, it's an understatement to say TLI touched a nerve. Their films have even gone so far as to be recognized at the Cannes Film Festival. Successfully putting them first and foremost in the minds of their target audiences and beyond.
They did so by embracing "emotional advertising" and understanding that brand recognition could only come with messaging that resonated with brand values. In this case, a heartfelt approach for a sympathetic service.
This is both strategy and principle.
It bears mentioning again that the 21st century marketplace is an incredibly crowded space. Social media feeds bombard their audiences with ever more engaging and enlightening content. As a matter of fact, it's a safe bet that whatever new marketing strategy you've just come up with, someone else is already implementing.
In the face of this challenge, some may be tempted to go the easy route and start copying others or jumping on fads that have very little to do with your brand just for the sake of cheap exposure.
Do NOT do that.
All that will lead to is the erosion of any kind of carefully curated brand image you had for your target audiences. Your brand will become indistinguishable from the rest of the noise on social media and worthy of nothing but a Mute button.
What you need to do is stay authentic. Remember, authenticity doesn't have to mean revolutionary. The originality of your idea stems from how you execute it, not from who had it first.
All brands are unique because each business or organization was built under different circumstances by different sets of people. Your goal should be to articulate the brand values that were developed along your specific journey and weave it into a captivating narrative that resonates with people.
This is where the big questions come in.
"What do you want your brand to represent?"
"Who is this brand for?"
"What value do you offer your clients that others don't?"
Everyone has different answers, but make no mistake. They will become the moral compass of your organization and the prime selling point of your business. Be certain of the answers.
If you're having trouble finding any answers at all to those questions, then you don't yet have a brand. And without that, your organization has no strategy beyond being guided by sales projections and jumping on the next big trend for some popular traction. That's not something anyone can empathize with.
Your brand is your story and that story can only be successfully told to the world if you believe in it yourself. Without an emphasis on your humanity, you get no visibility.
Thank you for reading our piece. We hope it was useful for you. If you're interested in upskilling yourself or your team, click on any of the recommended courses below for more information.
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