Brand Storytelling

Written by the award-winning storyteller Miri Rodriguez at Microsoft, this bestselling book gets back to the heart of brand loyalty, consumer behavior and engagement as a business strategy by using storytelling to trigger the emotions that humans are driven by. Despite understanding essential storytelling techniques, brands continue to explain how their product or service can help the customer, rather than showcasing how the customer's life has changed as a result of them. This second edition of Brand Storytelling contains new trends in storytelling, as well as expanding on story experience and employee experience. This book explores the future of brand storytelling in a post pandemic era. New to this edition is also a 'How to Guide' taking readers through each step of the design thinking process in order to prototype their stories. Brand Storytelling provides a step-by-step guide to assess, dismantle and rebuild a brand story, shifting the brand from a 'hero' to 'sidekick' mentality and positioning the customer as a key influencer to motivate the audience. Clarifying why machine-learning, AI and automation only tell one side of the story, this book will inspire you with cutting edge interviews and case studies from leading brands like Expedia, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Adobe and Google to tap into authentic brand loyalty and human connection.

More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times best-selling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions. If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue. In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers. The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you: The seven universal story points all humans respond to; The real reason customers make purchases; How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.

Until this book was written, the phrase "brands are stories" was merely a marketing cliché. Having delved into how stories influence our behavior, however, the author asserts that the association between stories and brands deserves far more than that stock phrase.Among the many books about branding directed toward marketing and advertising practitioners and students, none is like StoryBranding. Modeled after the way stories work, this book provides a unique planning process for creating authentic brand identities. It also reveals a number of concealed traps that other branding approaches often overlook.Drawing on the persuasive power of stories, the author argues that a great deal of wasted effort is put into creating advertising messages that do too much "telling" and too little "showing." To help brands resonate with their audiences, the author takes you step-by-step through StoryBranding's six C's-a process that shows how to approach the development of all brand communications the way story writers approach their characters, plots, and themes. He includes sample "Story Briefs" and "I AM" statements that help brands achieve a greater degree of authenticity than traditional creative or brand briefs have.

Inextricably linked to human evolution, storytelling has always been a key element of the marketer’s toolkit. However, despite extensive practitioner interest, academic research on the topic currently falls short. This book highlights how storytelling has evolved from an ancient art to contemporary marketing science, placing it in the context of digitisation and social media. It reflects the dramatic shift in brand storytelling in which marketers are in the driving seat, leaving consumers to do the navigating. Based within the context of AI, the influence of VR, AR, big data, and new media, this book predicts a creative renaissance in brand storytelling; one that will be at the intersection of science, art and humanity. The author suggests that there will be a shift from ad to art through the use of cognition and emotion, data and fiction. It suggests that through storytelling, brands will be able to connect with their customers’ hearts and minds. Drawing upon interdisciplinary research on neuroscience, emotional attachment and narrative theory, the book critically analyses existing theories, practices and applications of storytelling, providing a platform for debate between academics, researchers and practitioners.

This innovative new text introduces students to the power of storytelling and outlines a process for creating effective brand stories in a digital-first integrated marketing communications plan. From the earliest works on storytelling to the latest research, this text explains why and how storytelling works, the forms storytelling takes, and how to develop an integrated advertising, PR, and strategic marketing communications campaign that leverages the power of story within the reality of today’s digital-first media landscape. Keith A. Quesenberry and Michael K. Coolsen present a balance of research and theory with practical application and case studies within a classroom-friendly framework for undergraduate or graduate courses or for the marketing communications professional looking for a guide to integrate storytelling into their brand communications. Emphasizing digital and social media perspectives in the strategic planning and campaign process, Brand Storytelling also surveys TV, radio, outdoor, print opportunities as well as earned, shared, owned, and paid media. Features: Chapters introduce discipline foundations through key figures, main content sections explaining concepts with examples, templates and stats, a main case study, questions for consideration, and list of key concepts for review. Coverage of new technologies in Web3, such as NFTs, cryptocurrency, media streaming, CTV, and the metaverse, ChatGPT, and DALL-E 2. Key terms are bolded and defined throughout and featured in a glossary along with an index of key concepts, figures, companies, and cases for easy reference. Plan/campaign research addresses evaluation and optimization of IMC execution including descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. Instructor resources include chapter outlines, learning objectives, test banks, slides, forms, template worksheets, example assignments, and syllabi.

This book presents new global research on transmedia storytelling as a form of brand communication. It explores the theoretical underpinnings of transmedia storytelling and its practical application through survey and interview data from creatives, marketing, advertising and public relations practitioners. The final section analyzes contemporary campaigns from various countries and proposes a Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice, based on primary and secondary research data. The book aims to better understand and communicate the real-world opportunities and barriers to producing transmedia brand storytelling campaigns for practitioners.

“All marketers should heed [the] advice” of this brand marketing guru in his latest book on digital storytelling.” —Joseph V. Tripodi, former Chief Marketing Officer, Subway and Coca-Cola Stories are orders of magnitude which are more effective than facts at achieving attention, persuading, being remembered, and inspiring involvement. Signature stories?intriguing, authentic, and involving narratives?apply the power of stories to communicate a strategic message. Marketing professionals, coping with the digital revolution and the need to have their strategic message heard internally and externally, are realizing that a digital strategy revolves around content and that content is stories. Creating Signature Stories shows organizations how to introduce storytelling into their strategic messaging, and guides organizations to find, or even create, signature stories and leverage them over time. With case studies built into every chapter, organizations will realize the power of storytelling to energize readers, gain visibility, persuade audiences, and inspire action.

Brand Bewitchery is for leaders of purpose-driven brands who seek a proven system to clarify their brand story, amplify their impact and simplify their life. The book guides readers through the Story Cycle System(TM) to craft their overarching brand narrative, a process that has grown business by as much as 600 percent. But how you tell your story is critical to success. Brand Bewitchery also includes two dynamic story structures. Readers will learn the And, But & Therefore foundational narrative framework to focus all of their messaging for more compelling communications. Plus, they will apply the Five Primal Elements of a short story to create a big impact. Brand Bewitchery features 12 precise story quests: individual and team-building exercises that help the brand creator find, craft and tell true stories that sell. These real-life stories not only support their new brand narrative crafted within these pages but ensure their content hacks through the noise to hook the hearts of their customers. When finished with this guide book, readers will have revealed their most powerful stories for their personal brand to grow their influence and their business brand to generate a measurable increase in sales while increasing the productivity of their people and enhancing lives in the communities they serve. The storytelling structures in Brand Bewitchery, tested over more than a decade through hundreds of businesses and the thousands of people, simply help leaders excel through the stories they tell.