Brand Story

1    What is a brand story and what makes a good brand story?


Brand story: the brand message derived from the brand idea which should be conveyed consistently in all communications and tactical decisions made with regard to the brand. (West, et al., 2015)

If you wish to engage your internal and external stakeholders around your efforts, you must relate to them in an accessible, inclusive and human way to focus on what impact you can achieve together rather than the contribution of the brand. Rather than simply seek to impact culture so your brand can enjoy positive PR, you must design an impact program that can do without the brand or live beyond its participation. Only then will your stakeholder community truly believe that you’re committed to the result that will positively impact people’s lives, rather than the company's own self-interest.

For example,
Unilever’s Lifebuoy also brings to life its commitment to Sustainable Living to create real impact through its numerous hand-washing programs around the world, including Global Handwashing Day. (Mainwaring)

In 2011, North Face inked an eight-year deal with the U.S. freeskiing team. In 2012, they sent a crew to the top of Mount Everest. And in 2014, the company has participated in the Olympic Games, one of its biggest sponsorships yet. (Jason 2015)


2    What is storytelling and how does it affect people?

Brand storytelling is the most effective way to connect with your audience. It involves the many types of stories you tell your audience. It’s what helps you appeal to the emotions of your customers and prospects. Things that can influence your brand include your product, price, history, quality, marketing, in-store experience, purpose, values, location and–most crucially–what other people say about you.

The Red Bull brand image is one of adventure, extreme sports, and freedom. All of its marketing campaigns focus on a variety of characters living the Red Bull brand lifestyle. World of Red Bull commercial series deliver the message that the drink gives wings to talents in fields like sports and music, helping turn their ideas into reality and celebrating with them their success and achievements (Red Bull 2016). (Charles 2016.)

Traditional advertising was based on a one-way flow of information: from brand to consumer. In the early days of that era, companies borrowed approaches from popular entertainment to make their brands famous, using short-form storytelling, cinematic tricks, songs, and empathetic characters to win over audiences. Now, a brand sits in the conversation with those who experience the brand: Facebook followers, customers, interns, shop clerks, etc. (Hope 2015)

Social media binds together communities that once were geographically isolated, greatly increasing the pace and intensity of collaboration. Now that these once-remote communities are densely networked, their cultural influence has become direct and substantial.

Red Bull, the most lauded branded-content success story, has become a new-media hub producing extreme- and alternative-sports content. Red Bull spends much of its $2 billion annual marketing budget on branded content, its YouTube channel (rank #184, 4.9 million subscribers).


3    What is the role of community management in brand building and how to engage customers?

"Community Management brings your brand to life online—like it's a real person with a real personality behind real interactions." (quote by author)
Community Management is what happens after and beyond your social media publishing. It’s part customer service, part listening to the internet, and part being active in discussions that relate to your brand.
  • Monitoring: Listening in on and tracking conversations that relate to your brand.
  • Engaging: Keeping conversations alive and proactively engaging with customers, prospects, and influencers.
  • Moderating: Weeding out comments and conversations that don’t add value, and troubleshooting customer complaints.
  • Measuring: Analyzing how your brand is perceived and getting real, unfiltered feedback.
(Kumar 2017)

4    Analyse or design a brand story for a chosen company.

The North Face

·       Brand Story
The North Face® legend begins, ironically, on a beach. More precisely, San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, at an altitude of only 150 feet above sea level. It was here in 1966 that two hiking enthusiasts resolved to follow their passions and founded a small mountaineering retail store. From the beginning, the brand committed to serving all those who desired to explore and to serving our natural wild lands by helping to conserve them. At our core, we believe exploration creates an indelible bond with the outdoors, inspiring people to protect our land and pass these beliefs down to the next generation.
ð  Not only a sports & active-wear retailer but more like an assistant that provides necessities for outdoor activities and inspire people to appreciate and conserve natural wild lands.
ð  Customers think the company is helping them instead of selling them.
ð  Products & services are merely just a means to a greater end.

5    How could the chosen company build the brand in social media?

Make the Scenery the Thing (Especially the Sky)
The North Face avoids focusing on product in most of its successful Instagram posts.
Instead, the brand pours effort into curating fan photos which show off just how epic mother nature can be.
In this way, The North Face builds trust in its followers, forges intimacy with its Instagram audience, and avoids the too-salesy content which so often turns Instagram users off.

Give  Your Fans a Voice
The North Face not only features fan content: it includes the captions which originally went with the picture and tags the photo-taker.
This further cultivates The North Face’s identity as a curator and broadcaster for all the awesome exploration its fans are already doing, rather than a primary creator — a smart move for brand both brand discovery and quality content purposes.
For one of their photo contests on Instagram, TNF’s asked their followers to upload a photo using the hashtag #GearUpGetOut. $100 gift cards are given to the best photos every week. Fans can also upload their photos to their Facebook page. They reply to comments and frequently ask questions to the followers, engaging in extensive conversations. (Jason 2015)

Tag Your Team
The North Face tags both its explorers and its photo-takers in all the content it repurposes for its own Instagram account.
This is a fantastic method of fostering brand discovery and encouraging fans to post more photos.

v  Other Digital Marketing Strategies

Switching the loyalty emphasis from dollars to engagement
The North Face has placed an emphasis on engagement in its VIPeak loyalty program, encouraging customers not only to keep shopping with the brand, but also get more actively involved with the outdoors. Instead of being rewarded with discounts or for dollars spent, customers also earn points based on how often they participate in events organised by the brand. These can also be used towards physical events.


(Hitz 2015)

Bibliography


West, D. C., Ford, J. & Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic Marketing: Creating Competitive Advantage. 3rd Edition ed. s.l.:Oxford University Press.

Charles, J. 2016. 4 Fantastic Examples of Brand Storytelling. HuffPost. URL: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-charles/4-fantastic-examples-of-b_b_9852356.html. Viewed on: 12 February 2018.


Hitz, L. 2015. Why Instagram Is the Apex of North Face’s Social Media Strategy. Simply Measured. URL: https://simplymeasured.com/blog/why-instagram-is-the-apex-of-north-faces-social-media-strategy/#sm.0000003f0pby5gwcs0z0jas9rlgt8. Viewed on: 12 February 2018.

Hope, J. 2015. WHAT’S A BRAND STORY, AND WHY DOES MY COMPANY NEED ONE?. Blog. Echostories. URL: http://www.echostories.com/whats-a-brand-story-and-why-does-my-company-need-one. Viewed on: 12 February 2018.

Kumar, B. 2017. Why Community Management Matters For Your Business (And How to Do It Right). Shopify Blogs. URL: https://www.shopify.com/blog/community-management. Viewed on: 12 February 2018.

Mainwaring, S. 2015. How and Why Brands Inspire, Shape Culture, and Shift Consumer Behavior. LinkedIn. URL: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-why-brands-inspire-shape-culture-shift-consumer-simon-mainwaring. Viewed on: 12 February 2018.



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