When piecing apart a brand, the contours of its anatomy suggest that its ability to move with the moving market determines its vitality. Yet, with all its complexities, a simple component to its fruition is the story that lays behind a brand’s identity. People are drawn to the emotions that drive a brand’s motivations, and when users and consumers alike can attain a full picture of a brand, it encapsulates a significant idea: brand stories are essential.
Storytelling Caters to Emotion
Pondering upon what storytelling itself entails, one may think of the exploration and examination to the human perspective and all the emotions that come to the surface when they become explored. With branding, that idea takes on the same shape, but with consumers’ examination of a brand’s authenticity and experience.
According to a study, 92% of users look for some form of storytelling within marketing and within a brand before committing to a purchase or service. The study also concluded that consumers yearn for stories that leave an impact—i.e., evoke some form of emotion. This then begs the question, what is it about a brand story and emotion that drives conversions and revolutionizes a brand’s prosperity?
Prioritizing Brand Personality
Leaning into a brand story allows it to drive engagement and emotion to strengthen a brand’s ethos and allows consumers to be fully immersed in what a brand can offer. Storytelling sheds the idea of a myopic and general identity, and instead allows people get to know a brand’s personality through the emotions that arise, especially when it is integrated into an interface such as a website or mobile application.
The transparency that arises from storytelling builds a level of trust between a brand and consumer because it opens a human-centric connection. By prioritizing how the individual will feel when interacting with a brand and its interface, it metamorphosizes from strictly an intension to drive conversions, to more of a reflection of how consumers will feel when experiencing a brand.
Yet, this can also help brands adjust their positioning with an internal analysis of how they wish to be perceived, how to further engage their targeted audience, and how to leverage their values and the emotions they create for their consumers.
User Expectations Are Evolving
Consumer expectations and preferences are always bound to change. With the pace of the world becoming heavily reliant on quick access to products and services online with little to no human interaction, the push to propel a humanized and emotionally charged brand story is more vital than ever. Users/consumers are holding companies to higher standards, and 55% of consumers who love a brand story or feel connected to it in some form or other are more likely to convert.
There is even a lingering layer to the way storytelling affects the human brain as it has been examined through neuroscience. A study uncovered that when individuals read a detailed description that evokes emotion, it stimulates the brain in positive ways. Many brands can fulfill the promise of innovation and speedy services; however, people are expecting an extra layer to a brand that will show them why they are a promised differentiator in the great expanse of the market, and stories and emotions are what can strengthen that.
Authenticity and transparency are essential, and storytelling can work to fortify those aspects as well as boost user engagement. When properly conveyed, a brand story can inform a user’s decision making on whether or not they wish to interact with a brand, and ultimately informing the different levels of its design to align with the story working as a backdrop. From UI/UX design to marketing collateral and everything in between, storytelling positions a company and strengthens its identity.
About the Author
As a content strategist for ArtVersion, Cristina’s primary focus is writing and organizing content for clientele that allows for new and compelling storytelling, designed for the multitude of diverse brand identities. She has spent most of her educational career writing for both educational and creative practices.
This article originally appeared in ArtVersion.
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