The importance of your story for your brand building.

One of the main elements in the building of a brand is called: brand personality, brand personality refers to a series of human attributes, such as feelings, desires or values ​​that are granted to a brand, in most cases based on the product’s characteristics and the affinity it has with the target group, if your target group is made up of teenagers, perhaps a serious and uptight brand personality will not resonate with them; some say.

Throughout my career I tried different techniques to build a brand personality, but the Storytelling approach undoubtedly stood out above all others, think about it for a second, assigning a series of human attributes to an intangible creation such as a brand. It is the closest thing there is to creating a character. Besides, every great story begins with a great character, but how do great writers create intricate, complex and unique characters like Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins or Batman himself?

I’ve actually only had the chance to meet some great writers and I suppose they must have different techniques to do it, mine comes from a writer named Brando Skyhorse, who in his class for the creative writing specialization at Wesleyan University teaches 5 questions to respond to when creating a character:

What does this character want?
What are his weaknesses?
Where does he come from? (literally and emotionally)
Where is he going?
What can he/her do to surprise you?

Within this structure, I highlighted one of the basic reasons why your personal story is important for building your brand: Your brand comes from you, as well as from your partners. That means that both the place of your origin, and your negative and positive experiences are the places (both literal and emotional) where your brand or the character of your brand comes from. This kinship directly affects and is deeply rooted in the personality of your company, in the way it does business, in the speed with which it grows, in it’s relationships with collaborators and especially defines the reason why that character or brand pursues that thing you want, which contributes in building your positioning.

Being an intangible creation, the most recognized characters have to bet on their overwhelming and captivating personalities to earn a place in the memory of generations, these unforgettable characters live in the minds of the viewers thanks to their personality, their characteristic traits, thanks to their madness, their wit, their bravery. These traits are so unique and ingrained into the character that they go beyond the format or techniques used to tell their story, how many versions of different styles and tones have you seen about Dracula, Tarzan or King Arthur? In the same way, the personality of a brand must be so unique as to transcend formats and present itself in a recognizable way in front of its audience.

Now, the true importance that your story has on the history of your brand, in addition to being a fundamental component of its personality, is that you are its main accomplice. Your motivations, your desires and your values ​​will inevitably be transmitted to your brand and you must be the first to master the proper technique to defend them, you must have the right speech to put the audience on the side of your brand. The theory behind marketing says that if you can articulate those motivations, desires and values, ​​and expose them in an argument in such a way that you manage to captivate the attention and connect deeply with all the audiences involved, you have ensured its success, your employees, they will be accomplices of your motivations and they will feel them as their own and the other interested parties will too. The most effective way we know to expose motivations, desires and values ​​and connect with the audience are stories, it is Storytelling.

When viewed with a panoramic lens, if you want to build a memorable brand or character, you must take into account the other characters in the story, the characters that make the protagonist a light to follow, you must take into account the motivations of the people involved with Decision-making and those motivations must make evident the only and true reason why everyone is involved in the business, as well as the rules under which the company will operate, its quality standards, its way of relating, etc.

The search for an ideal is not only materialized thanks to the unwavering will of the hero, the responsibility to take action in the story and try to bring it to its best end also falls on the shoulders of its other characters, shareholders, allies, collaborators. and clients, and as one of the main characters it is your responsibility to articulate the argument that will put them all on the side of your brand, that is why it is important that you can articulate your own personal story in an emotionally captivating way to take an active participation in the building of your brand.

If you are interested in learning more about how to give your brand a personality and learn more about the use of these tools to create characters, claim our free Brand Personality in 5 steps guide, a short guide that will take you through each of the 5 questions mentioned above for you to master the art of giving personality to a brand with a proven Storytelling technique, to claim it click the button.