Help Brands Tell Stories, Not Facts
By Levina Kusumadjaja
I used to think that brand stories are stories about how a certain brand came to be.
I used to think that writing brand stories meant writing a more elegant and flowery kind of company profile or history. So my clients would tell me about the history of the company, their milestones and timeline, their products... and all the boring elements of the brand. And then I would “decorate” those information with “elegant” words so that the brand looks and sounds expensive. I used to spend a lot of time looking up synonyms in a Thesaurus just to find the right words. Fortunately, fast forward years later, I’m now learning that it's not the case. This wasn’t a good brand story at all.
Good stories don’t just inform the audience, but connect with the audience.
What I used to do was write facts. I used put together all the different facts that the company shared to me, and somehow tie them into a paragraph or two. It wasn’t a bad paragraph at all. It’s just that it didn't connect with the audience. It didn’t speak at a personal and emotional level to the customers. So, those paragraphs really didn’t do anything to the business. Because customers want to know why they should believe in the brand, they aren’t interested to know all the different accomplishments of the brand.
Take Nike for example. I don’t know all the specs and tech that Nike used for their shoes. I don’t remember and I don’t bother to research. What I do remember about Nike is that they want people to feel invincible and that their core message is to “Just Do It”. Nike kept telling this story of “Just Do It” over and over and over again, to the point that I begin inserting myself into their narrative. I didn’t need Nike to tell me all about the specifications of their shoes. I just feel more empowered the moment I put on a pair of Nike shoes. The facts behind Nike shoes didn’t shape how I felt about Nike. I felt the way I felt because of the story Nike has been consistently telling the world for so many years.
Presenting facts won’t benefit the brand because facts don't connect, stories do.
What customers want to experience is to find a little bit of themselves in the brand story. They want to feel like they have something in common with the brand. It’s like getting to know someone. The more you feel like they get you and they understand you, the more you would want to be with that person. The more customers feel like the brand loves what the customers love, do what the customers do, and believe in what the customers believe, customer will want to commit with the brand even more.
This connection cannot be built based on facts. This connection is build through something way more personal than facts. When brands want communicate a certain fact or message through a story, it will stick more in the minds of customers. It’s easier for customers to insert themselves in those stories and retell the story over and over again. This is the kind of story that you—brand strategists—should be thinking about when you work with brands. Your goal is to help brands find ways to tell their stories in ways that connect with customers. Don’t waste your time on facts, spend your energy and focus on stories instead.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!