The Biggest Mistake Brands Make With Storytelling — and How to Do It Right The biggest mistake in brand storytelling is believing the story is all about the brand. Telling the right brand story leads to marketing resonance.
By Keith A. Quesenberry Edited by Chelsea Brown
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In a recent Entrepreneur article, I discussed how brands need to be influencers to intersect the customer journey with a brand storytelling approach through the three Rs — relevance, reach and resonance. Telling brand stories relevant to your market in the right medium reaches the right consumers to create marketing resonance.
Marketing resonance is when your audience identifies with your brand message, engages in it, acts upon it and shares it. Resonance moves them through the customer journey to achieve your marketing objectives. How do you know what stories will resonate?
Related: 3 Signs Your Brand Isn't Telling a Winning Story (and How to Fix Things)
There are two sides to every brand story
When crafting brand stories, don't assume you're telling a story about your company. That is only half the narrative. It is really two stories: your company's backstory plus your customer's future story. When these two intersect, it creates marketing resonance.
Today, consumers turn to brands to help answer timeless questions like "Who am I?" Using or wearing a brand that fits what you want to be helps you feel closer to that goal and signals to others who you are. Social psychologists tell us that consumers want to purchase from brands that meet their needs and help them achieve their ideal selves. We want to use or be seen using a brand that helps us live into our future story.
The pursuit of an elite running record turns into record sales
Nike's Vaporfly running shoes helped elite runner Eliud Kipchoge break the two-hour marathon barrier. Nike told this story in the ad campaign called Breaking2. Eliud missed the record by 26 seconds, but by 2019, he broke the record — living into his future story and proving "that if you are relentless in pursuing a goal, anything is possible."
A small percentage of runners break world running records (their actual selves). Yet many aspire to break personal records (their ideal selves). Enough non-elite runners resonated with the Breaking2 story that Vaporfly shoe sales helped drive Nike's market share in running to a record high. Elite and non-elite athletes' stories intersect with Nike's brand story of "Just do it."
With the right story, your brand engages people who want to live into their future stories. They act and then share that story to signal to others they are part of a group that shares that same future symbolized by the brand.
Flipping women's sports narrative led to record sharing of "#JustDoIt"
Nike's 2021 Dream Crazier TV ad chronicled moments considered "crazy" but helped advance women in sports. One scene shows an official pulling a woman off a marathon course. The narrator, Serena Williams, says: "...a woman running a marathon was crazy. A woman boxing was crazy. A woman dunking, crazy. Coaching an NBA team, crazy. A woman competing in a hijab; changing her sport; landing a double-cork 1080; or winning 23 grand slams, having a baby, and then coming back for more, crazy, crazy, crazy, and crazy."
The story turns from barriers to contradictions. "If we show emotion, we're called dramatic. If we get angry, we're hysterical, irrational, or just plain crazy" voices tensions women face living into their future stories and ideal selves. The commercial ends with "It's only crazy until you do it" and fades into "Just Do It."
The ad premiered during the Oscars and quickly went viral. After one day, it had 6 million YouTube and 28 million Twitter views. Sentiment analysis was overwhelmingly positive and mention of #JustDoIt increased 2,000 percent, reaching over 600 million people.
Unlike these examples, brands that only tell the company's side of the story or misunderstand their consumers' stories struggle to succeed. They often get ignored, the audience doesn't act, and current brand fans may revolt.
Related: Storytelling For Profit: How These Five Brands Do It Right
Why you can't sell a Prius to a Hummer driver
Market researcher Clotaire Rapaille says people buy SUVs so they can feel dominant. Driving an SUV helps them live into their ideal selves. At an average of 10 MPG, off-road dominance with a Hummer came at too steep a price during the last recession. In 2010, GM discontinued the SUV.
For Toyota, selling Hummer drivers the 48 MPG Prius wasn't an option. The typical Hummer driver had no interest in an environmentally friendly Prius. The Prius brand story didn't match their personal story. Prius' marketing emphasizes themes such as "harmony between man, nature, and machine." That brand story resonates with people who view driving the Prius as living into their story of a green driver who wants to preserve the planet, not dominate it.
Recently, GM brought back the Hummer as an EV with 47 MPGe. Even now that it is environmentally friendly, the all-electric message takes a backseat on the website where "off-road dominance" is still emphasized.
Why you can't sell a McPlant to a McDonald's customer
One of the hottest food trends last year was vegan alternatives to meat. This included plant-based fast-food burgers. Thus, McDonald's debuted the McPlant in test markets. Yet after only a couple of months, they discontinued it, citing poor sales results.
Why did it fail? McDonald's customers go to the Golden Arches for a quick fix to what they crave — burgers made from meat. Typical McDonald's customers are meat-eaters. A McDonald's customer doesn't go there to be healthy or vegan. There are plenty of all-vegan or healthy fast-food restaurant options that tell a healthy or vegan brand story.
Why Steelers fans erupted when Heinz Field changed to Acrisure Stadium
After 21 years in Heinz Field, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced it would be Acrisure Stadium. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported fan backlash saying, "Steelers fans hate it." Long-time quarterback Ben Roethlisberger commented on the fan-started hashtag #ForeverHeinz saying, "Home will always be Heinz Field!" Fans started a petition to remove the name.
Why did the name not resonate with fans? Fans' loyalty to the Steelers is rooted in the history of their city. A history tied to the industries and companies that built it. The old Heinz factory is up the river from the football stadium. Pittsburgh-based companies, PNC Bank and PPG Paints headquarters are downtown near the Pirates PNC Park and the Penguins PPG Paints Arena. Acrisure, a Michigan-based insurance company doesn't help fans live into their ideal selves or their story of local pride.
Related: Telling Your Brand Story Is Crucial. 4 Steps To Ensure That It Resonates.
How to tell two-sided brand stories that resonate
For marketing resonance, consider your ideal customer's ideal self expressed as character qualities like beliefs, qualities and personality. Then consider your brand's social identity of brand character qualities, beliefs and personality. Where the two intersect is where you will find brand narratives that match the narratives your target customer wants to live into.
Ensuring you tell both sides of the story will engage your audience and motivate them to act and share — creating marketing resonance. Telling both sides of the brand story will help develop a group social identity around your brand, moving more people through the customer journey to help achieve your marketing objectives.
