Storytelling needs to be at the heart of what you do

At KISS we’re firm believers in the power of engaging with audiences and doing this through emotional brand storytelling. We host workshops with clients to help them tell their own brand story, however a couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of being participants in one – rather than the facilitators – and it was very refreshing!

The workshop was a Beliefonomics brand storytelling session hosted by Mark Jones, CEO of one of our PROI partners, Filtered Media. During the day we were tasked in teams to take a brand that was inspirational to us and ‘develop’ their story. This was not only a great little exercise to get the creative juices flowing, but it also reinforced our belief at KISS about the importance of telling a powerful story - something which we find many businesses and organisations understand, but many still struggle with when it comes to executing it successfully.

The KISS team chose to develop a story for The Raspberry Pi Foundation – a UK based charity that works to put the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world. I was really keen to work on this brand as I had experienced my own ‘belief’ moment – one moment that captures your heart and enlightens your mind – while watching their aspirational animated video. This visual representation of Raspberry Pi’s ambitions was the perfect motivator for us to develop a brand story that we felt not only resonated with the goals of the founders, but the brands target audience too. We developed a 100-word pitch to demonstrate that Raspberry Pi provides an accessible, efficient and cost-effective way to inspire a diverse range of people to become computer science educated.

“When I tell you to picture a computer scientist, what are the first things that come into your head? A man? Is he white? Nerdy looking?
Did you know that only 18% of computer science graduates are women?
Raspberry Pi exists so that more people can solve problems that matter to them and to express themselves creatively.
We make the unreachable reachable by giving everyone the same opportunity and access to computing all over the world.
Our products will change the computing landscape for future generations no matter who you are.
Raspberry Pi - small screens for big dreams.”

The entire day confirmed to me that brand storytelling is about ensuring that people see aspects of themselves in the story. To help develop an authentic and compelling story we all agreed that brands need to consider some of the following aspects:

Research the consumer
This doesn’t just mean looking at the demographics of your target consumer, it means looking further and digging deeper into the psychographics of the consumer – it’s important to understand the depth of what motivates them.

Find a shared experience
Not enough time and energy is put into keeping up to date with consumer’s needs, desires or worries in order to develop a brand story. Or, if research has been conducted, it is often not utilised in the best way possible. This is because brands start to develop stories that only communicate what they ‘want’ to achieve as a brand and hope consumers will just ‘get it’.

Underpin brand values
Gather all consumer insight to develop a story that communicates to customers how credible and relevant the brand is for them – let them experience the brand as something they can relate to.

At KISS we believe that brand storytelling is a key part component of the marketing mix and it’s these narratives that help create the strongest memory structures. If the story can be enhanced into a positive physical brand experience then better still, because consumers are more likely to remember something they personally experienced versus just being told to believe. We think of a brand as a tiny space your customer chooses to let you occupy in their mind. An emotionally driven story can get you into that precious space, connect to your consumers, build trust – and most importantly provide you with the key to brand longevity.

Storytelling needs to be at the heart of what you do – so if you would like our help in articulating the story of your brand, then drop us line.