Make Your Brand More Relatable and Memorable: Storytelling brings B2B brands and technical solutions to life.
Stories shape perceptions
The oldest surviving written story is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It’s a Mesopotamian poem written over 4000 years ago, which explores the human condition by charting the epic quest of its eponymous hero as he seeks immortality. The authors of Gilgamesh and other ancient stories knew that the best way to teach complex lessons about behaviour and morality was through enchanting, stirring tales.
Stories like Gilgamesh, The Maharabat and the Bible provide ways to connect with each other, share principles, preserve knowledge, and make sense of the world around us. I know that I should always be kind to the less fortunate because I learned the parable of The Good Samaritan in school. And I know to always wear a seatbelt because my Dad told me - in wonderful, gory detail - what it’s like to travel face first through a windscreen!
It’s the way you tell ‘em
Kurt Vonnegut said there were only five ‘shapes’, which all stories are variations of. Christopher Booker wrote that there were seven basic plot types. And when it comes to Tom Cruise movies there is only one…Tom the unfeasibly good bartender, racing driver, pilot, sports agent, master of disguise etc.
But as people who read bedtime stories to their children know, it’s the way we tell the ‘Boy Meets Girl’ or ‘The Man in the Hole’ story that makes a difference. Stories don’t have to be original, but they do have to be relatable.
Relatable, human brands
Arguably there are only a handful of brand positioning ‘shapes’. Accordingly, it is essential to find distinctive and connective ways of telling brand stories. A minority of providers of complex, technical services understand the power of stories and establish distinctly human voices. Brands such as Workday, IBM and Salesforce tell good stories and tell them well. But too many B2B brands still rely upon technical jargon and standardised ‘industry’ language.
Great stories need great story-telling
The Rocky films are based on the plot shape ‘Overcoming The Monster’. The gritty underdog goes the distance and turns expectation on its head. Stirring stuff. But imagine the plot being summarised by a typical B2B marcoms team…
“In a market dominated by established players with proven reputations, Rocky faced the significant challenges of building capability and gaining recognition. By executing a bold strategy of unparalleled applied determination, he proved a sustainable opponent capable of delivering superior solutions over time.”
Written by Simon Case
See how Chromatic has helped brands to develop and grow authentic and differentiated names:
