Storytelling isn't just about crafting stories to entertain; it's a powerful marketing tool that authentically and properly frames your brand’s concept. It helps avoid both overstatements or understatements about what your brand represents. Since a brand reflects your personality, storytelling is essential for communicating who you are, what you do, and what you stand for in a correct way that resonates with both you and your audience. By incorporating storytelling into your brand and marketing strategies, you can seamlessly communicate your vision, mission, values, and how you position your products, creating impactful narratives that engage the right audience. Often, this leads to your products selling themselves through word of mouth, reducing the need for large advertising budgets. Today, as a partner with Pailin Hasegawa, one of the few brand strategists based in Thailand, I am excited to share how she implements storytelling at WYLD to enhance our clients' brands.

Importance of storytelling in branding

Storytelling is the most direct and clear way to introduce a brand. It demands advanced intellectual and emotional skills to turn abstract concepts into tangible, relatable stories specifically for your audience. Think of it as introducing yourself as a brand to a new friend.

A poor introduction of yourself (or a brand) might focus solely on superficial details like appearance or demographics. For instance, you might say something like “I am a Japanese person in my 40s, living in an apartment in the center of Tokyo. I studied a Bachelor of Finance in the UK. As you can see, I wear an Audemars Piguet watch with a 300,000 yen suit but this is only for the weekdays. I like to travel with my family and that’s why I’m in Bangkok today. Oh, and I am a financial advisor. My contact info is on the business card.” Sounds like you are in a visa application interview, doesn’t it? This approach feels more like a formal business introduction than a genuine conversation—it's systematic and lacks human touch and warmth. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s just making it hard for others to feel a personal connection.

In contrast, a good introduction of yourself (or a brand) would likely focus on your personality and meaningful experiences shared with other friends in a way that is relatable to the audience. It would highlight your beliefs, values, and the actions you take based on those values.

It should contain your beliefs, values, and causes, hence who you are and what you do. Your recent commitments and actions according to those beliefs, values and causes as well. For example, “I care about wellbeing while coping in the world of capitalism, especially for those with limited financial literacy. I believe understanding the terms and conditions of banks can become overwhelming for many people, and people should focus more on living in the moment. Financing along the way is important but it should always be a second priority, after taking care of yourself.” This approach not only informs but also creates a bond, as it clearly communicates what matters to you, helping others understand and trust you in specific areas, which probably puts you in a different perspective from the previous example.

Similarly, for a business brand, the strategy shouldn't be much different from this personal approach. In modern civilization today, becoming creditworthy is no longer a unique trait but rather a bare minimum expectation. Since the decision making process of consumers is often driven by emotion and irrationality, storytelling should aim to connect emotionally, making your brand's narrative resonate more profoundly.

Integrating brand concept with storytelling

Integrating your brand concept with storytelling effectively begins by pinpointing the core messages that define your brand. Once these messages are clear, you can create stories that incorporate other elements together, ensuring these stories remain focused on the narrative and connect deeply with your target audience. Remember, your brand is not merely about how others perceive you; it's about reflecting who you truly are. Therefore, this process should emphasize the authenticity of your personality over an idealized image.

Feeling scared that nobody is going to like you when they know who you truly are? Don’t worry. There's always someone out there who will appreciate your true self, which is exactly the audience your brand should attract. Hence the authenticity; without it, it's difficult to attract the right followers.

At our agency, we offer a brand strategy framework that helps business founders and brands transform their scattered and abstract concepts into clear and emotionally engaging storytelling. This method has been extensively used and refined across the world, including in Spain, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the USA. Although the results may not always mimic how Apple branded the Macintosh, which converted 10% of Windows users, our framework and expertise consistently output effective brand narratives for many brands.

Aspects for effective brand storytelling

Through Character: Choose characters that your audience can relate with—characters that represent your brand’s personality and undergo experiences similar to those of your customers. If what you can think of are too general, unclear, or common, factorize and break it down until it becomes absolute enough that anybody in your audience can intuitively understand. refine them by breaking down until they are absolute and clear enough for your audience to grasp intuitively.
Through Unique Value Proposition (UVP) or Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Highlight challenges that your brand's strengths or the benefits of your products can demonstrate how these challenges are overcome. Showcase it in a manner that reinforces your brand concept.
Through Harmony: Maintain consistency in your storytelling across all marketing and communication channels to strengthen your overall brand experience. Consistent narratives help solidify the brand's presence and message throughout the customer journey.

Using storytelling to highlight vision and mission

As all business founders and brand owners understand, clearly defining your vision and mission is crucial for attracting the right team members and customers. Hiring without ensuring alignment with your company’s core beliefs, values, aspirations, and expectations poses significant risks. In many countries like Thailand and Japan, where you cannot simply dismiss employees for poor fit or lack of chemistry, the consequences of a mismatch can become apparent over time, potentially leading to resignations. Well, peer pressure and time can make them realize such misalignment and resign sooner or later. But it's best to attract and select the right people from the start.

Moreover, strong vision and mission statements are essential. They not only guide your storytelling but also ensure that your company's narrative is consistently communicated to internal teams, external stakeholders, and, most importantly, your customers. This alignment simplifies management and enhances authenticity across your business activities. Through storytelling, these core statements come to life, vividly illustrating your company’s objectives, direction, and purpose across all forms of communication.

Positioning products through stories

The final advantage of having storytelling is the positioning of your brand and your products/services. When it comes to a position, storytelling can be a particularly powerful tool. By telling stories that highlight the unique characteristics and benefits of your offerings, you can differentiate your offerings in the marketplace and connect with customers. It provides compelling reasons for customers to choose your products over alternatives. Without these reasons, it literally means they don’t have reasons to stick around with your brand and products once alternatives are introduced or available out there. If the market offers numerous alternatives, customers might typically gravitate towards lower prices or superior quality. No brainer. However, if your products have unique features, functionalities, or values that are not immediately apparent, storytelling can reveal these attributes, making your offerings the preferred choice and not just another option. This is where the authenticity of your storytelling plays a crucial role.

In today's digital marketing landscape, your advertising efforts will be optimized by data analytics, leading to a focus on performance marketing later on to remain competitive. When that comes in, it will be a budgeting war if you still struggle telling what makes your offerings different from alternatives. And that would be so bloody and ugly. Competitors with slightly larger marketing budgets could overshadow you if your offerings appear identical from the customer's perspective. It is essential to highlight any differences through storytelling, ensuring customers see the unique value of your products, which is too significant to overlook.

Conclusion

Before wrapping up this article, I would like to express my gratitude to Pailin for her exceptional expertise and extensive experience in brand strategy and storytelling. I also must disclaim that while this article reflects authentic insights, I am not the primary expert on this subject. But my true perspectives shared here come directly from working with someone deeply involved in this field.

Storytelling is a vital tool in contemporary marketing that, when applied effectively, can vividly convey your brand’s value, articulate your vision and mission, and solidify your product’s position in the market. It transforms your brand into a story that people can connect with, remember, and share their version of the story with others. I believe this is exactly how word-of-mouth happens. Consider whether you want people to remember you for the surreal aspects like your appearance and possessions, or for your true character, your actions, and the values you stand for.

For more information on integrating storytelling into your brand strategy from Pailin’s own words, please feel free to contact us to have a chat with her.

Credits

Primary author: Taishi Worawongwasu Hasegawa - CEO at WYLD.
Author assistant: Manusavee Sattha
Graphic by: Patsorn Arayaluck
Special thanks to Pailin Hasegawa - Head of Creative at WYLD, for foundational insights and expertise in storytelling that inspired this article.

Storytelling: Mastering Brand Concept and Positioning