“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Walt Disney
I mainly blog about the importance of storytelling and the power it has to influence and change the way people think. People often ask me, where do you start when you want to tell a compelling brand story.
The answer is there is only ever one place to start a compelling brand story and that is by asking the question what makes your brand unique? If your brand lacks something that makes it unique then there is no story. Your brand just becomes one of a long list of products or services that have no real purpose and can be replaced easily by a more competitive offering.
The Brand Journey
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
Albert Einstein
When looking for what makes your story unique the answer can always be found in the journey your brand took.
There are 3 questions you should ask yourself about your brand journey to see what makes your brand unique.
1. What problem started you looking for a solution?
Every brand exists to solve a perceived problem. The success of a brand depends on whether enough people think that solution matters to them. Your brand story starts where you saw a real or potential problem that needed solving and why you thought it important enough to risk solving that problem. The process you went through when solving that problem is the start of your brand story. The more your audience can relate to your problem the more successful your story will be.
2. What problem does your solution solve?
Where a brand starts and where a brand finishes can be two completely different places. You may start trying to solve one problem and find another that you are better suited to solving or has more potential for your brand. The final solution that you deliver becomes the heart of your brand story.
3. Why should anybody care about your solution?
Problems, solutions and journeys are all very good in their own way; they do not however on their own make compelling brand stories. The glue that holds a good brand story together is your audience. If they cannot see themselves in every stage of your storytelling they will not care. To succeed your audience must care about your story and they must relate to it.
Reviewing Your Story
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
Winston Churchill
Get some feedback for your story from your audience and your peers. Listen as much to what they are not saying as what they actually say. This review process will help you to tell a compelling brand story.