How Can Storytelling Effectively Communicate a Brand's Core Values?
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How Can Storytelling Effectively Communicate a Brand's Core Values?
Crafting a company’s narrative is like weaving a tapestry where every thread tells a story that the audience resonates with deeply. Insights from a Brand Strategist and a Creative Partner set the foundation for this exploration into effective storytelling techniques. First, uncover the significance of consistently communicating a single value. Lastly, understand the power behind addressing audiences through personalized open letters. Discover ten unique experiences that illustrate the impact of strategic storytelling in branding.
- Communicate One Value Consistently
- Build Empathy With the Customer
- Showcase Real People's Stories
- Empower Employees to Share Stories
- Make the Customer the Hero
- Focus on the "Why"
- Make Brand Values Relatable
- Show, Don't Tell, Brand Values
- Tell Brand Origin Stories
- Write an Open Letter to Audience
Communicate One Value Consistently
Most brands save their core values for their careers page, where they are then listed out like a checklist. Of course, part of this is pragmatic. Mentioning every value on a more central touchpoint can become word soup. My advice: pick the value that's the most central to the brand position and communicate it consistently. Clarity? Kindness? Grit? Genius? Whatever it may be. Then, put it near your top block, in your social bios, and make it a part of your content strategy too.
Build Empathy With the Customer
One effective storytelling technique I use to communicate a brand’s core values is empathy—letting the audience see themselves in the brand’s story. I start by understanding the customer’s context: What challenges do they face, and what are their needs? Then, I align the brand’s mission with those challenges, showing how it exists to solve their specific problems. The focus isn’t only on the product; it’s about the impact the brand has on their lives. From there, I emphasize what makes the brand unique and why it’s the best fit for them. This connection, built on understanding, helps the audience feel seen and valued. As a result, it builds a strong relationship grounded in trust and long-term commitment.
Showcase Real People's Stories
Your audience—internal or external—wants to hear from real people. Consumers are constantly being sold to all day, every day, so you don't want your brand marketing to come off as a pitch. By showcasing the root of your brand values through employee or client experiences, your audience is more likely to relate to and believe the message. Bring those stories to life by connecting with people who can tell those stories. Have regular coffee chats with people connected to your brand, be the boots-on-the-ground, and harness those stories for your campaigns.
Empower Employees to Share Stories
Something I've found to be super-effective in communicating core values is empowering employees to share their own authentic stories: where they've been, what they're currently excited about working on, and what's next. It humanizes the business. It’s not just about what the company does, but why it exists—and that “why” is usually at the core of a brand’s values. When your audience sees the passion and purpose of the people behind the brand, they’re more likely to resonate with its mission and feel aligned.
Make the Customer the Hero
Make your customer the hero and let them tell their success story. Your customers can become your best storytellers because they are more relatable and trusted.
We created a video for A+W Software. The story was told by one of their customers and showed how introducing their software made their customer more efficient and profitable.
The key to making this effective is to keep it real and conversational. If it comes across as scripted or as an ad, prospective customers will immediately tune out.
It's best to get your client to start by talking about the pain they faced. The problems your customer faced are relatable to your target. They very likely will seek to make a similar transformation story become a reality in their company.
Turn your best customers into your best salespeople.
Focus on the "Why"
When creating a story that effectively communicates a brand's core values, I believe that less is more. I focus on the "why" behind your product or service and why it stands out from the competition. My aim is to craft a compelling core values statement that captivates, connects, and converts potential customers, encouraging them to share your brand through word-of-mouth.
Make Brand Values Relatable
Make your brand values relatable. Consumers seek meaningful connections with brands, and I help bridge that gap by determining the shared experiences between brand and consumer.
At Honest Medical, we share our founding story through various means, including email marketing, social media, and product packaging, to connect with our audience personally. Like our customers, our founders faced the frustrations of big retailers—unreliable service, high prices, and slow shipping. Our values of compassion, community, and integrity were born from these challenges, and it’s what connects us to our audience. It’s heartwarming to see how many customers appreciate our honest approach through customer reviews, stating how we "live up to our name."
No matter what your core values are, find a way to make them relatable to your audience.
Show, Don't Tell, Brand Values
One of the best storytelling techniques you can utilize to communicate a brand's core values is to show them, not tell them. I don't want to list elements of a brand and then say, "trust us." I show people what the brand stands for through visuals, experiences, and sharing stories of the brand at work. This immersive experience communicates everything necessary to build genuine connections with the audience, allowing them to feel the brand's values rather than being told what to believe. By engaging them emotionally and visually, the brand becomes something they trust and resonate with on a deeper level.
Tell Brand Origin Stories
Origin stories are a critical weapon in every brand marketer’s arsenal. They explain the why of the company’s creation while sharing a compelling story. Customers remain curious about the key problem that motivated founders to create a solution. As I like to say, data strays, but stories stay.
Write an Open Letter to Audience
Once we have collaborated with a client in a Root Session to determine their brand's core values (we refer to them as beliefs), we encourage our clients to write an open letter to their ideal audience. The open letter introduces their message, describes the journey to get to that message and why it matters, and also speaks to their five core beliefs. We encourage our clients to tell a 2-3 sentence story about each belief, examining its genesis and explaining how that belief is lived out in the organization's culture. This last part is critical for making a transition from a static belief or value into how a brand behaves—and builds credibility in the market. The open letter can first be shared internally. Then, we encourage this as the first piece of market-facing content and recommend a post to LinkedIn as an article. This sets the stage for conversations to come and roots the brand in its beliefs in a bold, compelling way. We also encourage visual storytelling to accompany this content.
