Your Employee Development Plan Includes Brand-Story Training

What’s a Brand Story?

Brand stories create a narrative about your brand that sets it apart and connects your brand with your customers emotionally. A brand story tells the birth story of your company, what motivates your company, and why your customers should care. It’s about why you get up every morning and work so hard. It’s why you do what you do.

Why Does it Matter?

At one time, seeing the name and a logo was enough. We could choose our favorite brand with confidence. Like Kleenex and Scotch Tape, these brands are so ubiquitous we still call the generic product by the brand name. 

But hidden in this buying process is an unarticulated brand story. When we look at a brand like Kleenex, we know the company promises a nice, thick, strong tissue that could see us through the worst cold. We can trust that story. 

Today, let’s imagine Sita, a twenty-something consumer, standing in the hair-cleanser aisle, trying to choose shampoo. There are so many shampoos to choose from that it’s almost overwhelming. She defaults to Dove, a major brand, and reaches for it.

But then she remembers a video she saw online about a small haircare brand: Purest Soap*. The company’s founder talked about how the company was built on the idea that good hair care doesn’t have to be cruel. The company refuses to test on animals or use animal components. 

Despite the higher price, Sita chooses Purest and leaves the drugstore feeling really good about her purchase and herself. Because of the brand story, that consumer feels part of the cause, part of the tribe that makes and uses Purest.

Emotional connection is a  driver of brand equity. And science shows us that storytelling is a powerful driver of emotion. The listener’s brain becomes aligned with the teller’s brain when hearing a story. Brains produce cortisol when listening to a tense moment in a story. Storytelling connects us to the narrative and to the people behind the narrative.

Brand Storytelling for Marketing

Instead of creating a client base, why not use storytelling to build your tribe? Your tribe are folks connected by emotion and by purpose to your brand. They believe in what you’re trying to do and your solutions (products).

Great. Love the idea. So, how do we craft our own brand story?

When building your brand story, incorporate these points:

• Keep it simple. A straightforward recounting of your tale is easier to remember and connect with.

• The motivating moment. What happened when you saw a problem you knew needed fixing? Where were you? How did you feel? Tell us about that moment.

• Your company, your purpose. Make sure the “why” your core purpose matters is part of the story. Make sure you connect the why to the rest of the world.

• You do you. Allow the quirks of who you are to come through. People connect with people.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Once the brand story is written, it’s critical the story gets told the same way over and over again. Your customer will remember it more easily. Also, accurate telling reinforces the unspoken pact between the storyteller and their audience. 

Furthermore, your customer—your tribe member—will remember the story and retell it accurately, increasing its reach and power. Repeat that story by various methods, from produced videos to impromptu videos, to memes and websites. Keep telling your story. It matters.

Training Employees in Your Brand Story 

Our story tells our customers and us what’s important about our brand. It helps build a tribe of like-minded folk around our company and our brand.

The brand story should definitely be part of a management development program—that seems obvious. But an employee development plan should include a brand story as well. Why?

Employees will be motivated by the story. A company’s purpose is the very reason why they’re doing what they’re doing. Employees want to connect with that purpose and will be more engaged if they have the opportunity to do so. Employees will also enthusiastically tell the story, which helps you build that tribe faster. So, how can you keep that brand story squarely in the mind of your employees? 

1Huddle can help. 1Huddle can take your brand story and create a fun trivia game to help your employees learn. 1Huddle automatically reviews as necessary. Intricate details, like dates, are reinforced to ensure your employees tell the story accurately. 
Before you know it, your story is repeated by a bright, motivated, and engaged workforce. Want to start building that tribe? Contact 1Huddle today for a free, no-obligation demo!