Building an Immortal Business: Storytelling in Branding

It’s easy to confuse marketing and branding.

The two seem very similar.

When looking closer, I view them to be different.

I believe the brand is an emergent property of marketing.

Once all is said and done, what are the pockets of words that come to mind when a brand name is said?

Marketing builds awareness.

Branding builds connection.

Both connect with one another.

With branding, a long-term thinking mindset is mandatory.

It’s impossible to build a brand by thinking short-term.

Scratch that…

You will be able to build a brand.

Just not the good kind.

Let’s discuss the role of storytelling in branding.

How much of a factor is storytelling for the bigger picture?

What Do You Want Your Brand to Stand For?

Great entrepreneurs know that a business should have a mission.

Without the mission, it’s easy for the company to fall apart.

Love him or hate him… Jeff Bezos knows how to set a mission.

“Customers first” is the mantra of Amazon.

Notice how he keeps repeating the same mantra of customer obsession.

Over and over again.

He wants the company members to know that Amazon is not simply a product company.

Or a profits company.

It’s a customer-centric company first, and all else follows that.

This line of thinking led to the brand of Amazon.

‘But Armani, I don’t really know the story of Amazon.’

You do.

‘No, I really don’t. I have no clue regarding their background and all of that.’

Storytelling is beyond that.

Ditch the mentality of ‘once upon a time’ when dealing with real-world storytelling.

That sort of mindset works with kid’s bedtime stories.

However, in the real world, storytelling is a connection of ideas.

In Amazon’s case, a connection of experiences.

‘Whose experiences?’

Yours.

Storytelling and Branding

Ask a successful owner of an e-commerce shop on what they consider to be important that others wouldn’t consider.

Keep the question general.

You’ll notice them saying:

‘Well, our company takes the packaging very seriously. Customers love the unpackaging process.’

These people understand that the unpackaging process is an experience.

And that experience is something that the customer is immersed in.

From the customer’s lens, when they get the new Nikon camera…

They are not just unwrapping a box with a technological machine within it.

Instead, they are unwrapping the box, so they can create some new memories.

Storytelling is automatically engaged when experiences are targetted.

For a brand to stand the test of time, the brand must create products, content, services that are relatable.

This seems too simple.

But it isn’t.

We trust what we can see ourselves in.

That’s why we don’t really need to know much about Amazon’s history.

Heck, some of y’all may not know anything about the company other than Jeff Bezos and fragments of company details.

But what you do know is that you gave some of your experiences to them.

They hold some real estate in your pocket.

Through that real estate, they seeped into your experiences.

You became aware of those experiences.

And that’s the beginning of the storytelling process.

Why Branding Requires Long Term Thinking

The reason branding requires long-term thinking (especially nowadays) is because the world is busy.

Even if we do resonate with a certain brand, it’s hard to remember it for long.

Automatically, the mind goes to the next thought.

Or the next product.

The next service.

That’s why long-term thinking aids the branding process.

Through repetitive exposure, the brand creates an imprint in the subconscious mind of the consumer.

You can tell which company thinks long-term based on the content they invest in.

Content facilitates the storytelling process.

The president of UFC, Dana White, understands the role of content.

UFC is not making millions of dollars from the fighters fighting.

Instead, the company generates millions of dollars from the content of the fighters fighting.

Dana is a smart man.

He has these mini-documentaries leading up to a big fight.

That’s because he builds suspense through the narrative.

A short term thinker will be like:

‘We are a fight league! Why the hell would I be investing in documentaries?’

A long-term thinker understands that the content builds the body of the brand.

Without it, the business will be a snippet of what it could truly be.

How to Use Storytelling in Your Branding

A part of you may be more confused than before.

‘Uh..do I create better products, or do I build content?’

The answer is that it really depends.

Different industries function in different ways.

In some companies, the content IS the product.

Such as Pixar.

They have built their brand solely through storytelling.

Let’s say you’re a consultant though.

You don’t technically have a physical product.

You are the product.

For your market to resonate with you, a part of them needs to see themselves in you.

If you’re teaching public speaking…

It may be wise to tell your story of how you struggled with public speaking.

If you’ve always been good at public speaking, then it may be smart to share the story of how you got into the field in the first place.

That story seems small.

But it isn’t.

It’s very similar to the e-commerce owners investing in their packaging process.

That tiny story creates an imprint in the subconscious mind of the other fellow.

Whether you can notice it at first glance or not.

Level Up your Branding Through Storytelling

Overall, you won’t really know what the market thinks of your brand until some months or years have passed.

Relying on short-term data will give you partial results.

I’ve seen companies who loved the short-term data a lot.

They loved it so much that they started to get cocky.

A popular gym apparel company loved the hype they were getting in 2017.

I won’t say their name.

They thought they were untouchable.

Eventually, their customer support suffered as they scaled.

Poor customer support can take out giants in a matter of seconds.

The short-term data lied.

The same can happen the other way around.

Where you are currently struggling to make your name.

But as time elapses, you are now the industry leader…

The content you invested in has compounded.

Efforts have been rewarded.

What was once dead farmland is now filled with flowers of ideas, narratives, and compelling reviews.

Branding takes time.

Long-term thinking for the win.

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– ArmaniTalks