8 Essentials for Effective Brand Storytelling

Effective brand stories engage people in ways that drive real business results. 

According to Bernie Thiel, a marketing consultant and partner at the firm Corporate Narratives Group, effective brand stories possess these characteristics:

Relevance – Show that you know your audience - what inspires them as well as their needs and struggles.

Credibility – Leveraging your leadership and expertise gives consumers qualified reason to listen and learn ... and act with trust. 

Compelling – Artful selling touches the consumer's head and heart.

Persuasiveness – An effective brand story is like an informative trail that leads the reader to an enticing, actionable conclusion.

Timeliness – This goes hand-in-hand with relevance.  Evergreen stories may inform, but they don’t trigger immediate action.

Understandable – Don’t let creativity bury your pitch.  Have a clear story line with coherent messages and defined action points.

Informative – Great brand stories educate and cultivate consumers. 

Authenticity – Fakes reveal themselves and in marketing deception is a brand killer. Brand stories offer opportunities to share what’s real and worthwhile about a product, brand or parent company.

I’ve only paraphrased Thiel’s points so check out his excellent post published in Brand Strategy Insider. 

Billboard Effect: Sweeping Montage Puts a Human Face on Poverty in Rio’s Favelas

French photographer JR shoots provocative
black-and-white photos, enlarges them to 

billboard-size, then cuts and pastes 

them into sweeping narratives

Funny how the digital age has redefined terms like “billboard,” “cut and paste,” and “posting.” For our purposes here their meaning is strictly old-school and low-tech.  

JR is a young French photographer known for his provocative black-and-white photos, which he enlarges to billboard-size prints and then, working hurriedly under cover of night, cuts and illegally pastes them on large walls in public urban spaces.  Much of JR’s work makes a political statement, putting hauntingly real faces on serious social issues. 

For one project JR spent a year taking portraits of victimized women in Africa, Asia and South America. His goal was to showcase strong, courageous women struggling amid oppression and poverty. 

A profound example of this is JR's unauthorized 2008 “installation” in Rio de Janiero's infamous favela Morro da Providencia. These images are especially pertinent now as many favela residents are being evicted as part of Brazil's controversial "clean up" for the World Cup in June of this year and the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

Images such as these need no written explanation.

Their scale and presentation make his message 

disruptive and thought-provoking. 

While some of JR’s installations are done legally, 

many such as this one are hastily cut and 

pasted up under cover of night.

Listen to this audio interview and you will find JR downright genial. Frankly, I’d expected someone angry and radical, but then I realized that JR's images are in the voice of a warmly compassionate storyteller. His artistic process includes using harsh, authentic settings because they give his images impact, context and relevance. It's interesting that JR began as a Paris graffiti artist and then gravitated to the billboard-like platform favored by advertisers.

Beyond words. One image expresses outrage 

and empathy for residents struggling invisibly. 

JR’s work reminds me that a compelling story can be told simply in a style and format that may not require words, sound -- or links. 

Instagram Hits 200 Million Users. But Will Any of Them Care About Your Brand?

Last week the social photo-sharing platform Instagram announced it had reached the 200 million monthly active users mark – doubling in size from just a year ago. Among those users are many well-known brands; reportedly 43% of the top 100 brands now post content on Instagram upwards of six times each week.

The highly viral nature of photo-sharing makes Instagram extremely appealing to marketers. Indeed, some brands see their content fly fast and wide on it, but in truth far more get little to no traction at all. Why not?  Consider that the core of Instagram’s estimated 75 million daily users is young – very young in fact. Half are females between the ages of 12-24, of which 20% are between 12-17. 

Is this group part of your target market? If yes, then certainly hitch your publicity wagon to Instagram’s success and give it a go. If not, your social marketing efforts are probably better spent elsewhere. 

Filmmaker George Lucas: Great Illustrators Tell a Grand Story in a Single Frame

                                                                                                              Illustration by N.C Wyeth

Fascinating CBS Early Show interview with filmmaker George Lucas who said great American illustrators, including Maxfield Parrish, NC Wyeth and Norman Rockwell, inspired him to make movies. He talks about his admiration for illustrators and how they portray a rich and moving story in just a single image. As a youth Lucas aspired to become an illustrator - a dream dashed by his pragmatic father. But come to think of it, don't you see an illustrator's eye in his films? 

WHOLE FOODS MARKET: VISUAL STORYTELLERS ON FACEBOOK

Whole Foods Market does a brilliant job marketing via social media.

Grocery shopping as a topic can be deadly boring. Food talk can become heavy and preachy when it’s tied to issues like nutrition, health, worker rights or eco-friendly farming. Yet, Whole Foods embraces all of these and more - and does so in ways that are fascinating – even fun. How? Through upbeat, visually-driven storytelling.

Indeed, most of the company's posts are mini stories about a product, recipe, employee news, or issue. Presented with an appealing photo, some compelling copy, and a link to richer content archived on Whole Foods blog, each post aims to educate and inspire customers to shop, eat, and live really well.

Not that there’s not a lot of selling going on; every post is a sales pitch, after all. However, Whole Foods' style of selling is decidedly soft – consistently so across its social network that includes Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google +, YouTube, and more. 

The company does a great job tailoring its stories to each platform's strength. Let's look at how Whole Foods does this on Facebook:

Color, color everywhere 

Facebook itself is a pretty bland environment, which makes scrolling down a colorless timeline awfully tedious. That's not a problem for the 1.4 million fans who visit Whole Foods' main Facebook page for its vivid stream of posts featuring products, recipes, tips, news, promotions, and more. Photos are always intriguing and very colorful - so sharp and detailed they almost pop off the page. 

The same holds for posts that feature punchy graphic design. These posts catch your eye and then your imagination.  

Eye and appetite appeal 

You won't see slick advertising shots here. Food photos have easy-breezy eye appeal like what you'd see on a foodie blog. Recipes are meticulously styled, so every image is beautiful and appetizing. A short narrative gets you thinking, "Gee, I should make that." One click takes you to a related story or video on the company's blog that shows you how. Now that's integrated marketing.

"New on Aisle 5 ..."

Package shots are usually taken right in a Whole Foods store, not a studio. This post promoting a new bagged popcorn was shot smack in the snacks aisle. Yep, we like the package design alright - and seeing the photographer's hand adds a nice real-time touch. The accompanying story tells us this product contains Fair Trade ingredients - a Whole Foods mandate. Makes you feel good - and a bit hungry.   

Eye-grabbing Infographics 

Infographics on Whole Foods' timeline do double-duty, combining how-to tips with visual pizzazz. Case in point: This clever infographic teaches you how to cut a mango in 3 easy steps. Click on it and you land on a blog feature with mango recipes and more serving tips. Anyone who hasn't tried mangoes before certainly has good reason now. 

Visual Stories Sell Hard, Softly

Old-school TV and print advertising is relentlessly intrusive and self-serving. Marketing via social media requires a softer, more personal and engaging approach. Whole Foods succeeds at this by posting real, uplifting, and compelling stories that educate customers and get them excited about trying new foods, and eating foods that are tastier and healthier. 

Importantly, once you become a Whole Foods fan you won't feel much like grocery shopping anywhere else, right?

Job done. 

The next post in this series will look at how Whole Foods Market tells stories in pictures curated on Pinterest.