Once-Upon-a-Time: Using Storytelling as a Creative Method for Increasing Brand Preference
Everyone loves a good story, right? Especially one that includes a hero or heroine and a happy ending. Storytelling has been used for a variety of reasons through the ages, and is now quickly becoming one of the more popular and effective ways to increase brand preference. Does your business have a story to tell? Learning how to craft one and tell it well can help you increase followers, as well as your customer base and sales. Before you get started, find out how storytelling and brand preference are connected.
Bringing a Brand to Life
A Story Provides Meaning. Consumers today aren’t willing to follow every new business that appears on the scene. A genuine story that provides meaning can work well in conjunction with other marketing methods. Your targeted customer base should be able to identify with your story and see themselves becoming a part of it.
Connect with Followers. Once consumers can envision their stories melding with yours, you’ll have established a vital connection from which you can build a business-consumer relationship. To develop that connection, you must define your intended target audience well-before you begin to develop your brand story.
Developing Brand Perception. Brand perceptions are shaped by emotional and functional experiences. How the customer feels while dealing with your business and what their experience is like will create the first (and lasting) impression of who and what your company is all about. An experience that provides gratification, improves performance, is reliable, easy to use and of a high quality will result in a positive brand perception.
Defining Your Brand Story
How it Evolved. Part of your brand’s definition revolves around how it evolved. Look back into your business history to unravel the story of how you progressed from the first inspiration to what your business is today. Use the evolution to help develop your story.
What You Believe In. In order for your storytelling to be perceived as genuine, it really has to center around what you believe in. Your staff members must be on board with this too so your company’s enthusiasm can come through the story. Consumers will be more likely to feel enthusiastic if you’re authentic.
How Others Are Affected. When you can relay the story of how a customer was positively impacted by your business, product or service, other consumers will become interested in a way that’s hard to match with any other technique. Seek out these stories by chatting with customers regularly, and don’t be afraid to ask a loyal customer or one-time customer if they’d be willing to let their story become a part of yours.
Tell Your Brand Story
To increase brand preference over competing businesses, you must tell your brand story everywhere and to everyone. Once you develop a story, test it out first with staff members or trusted mentors, family members or friends. Staff members especially should feel a sense of pride after hearing the story. If others in the business can relay the brand story with enthusiasm and credibility, it has passed the test of a genuine, effective story.
Activate your brand story with a multifaceted marketing strategy that includes traditional marketing methods and online media. Focus on your audience throughout to ensure your storytelling hits home with them. The longevity of your brand story will help you create increased brand preference that happens now and in the future. You should continuously revise your story to fit with changes and growth in your business and customer base. In many cases, it can be helpful to enlist the support of a marketing agency that can help you plan the best possible marketing strategy in which to use your brand story.
About The Author:
Lucy Harper is an experienced blogger passionate about small business topics such as online reputation, social media marketing and strategies for productivity. She is part of the writing team at touchpointdigital.co.uk, a specialist media and advertising agency. подбор автокредита онлайн
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Story telling is like marketing with our own self. It is really great for relationship building, but sometimes it is wasted when lack of confidence and poor of deliberation, but the solution is in our self, with proper motivation all of those unpleasant moves will be develop. Excellent post.
@ jdycaroll – Everyone likes a good story and I definitely agree with
your idea of marketing your own self as a positive relationship building
exercise. It defines you as an individual and can engage, enlighten an
entertain an audience.
Thanks  LucyHarper it is great for self improvement.