STORYTELLING AS A BRANDING TOOL

What a Difference a Story Makes

Companies need to understand the logic of storytelling in order to build an emotional bond with the people they communicate with: their consumer and their employees.

As such, storytelling is as relevant for internal branding and towards stakeholders, as it is toward the end consumer. Most simply, storytelling and branding come out of the same starting point: emotion and values. A strong brand builds on clearly defined values, while a good story communicates those values in a language easily understood by all of us.

All good stories have a message, conflict, plot and characters. Storytelling as a branding tool is not about telling stories just for the sake of it. Storytelling is about communicating messages that reflect positively on the company brand.

First, you must develop a clearly defined message. Without it, there is no reason to tell stories – at least not with a strategic purpose. Among storytellers – screenwriters as well as authors – the central message, or premise of the story, is an ideological or moral statement that works as a central theme throughout the story. It’s important to stick to one message per story. A story with more than one central message runs the risk of becoming messy and unclear.

Too much harmony and not enough conflict makes for a story that is about exciting as watching paint dry. Conflict is the driving force of a good story. No conflict, no story. Conflict forces us to act. As a rule of thumb, a good story always centers on the struggle to attain, defend, or regain harmony. As storytellers, we get our message across through conflict and its resolution. When the Ugly Duckling becomes a beautiful swan and is finally accepted into the flock of swans, the conflict is resolved.

In storytelling, conflict is not negative. It is a fundamental premise on which the narrator can communicate his perception of right and wrong. In a classical fairy-tale the conflict is often permanently resolved. The greater the conflict the more dramatic the story will be, however, conflict should not go over the top that it becomes confusing.

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