Branding/Storytelling
Branding and Storytelling is a skill that I am familiar with, and enhancing my knowledge with this skill is an essential aspect for me to promote better a company I am going to work with or even promote my brand hopefully in the near future. The reason why I would like to focus on this skill is that branding/storytelling is what makes each business unique from one another. Furthermore, based on the Marketing Insider Group, Stories are scientifically proven to get a person’s attention. In fact, stories stimulate brain activity. When we read or hear plot points, our neurons start firing—and not just in the part of the brain that controls the language center. Brand storytelling is the process of creating your business’s narrative that helps connect the brand to your customers. With the brand story, businesses hope that customers can resonate with their values.
What I would want to achieve after this research is to be able to use the Sennheiser brand story and understand it to create a unique experience for my group’s PR Plan for them. I believe that keeping Sennheiser’s vision in mind, we can create a PR plan that will suit the brand.
“We are shaping the future of the audio industry, based on our history, our culture of innovation and our passion for excellence.“
Sennheiser’s Vision
The video below summarizes and explains the book written by Donald Miller titled “Building a Storybrand.”
What I got from this video is that having an interesting or eye-catching brand story is enough because some do not care about it. Some people do not care about the values of a company at all. However, every human being wants to be invited by the story. They would want to be included in the story the company is telling. They would want to hear that the brand can offer them something much better, customers would want to know if the brand can provide them a better life, if the brand can help them overcome their struggles or serve as a guide to them. With this I finally understood that not a lot of company is doing this, not many companies talk about what they can do to the customers but instead they talk about their accomplishment and how they manage to reach where they are. Because of this, I compiled some brand stories that I feel are able to apply the fundamentals of creating a good brand story.
Tom Story
Brand Story: According to their website, founder Blake Mycoskie “witnessed the hardships faced by children growing up without shoes” while traveling in Argentina in 2006. “Wanting to help, he created Toms Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a new pair of shoes for a child in need.”
To date, Toms says it has given more than 50 million pairs of shoes to children in need, has helped restore sight to over 360,000 people, and has helped provide over 250,000 weeks of safe water in six countries. In addition, Toms launched its Bag Collection in 2015. With each bag purchased, the brand says it will help provide a safe birth for a mother and baby in need.
The Reason for Their Success: The reason why they became successful is because now customers look past the brand itself and see what benefits it could give to other people. Tom’s social media shows the different communities or people they have reached out too, which gives a customers a better view of the brand.
Go Pro
Brand Story: Aside from the video above, the founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman writes, “GoPro helps people capture and share their lives’ most meaningful experiences with others – to celebrate them together. Like how a day on the mountain with friends is more meaningful than one spent alone, the sharing of our collective experiences makes our lives more fun. The world’s most versatile cameras are what we make. Enabling you to share your life through incredible photos and videos is what we do.”
The Reason for Their Success: The company focuses on the community and sharing. What began as an idea to help athletes document themselves, GoPro has “become a standard for how people capture themselves engaged in their interests, whatever they may be.”
Airbnb
Brand Story: Airbnb says in their website that the company is a trusted community marketplace for consumers to list, discover, and book unique accommodations for unique travel experiences.
The Reason fo Their Success: Airbnb has challenged the hotel industry and totally redefined an experience, where there is a much better trust and connection with the owner to the customer. As a result, as noted in its brand story, it boasts a community of loyal users.
After this research, it has dawned to me that I still have many things to understand, that I have to look deeper into the company’s purpose and not only focus on their product that much. Moving forward, I believe that with my current understanding, I can brand not only a company but as well as myself. Speaking of branding myself, before I end this post, I would love to share one video that has resonated with me, and I would be using it as a guide whenever I brand myself or my business.
Marc Yuan 