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Listen "How to Tell a Remarkable Brand Story"
Episode Synopsis
This is it, remarka-fans. How to tell a remarkable brand story
This month, I’m cutting right to brand story—the heart of a brand’s posture toward the world and its customers, and the final piece that ties a brand’s expression, identity, and strategy together.
If you love a good story, (seriously…who doesn’t?), and if you know that telling one can mean the difference between scaling your brand dramatically or getting little traction with the same old strategies… then you’re in the right place.
Welcome to the writer’s room.
If you’ve been following my series on discovering your brand’s purpose and remarkable identity, and then using it to build a winsome, potent brand expression, then you might sense that we’re nearing the summit.
And if you’re just joining in, that’s also swell… and if you enjoy the view then you’ll probably find the previous stages of our branding journey worth your time. All of the tools we’ve discussed so far, from your brand’s archetype, metaphor, and location to its own slice of history, culminate in your overarching remarkable brand story.
A well-developed brand isn’t an image.
Or a tagline.
Or even a killer color scheme.
Those are ways of expressing the brand…but they’re no substitute for its story. In many ways, and when it comes to what the busy world sees and hears, a brand is its story.
https://youtu.be/CZ7FflRDxJ8
Whittling Story Down to a Remarkable Brand Story
Hollywood screenwriters and those who study ancient civilizations love to tell us that there’s only one story.
Maybe two… and on the note, the variations I’ve heard are:
1) a stranger comes to town.
2) a stranger goes on a journey.
But if you’re a fan of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, then you’ve probably had a taste of how much debate, speculation, and back-and-forth exists amongst story and movie buffs.
Seriously.
There’s enough of it to fill a thousand masterclasses. But the good news for B2B’s is that the elements of story sharpen down nicely for those building a brand.
A classic story has five key elements: the balance, the unbalance, the quest, the crisis, and the new balance.
In plain English, here’s what those five elements look like:
The balance is the “normal” state of the world at the beginning of the story, its status quo.
The unbalance is the new event, intrusion or “problem” which disrupts the “normal” state of the world and sets the events of the story in motion.
The quest is the pursuit by the protagonists (the “heroes”) of the story to find some solution to the problem or other ways of settling the unbalance.
The crisis is when the drama of the quest and the drama of the underlying problem comes to a head, the key event which will determine the outcome of the story.
The new balance is the resolution to the story in the aftermath of the crisis, which becomes the new “normal” for the end of the story, or the new “balance” to be upset again at the next stage of the story.
Shall we try it?
The 5 Sentences You Need to Tell a Remarkable Brand Story
The key elements of any story can be stated in five sentences following this format.
Balance: Once upon a time there was a quiet village where a humble dentist minded his own business.
Unbalance: Suddenly, a dragon started attacking and burning down the buildings.
Quest: The dentist went on a quest to find the dragon’s lair and slay the dragon.
Crisis: He found it, and the dragon was about to kill him in a blaze of fire, when he noticed the dragon just needed a few root canals to relieve the pain in his mouth.
New Balance: He helped the dragon and brought it back to the village as his loyal pet.
To give another example… one in which you can pick out the elements for yourself:
Sometime in the distant future, the crew of a starship is exploring the galaxy for signs of intelligent life.
Suddenly, they are attacked and boarded by a horde of three-headed alie...
This month, I’m cutting right to brand story—the heart of a brand’s posture toward the world and its customers, and the final piece that ties a brand’s expression, identity, and strategy together.
If you love a good story, (seriously…who doesn’t?), and if you know that telling one can mean the difference between scaling your brand dramatically or getting little traction with the same old strategies… then you’re in the right place.
Welcome to the writer’s room.
If you’ve been following my series on discovering your brand’s purpose and remarkable identity, and then using it to build a winsome, potent brand expression, then you might sense that we’re nearing the summit.
And if you’re just joining in, that’s also swell… and if you enjoy the view then you’ll probably find the previous stages of our branding journey worth your time. All of the tools we’ve discussed so far, from your brand’s archetype, metaphor, and location to its own slice of history, culminate in your overarching remarkable brand story.
A well-developed brand isn’t an image.
Or a tagline.
Or even a killer color scheme.
Those are ways of expressing the brand…but they’re no substitute for its story. In many ways, and when it comes to what the busy world sees and hears, a brand is its story.
https://youtu.be/CZ7FflRDxJ8
Whittling Story Down to a Remarkable Brand Story
Hollywood screenwriters and those who study ancient civilizations love to tell us that there’s only one story.
Maybe two… and on the note, the variations I’ve heard are:
1) a stranger comes to town.
2) a stranger goes on a journey.
But if you’re a fan of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, then you’ve probably had a taste of how much debate, speculation, and back-and-forth exists amongst story and movie buffs.
Seriously.
There’s enough of it to fill a thousand masterclasses. But the good news for B2B’s is that the elements of story sharpen down nicely for those building a brand.
A classic story has five key elements: the balance, the unbalance, the quest, the crisis, and the new balance.
In plain English, here’s what those five elements look like:
The balance is the “normal” state of the world at the beginning of the story, its status quo.
The unbalance is the new event, intrusion or “problem” which disrupts the “normal” state of the world and sets the events of the story in motion.
The quest is the pursuit by the protagonists (the “heroes”) of the story to find some solution to the problem or other ways of settling the unbalance.
The crisis is when the drama of the quest and the drama of the underlying problem comes to a head, the key event which will determine the outcome of the story.
The new balance is the resolution to the story in the aftermath of the crisis, which becomes the new “normal” for the end of the story, or the new “balance” to be upset again at the next stage of the story.
Shall we try it?
The 5 Sentences You Need to Tell a Remarkable Brand Story
The key elements of any story can be stated in five sentences following this format.
Balance: Once upon a time there was a quiet village where a humble dentist minded his own business.
Unbalance: Suddenly, a dragon started attacking and burning down the buildings.
Quest: The dentist went on a quest to find the dragon’s lair and slay the dragon.
Crisis: He found it, and the dragon was about to kill him in a blaze of fire, when he noticed the dragon just needed a few root canals to relieve the pain in his mouth.
New Balance: He helped the dragon and brought it back to the village as his loyal pet.
To give another example… one in which you can pick out the elements for yourself:
Sometime in the distant future, the crew of a starship is exploring the galaxy for signs of intelligent life.
Suddenly, they are attacked and boarded by a horde of three-headed alie...
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07/07/2022
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