What Is a Brand Story? How to Tell One That Captivates

An interesting fact: 84% of consumers decide to buy from a brand when they feel an emotional connection (according to Sprout Social). This confirms once again why building a brand story (Brand Story) matters if you want to stand out from competitors. So what is a brand story? How do you create one that touches customers' hearts? In this article, The MONA will explain what a Brand Story is and list the steps to build an engaging, highly consistent brand story.

What is a brand story, really?

Put simply, a Brand Story is the process of connecting with customers, making an impression and inspiring them through the story and development journey of a brand. It can be a creative, inspiring telling of the brand's origin, history, values, goals, aspirations and mission.

Building a brand story is completely different from Content Marketing. Content Marketing focuses on creating content to advertise and educate customer behavior, while a Brand Story helps a brand communicate its core values, vision, mission and the emotions of its customers. In other words, content marketing is the tool and the channel through which a brand tells its story, while the “art” of Brand Storytelling is what makes that story compelling. It is a way that is storytelling marketing extremely effective, helping build your brand image get closer to consumers.

Successful brand stories include TH True Milk, Biti’s, Coca Cola, Trung Nguyên Coffee and Cocoon Vietnam. These brands do not just sell products. They bring stories that spread widely, are full of humanity and build deep connections with customers. Teachers also need a story of their own, and that is the foundation of personal brand.

Why does a “brand story” matter?

It is no accident that a Brand Story plays a key role in a brand's marketing strategy. A successful brand story helps a brand:

• Attract new customers through shared values and interest in the brand's story. The more personal the brand story is and the more practical value it creates, the more distinctive character it builds, and the easier it is to “reach” customers.
• Build trust and raise the rate of brand recognition as well as retain customers, especially for brands that offer online products or services.
• Boost sales and persuade customers to choose your products over competitors'.
• Create a strong marketing “wave” through sharing on social media, if your story is good enough and carries humane values.

How to build a successful brand story in 5 steps

If you are looking for an effective way to create a brand story, the 5 steps below will help you build a Brand Story that is both authentic and inspiring:

Understand your target customers

Every brand story is an emotional bridge between the storyteller and the listener, between the brand and the customer. Only when listeners feel a shared outlook with the brand, and see that the product or service can solve their problem, will it trigger buying behavior. Only then is the way you write your brand story truly successful.

So what you need to do is understand clearly who your target customers are and what they need and want. Understanding your “guests” is the “key” to defining the right message, style and storytelling tone.

Example: In the brand story of TOMS Shoes (“Buy One, Give One”), TOMS understands its target customers very well. Its customers are mostly urban Millennials and Gen Z who like casual canvas shoes and always think, “What good does what I buy do for society?”; 37% of young buyers are willing to drop a brand if its values do not match their beliefs. Understanding the insight that “a purchase must mean something” is the key that let TOMS write a story of “helping people” as the motive for buying.

Understand the brand's core values

Before you start writing a brand story for your brand, you must first understand and empathize with the brand's core values and identity, the brand story you want to deliver to customers. You also need to be sure that the Brand Story aims for authenticity and creates benefit. By “brainstorming” each value to find the core focus and the content you want to spread, you can create a draft that retells the brand story in a more authentic, emotional and empathetic way.

Example: TOMS defined its business purpose as “use business to improve lives” and committed to turning profit into concrete social impact: giving shoes, supporting education, mental health and more. Stating clearly “business to give” keeps the story consistent, so it is not seen as a passing advertising trick.

Define the purpose and message of the story

A brand story should focus on a clear purpose: creating an emotional connection with customers while conveying core values and brand positioning. To do this, ask yourself what customers will remember about the brand after hearing the story, what problem the story solves for them, and how to keep the message consistent with the brand's long-term vision. Remember that the message must be short, easy to understand and focused on customer benefits rather than a list of product features.

Example: The message “One for One – buy a pair, give a pair” is extremely short and memorable, and states the benefit to the community right away rather than just describing the shoes. After hearing it, customers immediately understand that “I am part of the solution.”

Build a main character for the brand story

When writing a brand story, treat the customer as the main character, facing real challenges. The brand plays the role of a companion, offering solutions that help them overcome difficulties. By building an authentic picture of the customer's worries, the brand creates deep empathy. When customers feel they are at the center of the story, they find it easy to relate to, support and stay loyal to the brand over the long term.

Example: In the TOMS brand story, the customer is the “hero” who wants to help children who lack shoes. The brand plays only the “companion” that provides the tools: whenever you buy shoes, TOMS takes care of the giving. This motif makes buyers feel they are creating positive change, which stirs far stronger emotion than hearing a brand praise itself.

Develop a complete plot

For a brand story to truly touch customers' hearts, build the plot around their own lives and help them solve their problem. Leading customers through their journey of change starts with analyzing the main character's strengths, weaknesses and daily habits.

The story needs to show clearly the turning point that made them decide to change, along with the specific challenges they face. Then the brand appears as a trusted companion, offering a solution that helps them overcome the difficulties. Most important is to show the character's positive transformation after this journey, which confirms the real value the brand delivers.

Example:

• Beginning: In 2006, Blake Mycoskie traveled to Argentina and saw many children walking to school barefoot, easily getting sick and dropping out.
• Conflict: “Lacking shoes means losing the chance to learn and losing safety.”
• Solutions: He founded TOMS; for every pair of shoes sold, a new pair is donated.
• Results: After nearly 20 years, 100 million+ pairs of shoes have been given and 105 million+ lives positively impacted. TOMS expanded the model to eyewear, clean water and mental health, proving the story does not stop at a pair of shoes.
• Vision: It continues to “use business to improve lives,” and now directs ⅓ of its profits to social impact funds, so the story keeps moving forward.

→ You may be interested in:

• How to write an advertising TVC script
• Short video script template

Emphasize values and vision while telling the brand story

A convincing brand story needs to deliver a clear message about core values and long-term vision. When told consistently, the story becomes a strong tool for emotional connection with target customers, helping them not only remember the brand easily but also pushing them to buy.

Example: TOMS stresses its core message “Use business to improve lives.” Giving 1/3 of profits keeps the TOMS story moving forward: the more it sells, the bigger the community fund grows, and buyers keep playing the central role in social change.

Lessons from brand stories that attract few people

Keep the Brand Story consistent and authentic

An inconsistent Brand Story will never reach customers' hearts. Make sure the message is delivered in sync across your staff, store design, social media campaigns and your official website.

You also need to make sure the story you tell is authentic. Users are smart and can easily spot it if you communicate something untrue. Only when the Brand Story is told authentically and consistently at every “touchpoint” can a brand truly leave a mark and win customers' trust.

Use emotional leverage

In practice, customers forget the messages you deliver, but they remember clearly the emotions a brand story gives them. That is why a Brand Story needs to focus on emotion. Build a story that hits customers' psychology and creates real feelings. Then customers not only remember the brand longer but are also inspired by the story you tell.

According to research from the International Emotion and Memory Research Association (IEMRA), experiences tied to negative emotions are usually remembered longer than those tied to positive emotions. This opens a new angle for Brand Story: instead of only telling success stories, dare to share failures and difficulties honestly. These “stumbling” stories create deep emotional connections and help customers remember and trust the brand for a long time.

Choose the right storytelling medium

For a brand story to reach customers effectively, choose a medium that fits each channel. On your website or social media platforms, you can use simple text or video. You can also get more creative by displaying drawings that tell the brand's journey in your store, or producing interactive videos that walk customers through the story.

Encourage users to tell the brand story

Instead of talking about itself, a brand should create chances for customers to share their real experiences with your product or service. At the same time, you can design simple but valuable campaigns such as a branded hashtag, a mini game for sharing stories between customers and the brand, or interviews with a few typical customers. These authentic stories spread more powerfully than any flowery advertisement and build lasting trust with current and future customers.

Example: Dove lets customers tell the story by constantly giving “the stage” to content made by real people. It uses everyday women as ad models, launches memorable hashtags (#RealBeauty, #ShowUs, #TurnYourBack) and invites people to share unedited photos, videos and experiences. Many posts are put on billboards, TVCs or the Getty image library, and even tied to donations and social advocacy. By turning customers into main characters and giving them a clear meaning in sharing, Dove has kept the “real beauty” story alive for two decades without flowery advertising.​

A good brand story can completely change how customers see your brand. But how do you turn that story into film that touches viewers' hearts and delivers real business results? At MONA Media, we understand that every business has its own story that needs to be told in its own special way. With an experienced production team and a professional workflow, our TVC and corporate film production service helps you convey your brand message fully, leave a lasting impression on target customers and, most importantly, convert it into real sales.

Let MONA Media accompany you in building a brand story that “touches” customers' hearts with corporate filming services professional production! With MONA Media, you get more than a beautiful video. You get a “brand film” that tells the right story, reaches the right audience and drives action!

→ Explore other filming and photography services at MONA Media: 

• TVC production
• Corporate profile photography
• Video ad production

That is everything you need to answer the question what is a brand storyand how to make one effectively. A Brand Story is the key that helps a brand connect deeply with customers through authentic values and emotions that touch the heart. If you are looking for a professional partner to turn your brand's story into impressive TVC films, contact MONA Media, an experienced creative team producing corporate advertising videos with a well-structured production process, for the best support!