Brand storytelling: The key to crafting compelling brand stories.

What is brand storytelling?

Brand storytelling is the art of creating a cohesive narrative to build an emotional connection with your target audience. It’s used in marketing to convey an engaging message and resonate with your customers. This in turn can lead to a better brand reputation and subsequent sales conversion.

Your brand story is an accumulation of your company values, brand purpose, mission and history. It answers why your company exists and why it matters. It acts as a differentiator for your brand, which can help to make your company stand out amongst a sea of similar products or services.

Emotionally connects you with your customers.

Successful examples of brand storytelling evoke empathy, create experiences, and encourage action from your target customer. The stronger the emotional connection with your audience, the better, as it encourages brand loyalty and can do wonders for your brand awareness.

Helps inspire change, action or interaction.

An authentic brand narrative can inspire your customers to take action. From interacting with social media posts and showing love on an Instagram reel, to buying your products or services and becoming a brand advocate. As a brand, you can also use your narrative for good and encourage responsible consumer behaviour too.

Builds a community.

Think about what message you want your customers to walk away with after interacting with your brand. What does your brand mean to them? What do they associate with your brand? Once your audience knows you and trusts you, they’re more likely to come back to you. A loyal community is powerful for brand reputation.

Four British brand storytelling examples.

A cohesive brand story can work wonders for consumer perception. Here are four examples of British brands that have harnessed the power of storytelling through their digital campaigns, TV advertisements and wider business strategy.

John Lewis.

John Lewis is a prime example of brand storytelling and is ahead of the curve when it comes to creating compelling stories. Since 2007, the annual Christmas advert stirs up a buzz every year and always gets people talking. The emotive TV advertisement pulls at the audience’s heartstrings and builds hype around the John Lewis brand.

Rather than a focus on products, the brand expertly weaves a narrative around the act of gift-giving and crafts a story often about love and generosity. This simple message is easy for their audience to relate to and captures their imagination. The adverts are then discussed online as viewers form their own connections to the brand.

Gymshark.

Gymshark have placed their own spin on brand storytelling by focusing on building an online community through social media engagement and influencer marketing. The brand has taken the industry by storm, from humble beginnings in 2012 when Ben Francis designed gym clothing he wanted to wear, to a multi-billion dollar fitness empire.

Their strategy involved inviting influencers into their story by creating Gymshark Athletes who advocate for their clothes. Gymshark also makes their customers part of the story by posting user-generated content from followers that recreate their workouts.

Compare the Market.

Compare the Market created a comedic character to breathe some life into the world of price comparison. The cute meerkat character resonates with their audience and helps to make the brand more memorable.

Customers followed Aleksandr Orlov and Sergei on several adventures though TV advertisements over the years, where he would encourage viewers to visit the website: comparethemeerkat.com. This website was designed to take customers to a page detailing the history of the meerkat’s back story with the brand. This example of brand storytelling is so powerful, it’s inspired a spin off book and cuddly toys of the characters.

Burberry.

Burberry’s compelling brand storytelling stands out in the luxury fashion sector. It develops its narrative using long-from videos, like The Tale of Thomas Burberry, released in 2016. The video gave viewers a glimpse into Burberry’s 160-year-long history and its founder’s pioneering discoveries.

More recent campaigns have continued this vein of storytelling, but in a whole new reality. Burberry has taken its story to the metaverse and collaborated with Minecraft for its in-game adventure – Burberry: Freedom to Go Beyond. Players encounter recognisable features like an Equestrian Knight and the Thomas Burberry Monogram maze for an interactive brand experience.