With the market becoming competitive daily, consumers are often bombarded with information every second by businesses. Businesses do so to constantly gain consumer attraction. According to Samba Recovery, the average attention span for a person these days is 8.25 seconds. This statistic signals a small window for businesses to gain the attention of their consumers, raising a challenging situation to attract them.
So, how can a brand leverage this opportunity and make a consumer remember it? The answer often lies in a powerful, well-crafted brand story.
A powerful brand story goes beyond selling your products or services. It highlights your brand’s mission, values, and vision in a way that resonates with the social, spiritual, and self-values of its consumers. Read on to discover an in-depth explanation of what is a brand story and why every business needs one!
Understanding Brand Story
At its core, your brand story is a narrative designed to tell its customers the reason why a company exists. A brand story isn’t only about telling the company’s history or how it was founded. It’s about reflecting the values, mission, and journey that has shaped a business into what it is today.
A strong brand story has the potential to take the readers on a journey by connecting with their emotions. These emotional connections help the consumers understand not only what the business offers but why their products/services matter.
An effective brand story focuses on painting pictures of people, events, places, and experiences that connect the consumers with the brand’s values.
For instance, if a brand sells sports gear, its ideal brand story should focus on the thrill of the winning goal and shed light on a challenge faced by a business owner that moved them to open this brand. From this example, we can conclude that brand stories shouldn’t talk about the products or the brand repetitively.
Instead, it should be focused on painting a picture of how your brand or products are helping shape people’s lives.
Why A Brand Story Matters
Helps Develop A Deeper Connection With Customers
Research concluded that 82% of consumers prefer shopping from a brand that appeals to their values of return. Your brand story has the power to show consumers how your brand’s value inspires your products and intertwines with the three levels of returns for your customers.
Let’s say you start a clothing brand that only uses sustainable materials. Leverage your brand story to share the reason behind the decision – it’s a window for you to explain why you’ve adhered to eco-friendly practices instead of using other materials that could’ve cost you less.
If a customer resonates with your brand story, they’re likely to recognize your sustainable practices and shop from you.
Relate More With The Customers
Apart from appealing to the three levels of return, a brand story gives you a way to relate with your customers. Relating to your customers makes it easier to retain them and increases repeat conversions while you search for new customers.
Mediums like printing material, publications, and social media posts give you a way to share your brand’s personality, allowing it to develop a deeper connection with the audience. Building on your brand story will cause your audience to trust your brand, increasing the odds of them purchasing from your brand.
Stand Out From The Competition
Though many brands may offer similar products/services, their brand stories can help stand out significantly. Let’s revisit the example of sustainable clothing – Three businesses sell the same shirt. However, they’ll differ by the materials used and the rationale behind using them.
While both brands may have a strong case, they both will have different values. In the end, the customer is going to pick the brand that appeals to their values the most.
Your brand story helps in highlighting your unique value proposition and convinces customers to choose you.
Fuel Brand Recognition
In today’s world where consumers are more connected than ever, a powerful brand story can promote your brand recognition like wildfire. When you tell your brand story, you show people what motivated you to kickstart this business, or how your products make an impact.
If you can get your consumers to understand your brand’s story and resonate with it, they are likely to feel a connection with it. Not only will this connection inspire them to buy from you, it’ll also tempt them to share it with new consumers.
In short, your brand story will boost your brand recognition, allowing you to gain more and retain previous customers.
Bring Your Brand Story To Life!
With many businesses competing to appeal to customer’s values, your brand story can make all the difference. It has the power to inspire consumers to choose you, instead of running the mouse wheel of convincing them to shop from you.
However, for a brand story to work its charm, it must effectively reflect your brand’s values, objectives, and mission. After Branding can help you achieve that.
With over two decades of helping brands attain holistic growth, After Branding sees your business as a powerful vehicle. We provide you with the tools and accelerators needed to analyze, define, and achieve your goals. Seeing your brand story as an integral part of the success journey, we connect with you to understand your values and objectives and create a brand story that speaks volumes.
So, are you ready to stand out from the competitors and fast-track your journey to reaching your destination? Let’s get in touch and help you tell the world who you are, what you stand for, and why you exist.
Final Words
A brand story is more than a paragraph on your website’s “About us” page – it’s the heart and soul of your business. It’s what helps you connect with customers and differentiates you from the competitors.
If your business doesn’t yet have a brand story, now’s the time to create one. With a compelling brand story on your brand, you’ll have the power to turn your customers into loyal advocates, ultimately leading to sustained growth!
Hopefully, a thorough read of this guide gave you insights into what is a brand story and compelled you to create one!
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