Introduction Storytelling for Digital Marketers

Welcome to this learning plan on Storytelling for business owners and digital marketers!

As digital marketers, we have the power to create impactful visual experiences that captivate our audience and leave a lasting impression. However, in today’s fast-paced digital landscape, it’s not enough to simply rely on aesthetics to engage our audience. To truly connect with our users, we need to tell compelling stories that resonate with them on a deeper level.

In this learning plan, we will explore the principles and techniques of storytelling that can be applied to digital design. We’ll learn how to use narrative structures, character development, and visual metaphors to create designs that communicate a clear message and evoke emotion. We’ll also explore how to integrate storytelling into our design process, from research and ideation to prototyping and testing.

Introduction: Story Telling – Building Connections with Your Customer

In the previous learning plan, we delved into the difference between inbound and outbound marketing, and why inbound marketing needs to be personalized, relevant and engaging.  We also created a customer avatar to better understand your key customers’ wants, needs, fears, motivations and reasons why that customer would benefit from your products or services.

In this lesson, we will delve deeper into you and your business and how to convey your story to connect with your ideal customer in a meaningful way.

Brand Storytelling vs. Brand Narrative

According to Delgado & Fernández-Sabiote (2016), brand storytelling and brand narrative are two related but distinct concepts in marketing.

Brand storytelling refers to the strategic use of stories to create emotional connections between the brand and its target audience. The goal of brand storytelling is to convey the brand’s values, personality, and unique selling proposition (USP) in a way that resonates with consumers and helps to build brand loyalty over time. Brand storytelling often involves the use of characters, settings, and plot elements to create a compelling narrative that captures the imagination of the audience.

On the other hand, brand narrative refers to the broader context in which brand stories are told. It encompasses the overall story of the brand, including its history, mission, and values, as well as the specific stories used in marketing campaigns. The brand narrative provides a framework for brand storytelling, giving meaning and coherence to the individual stories that are told over time.

In summary, brand storytelling is a tactic used within a brand’s larger narrative strategy to create emotional connections with the audience, while the brand narrative is the overarching story of the brand that gives context and meaning to individual brand stories.

The identification of clusters involved a two-step approach, using the method proposed by Hair et al. (1999) which is suitable for analyzing data that includes both categorical and continuous variables. Based on the identified features, the four groups were then divided into different clusters.

A brand narrative is essentially a story that a brand uses to communicate its values and purpose to its audience in a way that resonates emotionally. This story often includes details about the brand’s origin, its founders, and its mission. By creating a narrative that people can connect with on an emotional level, a brand can build deeper relationships with its audience and establish a sense of loyalty and trust.

Creating your story plot.

Like any story, a brand story must also have a plot. According to the white paper, Brand stories: bringing narrative theory to brand management, brand story plots should have a climax, followed by a reversal, leading to some final state of happiness or satisfaction. When the consumer relates to the challenges faced by the characters in a brand story, narratives that showcase a specific product or service as a means to conquer obstacles and turn the story towards customer satisfaction become especially captivating. The clarity of weaving this message into the brand story plot is critical when the purpose is to motivate consumer action.

Character: brand management and marketing theory

Brand story characters are the actors, agents or role-players within the brand story that face and overcome challenges in the brand story. There are typically at least two characters in a brand story: the consumer and the brand itself. The brand is often personified by a human or human-like figure of some sort: spokespeople or ‘spokes-characters’ and below is a typology of twelve brand story characters is proposed by Mark and Pearson (2001; see also: Avery, 2019; Woodside et al., 2008):

• Hero: Brand helps exert mastery, become competent, and act courageously in order to prove one’s worth and triumph over adversity, difficulty or challenge.
• Outlaw: Brand seeks revenge or resolution by disrupting the status quo, fighting for virtues and principles, and breaking the rules.
• Explorer: Brand helps on a journey to seek out a better world, escaping boredom and striving to experience a more authentic, fulfilling life.
• Ruler: The brand takes and asserts control by gaining and maintaining power; leadership leads to prosperity.
• Sage: Brand is a scholar or teacher that helps make smarter decisions through the pursuit of truth and the use of intelligence, research and analysis to understand the world.
• Innocent: Brand promises a rescue from an imperfect world and a return to simpler, better times. Life should be simple, pure and good.
• Regular Guy/Gal: The brand reminds and assures that being ordinary can be virtuous. Blending in with the crowd and being ordinary means fitting in, belonging and connecting with others.
• Lover: The brand promises beauty, appeal and sensual pleasure, as well as finding and giving love and intimacy.
• Jester: Brand helps enjoy life, live in the moment, be oneself, have fun and be carefree.
• Magician: The brand makes dreams come true by applying the laws of nature, often with exotic or ancient origins and rituals, to affect transformation.
• Caregiver: Brand is altruistic, compassionate, caring and protective; moved by a desire to help others.
• Creator: The brand enables self-expression and encourages imagination, gives form to vision, and prioritizes authenticity.

The marketing perspective usually portrays either the brand or the consumer as the central character, but not both simultaneously. When the brand is the protagonist, it assumes the role of the Hero, Outlaw, Explorer or Ruler, and the consumer plays a secondary role by utilizing the power of the brand. On the other hand, when the consumer is the protagonist, the brand takes on the role of the Caregiver or Lover, resembling the heroine; or the Regular Guy/Gal or Jester, acting as a sidekick; or the Innocent, Creator Sage or Magician, performing as a wise guide or advisor. In such scenarios, the brand serves to facilitate the growth of the consumer by enabling them to overcome their problems and improve their lives. Additionally, the brand story aims to convey that not using the brand is a risk, and the audience should comprehend the consequences of not buying, which is as crucial as seeing the evidence that purchasing leads to successful goal achievement.

Source: Brand stories bringing narrative theory to brand management

Adam J. Mills & Joby John (2021): Brand stories: bringing narrative theory to brand management, Journal of Strategic Marketing, DOI: 10.1080/0965254X.2020.1853201

Activity: Identifying your Brand Plot and Character

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