If you want to build a successful, sustainable business, a brand that will garner loyalty, and if you’re lucky, become loved you have to start by understanding what’s driving your story and what will help your customers to embrace your brand.
Building A Story-Driven Brand
Brand storytelling is not simply about standing out and getting noticed. It involves thinking beyond the functionality or utility of products and services and striving to understand the worldviews and unmet needs of your customers. It’s about framing your scarcity, communicating your value and building something that people care about and want to buy into.
A brand story is not just a catchy tagline to attract fleeting attention in the moment. Your story is the foundation of your brand and a strategy for future growth. When your business or organisation is story-driven, it’s grounded in a framework of purpose, vision and values that inspire commitment and lead to a solid plan for achieving success. This enables you to adapt in times of change because you understand that your story is bigger than any short-term marketing or sales goal.
Starbucks created a whole new coffee category that elevated the brand above its competitors because it was a story-driven business from the outset. That story is the reason people pass Dunkin Donuts and 7 Eleven to pay three times more for a cup of coffee every morning. Successful story-driven brands are built on much more than the specifications of their products.