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Steta Publishers was a writing and brand language consultancy that ran from 2012 to 2016. We are no longer available for projects. Our founders now work here and here. 

Why do we need brand stories?

10/7/2014

6 Comments

 
There are a million or more brands out there. What makes one more heart-warming than the rest? It tells you a story.

We humans are genetically coded to love stories. Our ancestors sat around the fire, telling stories of gods and devils, good and evil, animals on the hunt, and so on. Many of us have grown up listening to stories. These could be the countless Indian mythological / historical tales, Aesop’s fables, fairy tales, or any other example. Every culture on earth has a trove of stories. The simplest nursery rhymes are stories. Even Jack and Jill went up the hill, filled their pail of water and came back down.

Why do stories work so well? 
  • They make dry, uninteresting facts interesting. 
  • They make boring, moral lessons fun. 
  • By telling us about something, they reveal a deeper truth about something else. 
  • By describing someone’s experience, they lead us to introspect and sometimes, a realisation about ourselves occurs. 
  • Stories can inspire us, gladden our hearts, or challenge our belief systems.

Brand stories are a great way to get close to customers/users. When we were asked to write something about bread, we decided that bread should get the love it deserves. Few have given bread a chance to tell its own story.

Stories also spread faster than mundane statements like ‘our bread is amazing’. Customers of The Bakers’ Dozen read our story, and invariably left the store chuckling. They carried the story home with them on the bag, and also in their heads. Once in a while somebody would tell someone else, “Hey. I went to this new bakery. Yummy stuff. And they’re pretty funny too. Wait, you should read it. Let me show you the bag.” And so, the story spreads by the most powerful medium there is, good ol’ word of mouth.

Stories, whether in a novel, a paragraph, a tweet or a comic strip, capture our imagination.

Armeen Kapadia
6 Comments
Ashish
21/7/2014 03:54:03 am

I tend to agree with you that brands need something. But is it "stories"? Maybe not. I mean story as in a story that has a start and an end and something in between. Is that what a brand needs? Umm...

What brands need is a "personality". And if that personality as created by its creator, strikes a cord with someone who gets a brand "experience", then the person becomes a medium to spread the word about the brand's personality to others who may then also have a virtual taste of this experience. (That is probably what you mean by "story" but I still think there is a difference.) And who knows, they may also have an urge to try the "real thing", and thereby become a medium themselves. And thus help the marketer succeed. Stories may also provide interest to a listener, but does it have to invoke an action? Not sure.

Brand communication, however, should.

Else, it just becomes an interesting story wherein for e.g. the ad is remembered, but the brand of the ad, is often forgotten. THAT, is not what a brand needs.

BTW Bakers Dozen...from what I read in your post...awesome experience promise!

Reply
armeen
21/7/2014 05:24:22 pm

Hi Ashish, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Agreed, brands need a personality. And we need to redefine ‘story’. Even a logo, or a three-word tagline can tell a story (FedEx logo). I imagine good brand communication involves good storytelling, however brief. If such stories are interesting enough they could, hopefully, invoke action. Word of mouth is still quite a powerful medium.

It is true however, that there are many ads which we remember for their story, but not for their brand. And that’s a case of the story basking in the limelight and making the brand anonymous. It is tricky to get the two to work seamlessly together.

Hope you get to try Baker’s Dozen bread sometime!

Reply
Urmilla
21/7/2014 10:38:21 pm

My favorite logo is the Formula1 logo. I actually did not see that '1" that appears in the white space for more than a year of following F1. And when I did, it was a high! The concept is the same as the FedEx logo. There must be some design concept there that Armeen can tell us about.

Reply
Ashish
25/7/2014 12:58:42 am

Its tricky to get "Brand" and "story telling" to work together. I cannot agree with you more.

And THAT trick is what branding / advertising as a medium of marketing is all about. Rest is just good film making.

Take the recent ads of Tanishq. The one about two sisters buying jewelry. Awesome production values. Amazing performance by the actors. And really a good subtle punch.

But where is the brand experience?

And compare that to the ads of Fevicol. All the above is true for these too, but the brand cannot be separated from the ad. Its integral. Its eternal.

And that, is how the cookie crumbles....

Reply
Urmilla
26/7/2014 09:07:54 pm

Thanks for your insights, Ashish – these are food for thought.

When you mentioned Fevicol, I couldn’t help remember the ‘fish catcher’ ad and the ‘bus’ ad from yester years. In those ads, the ad is the brand experience. And in just 30-40 seconds the message was home. Amazing stuff!

You are so right when you point out that the brand story has to bring home the brand experience – else there’s the danger of people remembering an ad (for the ad itself) but not really the brand experience. Tricky line that!

Armeen
28/7/2014 08:30:13 pm

There is an invisible arrow formed by the negative space between the E and X of FedEx. Likewise, the NBC logo has a peacock. The Cisco logo represents the Golden Gate bridge. Closer home, the State Bank of India logo represent a keyhole and safety. Many great logos have a secret little story in the visual.

Kudos to Tanishq for taking the road less traveled. It's refreshing to see ads depart from the usual 'our product is best' kind of pitch.




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    Authors

    Steta's founders, Urmilla Chandran and Armeen Kapadia author this blog. 

    We love letting our thoughts (crazy, stupid or smart) out for some fresh air.


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