A brand story is a narrative that communicates a brand’s identity, values, and purpose.
It includes history, mission, promise, customer stories, and defining experiences. While design elements like logos and colours are important, a compelling story binds everything together.
Your brand’s success depends on how well you create and communicate this story.
A brand story might seem like a superfluous marketing tactic used by large companies. However, even for SMEs, a brand story is crucial for successful branding.
Research shows 55% of consumers are willing to purchase if they like a brand story. In Malaysia’s competitive market, a unique brand story is essential for success.
How Do I Craft a Compelling Brand Story?
A brand story shares similarities with fictional stories but also has key differences. Here are essential points to consider when crafting your brand story.
1. Define Your Audience
As with any other marketing endeavour, understanding your audience is key when crafting a brand story.
Knowing your audience helps define and refine your brand’s message. Understanding their interests, behaviours, values, and preferences equips you to create meaningful content.
Frame brand messaging through engaging stories that resonate with your target customer base.
As such, you can cultivate a connection between them and your brand.
2. Have A Brand Story Arc
A brand story arc is an effective way to convey a brand’s narrative to its audience.
A brand story comprises three parts: the beginning, middle, and end. Together, these create a unified vision or corporate identity for the brand.
The beginning introduces the brand, explaining what it stands for and why it matters.
The middle conveys the brand’s core message and builds on this idea with new developments.
Finally, the end ties everything together by drawing on the brand’s history and aspirations for the future, completing its story arc.
When crafted carefully, such a narrative can not only inform but also inspire customers, helping brands make deeper connections with their audiences.
Take a look at WWF-Malaysia’s About Us page. It starts with information about its establishment in 1972 before going into its works and mission statement.
It ends with the brand vision of going forward with a team of people with shared values.
3. Relatability and Resonance
If you want your brand to be truly successful, it’s vital to craft a story that is both relatable and engaging.
This ties in together with defining your audience. Your data on your target audience gives you insight into how to craft a relatable, engaging brand story.
A relatable brand story helps customers feel connected with you emotionally, making them remember your brand long after the initial interaction.
To keep pumping out relatable, engaging content, creating your brand story should be an ongoing process.
Employ methods such as customer feedback, competitors research, attending events, and monitoring social media discourse.
Focusing on brand stories that mean something to your customers fosters brand loyalty and further strengthens the connection between brand and consumer.
Incorporate your brand personality to make your story more authentic. People can only relate to something original and genuine.
If you have heard of Dutch Lady’s “Strong Me, Stronger Us” campaign, you know what an excellent brand story looks like.
The brand tells how Dutch Lady milk nourishes all walks of life in Malaysia. While the brand story mentioned the product, it nonetheless focused on the target audience.
With advertisements of real-life figures who shared their stories, Dutch Lady successfully incorporated its audience into its brand story, hence its high relatability.
4. Use Descriptive Language
A brand story, like your favourite story, should be as descriptive as possible.
Writing brand stories that draw readers in requires using vivid, descriptive language.
A brand story should transport the reader to the world of the brand—its people, mission, and values. To captivate an audience, storytellers must creatively evoke emotions and memories through descriptions that appeal to all five senses.
As the saying goes—show, don’t tell.
It is important to choose words that create images in mind and encourage readers to engage with the brand.
The more descriptive language you use when crafting your brand story, the more powerful an impact it will have on your readers.
5. Keep It Concise
In the world of brand storytelling, keeping it concise and straightforward can be a daunting task.
Communicating your brand story in a few words and actions while creating an impactful message is challenging. However, effectively conveying information through minimalism is key to successful brand storytelling.
Unlike reading a fictional story, a brand story needs an attention-getter to engage your audience.
If your brand story is hard to digest due to complex language and structure, their attention will quickly fade. While challenging, keeping it brief ensures your brand story is communicated effectively.
6. Edit, Edit, & Edit
Editing your brand story ruthlessly can mean the difference between success and failure.
Every brand should fully understand its unique story and commit to using words, images, and sounds that align with it to ensure consistency across all platforms.
Remove anything that does not directly contribute to the brand story without hesitation, as unnecessary elements can detract from its authenticity or brand identity.
As brand storytelling is an ongoing process, you may miss recent information, leading to an outdated brand story.
Keep the aforementioned steps in mind while editing.
Weave Your Brand Story
Having a brand story could effectively create a connection between you and your audience.
Want to craft a unique brand story to engage your audience? Contact our branding specialists at Walk Production to learn how to further engage your audience through brand story.
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