Definition: Brand Storytelling

A good brand story makes your product memorable. We’re constantly being inundated with ad campaigns, Instagram promotions and pop ups for every possible app/gadget/car. What’s going to make yours stand out?

In a piece for Inc titled Why Every Product Needs A Great Brand Story, Andrew Essex makes this point: “As with everything in life, from Tinder to toilet paper, we all respond to a little romance, to an artfully crafted backstory, to a heroic origin yarn.”

You need a story to build a brand. Not just a list of product attributes, or a few lines on your founder. But a story that gives context: a mission, vision and a sense of authority.

A well-crafted narrative has the power to unite people – not just customers, but internal teams coming together to celebrate a brand’s purpose and culture. It gets everyone together playing the same tune. Externally, a brand story can help you stand out. Internally, it fosters greater connection.

A good brand story has the magic to grab people's attention and give them a reason to covet your product, by evoking a memorable meaning and purpose around the product itself.

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do to – in other words, people will buy products if they believe in its story. A brand story’s job is to convince customers that they're fellow warriors in the wellness revolution, brave adventurers of a bold expedition, heroes of a creative movement.

A series of product descriptions and features is not the same thing as a good story. You cannot simply burden people with a set of features or a series of facts. To cut through and be remembered – and thus move a whole lot more merch – you must create from those features a narrative that exceeds the sum of its parts.

You must recognise a pattern in your product features and package it into a story with meaning. Remember, telling isn't selling.

Let's face it, without a story, your product is likely just a gimmick. Gimmicks do not sell themselves. It's the stories we tell about our products that do the heavy lifting and whether they’re fact or fiction, they just have to be interesting.