Trigger
4
How to communicate the brand
through storytelling and social media?
1 What is a brand story and what makes a good brand story?
A brand
story is a cohesive narrative that encompasses the facts and feelings that are
created by your brand (or business, if you prefer). A story must inspire an
emotional reaction. Things that can influence your brand include your product,
price, history, quality, marketing, in-store experience, purpose, values,
location and–most crucially–what other people say about you.
Factors
make a good brand story:
- Trust
You must tell a story that has the right
features — features that produce successful neural coupling, plus those which
exhibit integrity-building features.
· The story must be driven through
personality
Susan
Gunelius mentioned: “ Brand stories are not marketing materials. They are not
ads, and they are not sales pitches. Brand stories should be told with the
brand persona and the writer’s personality at center stage. Boring stories
won’t attract and retain readers, but stories brimming with personality can.”
Your
story is inspired by the presence of people who participate, create, connect,
and develop the saga of growth and success.
Personality
drives the story. But the story isn’t a biography of an individual. It’s the
evolution of an entity told with personality.
People
trust other people. The core reason why your story should be personality-driven
is so that it will provide someone real for customers to trust.
- The story should be simple
Simple
stories are better. Simple stories are more trustworthy.
Science
says so, and experience affirms it. Every story has a beginning, a middle, and
an end. The three-part model mentioned above carries this natural progression:
• Beginning: Problem. Explain the
problem that you set out to solve.
• Middle: Solution. Describe how you
solved it.
• End: Success. Get excited about the
success this produced.
- The story shapes your reason to existence
For example: A brand like TOMS shoes uses their
story as a bedrock for their existence. The tagline, “One for one,” means that
for every purchased pair TOMS gives a pair of shoes to someone in need. TOMS exists to improve lives.
- The story must connect with your customers
Tell
your story in such a way that it tells your customers we relate to you, we
understand you, we are like you. Few things can communicate that level of
engagement like a story can.
For example: A brand like North Face must
connect with active and adventure-minded people. The whole idea of the brand is
to inspire adventure and the outdoor life. Their mantra is “Never stop
exploring.”
- Customers should buy a part of the story, not just a product
Because
a customer is not only participating in the story itself, but they are
participating in a monetary way. They engage the story by purchasing from the
business that is telling the story. When a customer purchases your product,
they must feel as if they are buying part of the story.
For example: Patagonia- uses the term “worn wear” to describe their clothing products that have endured
for years. The product themselves, items that customers buy, are part of the
brand’s story.
- Get other people to tell your story
A good
story is shareable. Others will appreciate and engage in the story. That being
said, there are a few things that you can do to enhance the stories virality:
• Build your personal brand. Remember
how a story is infused with personality?
• Be active on social media. Stories
will spread through the power of social media.
• Tell the story everywhere.
• Encourage your customers to tell the
story.
• Encourage storytelling everywhere.
For example: Ben Silbermann, cofounder of
Pinterest. Ben tells his story with passion and authenticity. His personal
brand grew as he and his team told the story.
Stories are a vehicle for trust and belief. When people hear your story
in more places, it reinforces their trust. And when they start telling your
story themselves, they trust it even more.
Other
examples of good brand story:
- Warby Parker
Brand
Story: In its Story, eyewear retailer Warby Parker says it
was founded as a rebellious upstart to tackle the problem of expensive eyewear
after one of its founders lost his glasses on a backpacking trip and couldn’t
afford to replace them as a grad student. What’s more, like Toms, Warby Parker
partners with non profits such as VisionSpring to distribute a pair of glasses
to someone in need for each pair sold.
In a
Nutshell: Good eyewear, good
outcome.
Measure
of Success:
Warby Parker says it has distributed over one million pairs of glasses and has
trained over 18,000 men and women to give basic eye exams and bring glasses to
their communities with VisionSpring.
Why it
Works: Warby Parker solves a
problem, has a rebellious spirit and does good.
- Airbnb
Brand
Story: Airbnb says it is a
trusted community marketplace for consumers to list, discover, and book unique
accommodations for unique travel experiences.
In a
Nutshell: Welcome home.
Measure
of Success: The brand projected more than one million people would
stay in an Airbnb on New Year’s Eve 2015. It offers accommodations in more than
34,000 cities and 190 countries.
Why it
Works: Again, Airbnb has
challenged the hotel industry and totally redefined an experience. As a result,
as noted in its brand story, it boasts a community of loyal users.
Sources:
https://www.linkdex.com/en-gb/inked/brand-story-examples/
2 What is
storytelling and how does it affect people?
Storytelling is the art to
tell stories in order to engage an audience. The storyteller conveys a message,
information and knowledge, in an entertaining way. Literary techniques and
non-verbal language are his tools.
Stories are authentic human
experiences. Stories leap frog the technology and bring us to the core of
experience, as any good storyteller (transmedia or otherwise) knows.
How do storytelling affect people:
How do storytelling affect people:
·
Stories are a important form of communication. They are timeless links to ancient traditions,
legends, archetypes, myths, and symbols. They connect us to a larger self and
universal truths.
·
Stories are about collaboration and connection: engage through emotions, and connect us to others.
Through stories we share passions, sadness, hardships and joys. We share
meaning and purpose.
·
Stories are how we
think. They are how we make meaning of life. Stories are how we explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we
justify our decisions, how how we understand our place in
the world.
·
Stories are how we are
wired. Stores take place in the imagination. To the human brain, imagined
experiences are processed the same as real experiences. Stories create genuine
emotions, presence (the sense of being somewhere), and behavioral responses.
Examples of brands with successful storytelling:
- Nike with Equality campaign
Equality : encourages people to take the fairness and respect
they see on the court, pitch, playing field and other sporting venues to
translate them off the field.
- Hiut Demin Co
• Rally
behind a cause you believe in. With
an honest, earnest tone of voice, Hiut tells visitors to its site how and why
it first came about: to re-employ skilled people who had lost their jobs when
the denim factories closed.
• Focus on
one thing. Through
their dedication to denim, visitors are made to believe that these guys are
specialists: they are different and better than other jean manufacturers
because they spend all their time improving one type of product, rather than
trying to be good at many different ones.
Sources:
Sources:
https://blog.ometria.com/ecommerce-storytelling-examples
3 What is the role of
community management in brand building and how to engage customers?
Community Management is
what happens after and beyond your social media publishing. It’s part customer
service, part listening to the internet, and part being active in discussions
that relate to your brand.
Your
community consists of your current customers, target audiences, and all the
people who interact with your brand directly and indirectly online.
- Roles of community management:
Build
brand presence: A
community manager acts as your brand advocate, seeking out relevant leads and
networks that will grow your business.
Engage
customers: A
community manager gives your brand a human face. They are the friendly and
informed voice that responds to customer queries and comments.
Measure
effectiveness: A
community manager is in a great position to provide feedback on what is and
isn’t working with your business.
Improve
social media strategy: With social media, a community
manager can help your business keep pace and anticipate these kinds of changes.
- How to engage customers:
·
Monitoring: Listening in on and tracking conversations that relate
to your brand.
The company can set up Google Alerts (free) or BuzzSumo Alerts to keep tabs on mentions that relate
to your brand online. Or search on many social networks for specific
keywords or hashtags to find public posts that reflect a certain sentiment or
demand for your product that you might want to act on.
For example: #NugsForCarter: By listening
and engaging in the right way at the right time, Wendy's sparked a viral
movement that resulted in the most
retweeted tweet of all time
·
Engaging: Keeping conversations alive and proactively engaging with
customers, prospects, and influencers.
Monitor social
channels daily and find opportunities to address complaints, thank happy
customers, and talk to people who might like your products. Be human.
Avoid copying and pasting responses all the time, and allow conversations to
happen organically.
Surprise and delight people with your responses, and you'll find
you might be able to gather a crowd around what you thought was a 1-to-1
interaction.
For example:
"surprise and delight" approach on
Twitter from Pizza Pops.
·
Moderating: Weeding out comments and conversations that don’t add value,
and troubleshooting customer complaints.
For example: West
Jet's Facebook
·
Measuring: Analyzing how your brand is perceived and getting real,
unfiltered feedback. Figure out which channels your community is the most.
You can
also conduct a sentiment analysis to see how people generally feel about your
brand.
Sources:
Sources:
https://digital360.com.au/resources/what-is-community-management
4 Analyse or design a brand story for a chosen company.
Warby
Parker:
The brand story is rebelling against eyewear giants
Sources:
https://www.warbyparker.com/history
5 How could the chosen company build the brand in social media?
Warby Parker - Take the best use of social
media:
They
Talk Back to their customers
They showcase more than just products:Warby
Parker took a step outside the box and mixed up their two of their biggest
assets: their product and their team by highlighting one of the friendly-faces
behind their brand from "Customer Experience Team".
They Culture-Jack: Culturing
jacking refers to a brands attempt to apply a popular story or event to their
content. It's all about pouncing on an event in real-time, but we're not
just talking about any random event.
Warby
Parker has picked up on the trend and they're running with it.
They promote their events: Road
tripping from city to city in their Warby Parker school bus, they posted this
photo to their Instagram as a way to remind, and invite their customers to come
out and meet their team. Also use hashtag #wpclasstrip.
- YouTube
They touch customers' emotions: For
every pair of glasses Warby Parker sells, they donate a pair to someone in
need. This "do good" approach to sales has certainly paid off, as
this summer the brand reached 500,000 glasses distributed.
They have a sense of humour:
Sources:
https://www.impactbnd.com/master-3-social-media-platforms-like-warby-parker
https://www.warbyparker.com
References:
http://www.frogleaps.org/blog/topic/what-is-a-story-and-what-is-storytelling/
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/02/12/nike-uses-the-power-sport-take-stand-equality-new-campaign
https://www.impactbnd.com/master-3-social-media-platforms-like-warby-parker
https://www.warbyparker.com
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