Why Your Branding Story is Important to Your Company’s Success
What’s your branding story? In today’s digital marketing era, a well-crafted brand image isn’t just about standing out from the crowd—and your company is far more than a well-designed logo or a clever catchphrase. Telling your brand story with the right presentation is essential to cultivating your audience and keeping them invested long-term.
Nike Just Did It By Telling a Branding Story
Take Nike, for example. As far as being athletic apparel and shoe manufacturer goes, Nike isn’t all that different from their competitors. Donning a pair of Nikes on the court isn’t magically going to have any layman pulling 50-point games, after all. Still, that layman is likely camping out to buy signature Nike shoes endorsed by living legends like Michael Jordan or LeBron James.
That’s because what the company may not be able to stand out with technology-wise, they absolutely can with emotional messaging and making that layman the hero of their own story. Rather than focusing on product performance, the company focuses its branding story on the people who wear them. In fact, many of its commercials featured ordinary folks attempting to emulate the performances of Nike’s legendary athletes. The sporting conglomerate showcases everyday struggle for what it is: a building block toward greatness. When you hear the phrase “Just Do It,” you immediately associate your own struggles and perseverance with the Nike brand. And its ridden that shared desire for excellence since its debut in 1972—when it pulled a modest $2 million in revenue—to being valued at $50.63 billion today.
Why Tell a Branding Story?
Great brands not only create value with their products, but they also appeal better to customers when they share an emotional connection. Let’s look at another example. For decades, the Walt Disney Co invested heavily in TV shows and movies to promote the idea that their theme parks are “the Happiest Place on Earth.” Somehow, that consistently positive appearance in media convinced entire generations that the message rings true. Since its inaugural launch in 1955, Disneyland has welcomed generations of the same families to its gates every year. Somehow, many Baby Boomers and Gen X parents made it their mission to bring their millennial and Gen Z kids to Disney theme parks to share the happiness it brought them. Now, these newer generations are doing the same with their kids.
Disney Magic is the Result of Hard Work
How did Disney transform itself from a theme park to a global family tradition, you ask? Brand storytelling, of course. Disney is a master in ensuring that the patented Disney magic remains untainted inside its magical walls. Inside the parks, everything is presented the way it should be. Mascots and actors never break character, every prop and design element is an exact replica, and piped-in music and lingering scents keep visitors immersed in magic despite exhausting long walks and long waiting times. That’s why consumers keep coming back for more year after year.
All in all, Disney’s consistent branding story has helped it transcend generations. Nearly 70 years after its gates first opened, the magic kingdom still remains the happiest place on earth.
How Brand Storytelling Affects the Bottom Line
As both of the above companies demonstrate, an engaging, consistent and relatable branding story can do far more than just sell products. Tying your products to a meaningful story inevitably fosters customer loyalty. This means lower customer acquisition costs, better customer lifetime values and less negative feedback for companies.
More importantly, a good branding story can convince even those beyond your target market to try your product. For many marketers, this is the Holy Grail. Anybody can sell products to their intended specific market. Converting a new market altogether, on the other hand, can turn a good product into a best seller.
Creating a Memorable Brand Story
Let’s face it: even though businesses do exist to turn a profit, customers aren’t going to buy their products just off of that merit. Their reasons for making a purchase have nothing to do with a seller’s balance sheet. At the initial levels, they’ll look for the best deals based on marketing’s famous four Ps: product, price, place and promotion. However, multiple sellers showing the same products can make the decision-making process a bit more complex. A brand story can help make the choice easier for customers.
Meanwhile, sellers with a compelling and relatable story to tell can find more open ears. This is especially true for storytellers whose narratives feature authentic and customer-centric content. Moreover, the story should also align with the brand’s actual tone, voice and personality. Lastly, the branding story should hold firm across different channels—your messaging should be consistent no matter if it’s an Instagram caption or a full-on commercial.
Tell Your Branding Story Better with Ingage
When it comes to storytelling, interactive features can turn even common narratives into captivating content. In fact, you might be short-selling your brand’s story by using static slideshows featuring text and images. Instead, why not insert some interactive where viewers can expand or contract sections the way they see fit?
Ingage is cloud-based interactive presentation software that tells your story the way it deserves to be told. Interactive elements like video and expandable sections can help paint the bigger picture in both an engaging and digestible manner. Meanwhile, team members can collaborate online—that way they can always contribute to the storyline even when they’re timezones away. Ingage’s share features also allow users to send links to their audience instead of sending the actual presentation file. This helps prevent problems associated with downloading large files or clogged inboxes. Finally, powerful analytics features allow content creators to study viewer feedback. Insights can show which sections generated the most interest and which areas need further refining.
Let Ingage help you tell your tried-and-true branding story. Contact us and tell us a little about your company. We’ll be happy to show you how easy it is to make Ingage work for you. In the meantime, sign up for a free demonstration today!