Your Brand Story
Do you have an interesting story behind the start and growth of your business? Many of us probably do and yet so few choose to tell this story as part of a brand image strategy.
I’ve just visited the wonderful Abel & Cole website for the first time, and whilst I found the website experience itself and product range excellent I was also extremely impressed by the warmth and styling of their brand image and the ‘brand story’ they incorporated into that.
A huge part of the Abel & Cole identity, indeed the actual cornerstone of it, is their commitment not only to ‘good food’ but to the environment (hence the words “good food, the right way”) and thus their offering includes locally and UK sourced organic food, and environmentally friendly packing methods and practices … for example they take the delivery box back and reuse it.
If someone asked you to describe how or why you started your business, would you be able to? What were your motivations? Early struggles? Funny moments? And how do these memories and stories serve to further illustrate the brand that is the cornerstone of everything you do and offer?
How Does One Write A Brand Story?
First of think about the foundations of your story by taking a look over this list of basic questions you should be asking yourself;
1. Why did you start the company, what was the original brand ‘vision’?
2. Who started the company and what part did they play in it success?
3. How was it launched and what were the early days like?
4. What did your product/service offer your customers and how has that developed over time?
5. What has changed over time from the early days?
6. What do you envisage the future of the company to be?
Once you’ve decided on the content of your brand story think about how you will write it, what will the style be? They do say it’s all in the delivery.
Ideally you should deliver your brand story to your audience in a human voice (and I’m not necessarily talking about one of those ‘videos for web‘ - although this could be a good way to deliver a brand story to be honest), but rather the tone of the message needs to seem honest and real and from an actual person rather than sounding like an entry in Wikipedia.
Carry out your storytelling with a character and style that embodies your brand and to appeal to your customers.
When you look around, a lot of companies have become confused between a brand story and their ‘vision or mission statement’. A story is a story and should be told as such.
Do you have an interesting brand story?
June 4th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Hi Amanda,
We had the same leaflet delivered through our door a couple of weeks back, I’m seriously considering getting hold of one of these, unfortunately we dont have a porch or garage that they can leave the stuff in if we’re out. Maybe I’ll make sure I’m around one day just so I can sample the goods. It’d be nice to eat something without my conscience telling me something or someone has been terribly exploited to get it to me.
Great branding and a brilliant site too.
Speak soon,
Matt
June 4th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Yes, we have a vestibule and so even if I don’t hear the door, or am out on the school run it’s fine, they can leave it there.
They do have a specific delivery slot each week though and it’s quite a narrow window, so you could arrange to be in the house at the time of the delivery because it’s very predictable each week.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:04 am
As always an interesting read, brand storys really interest me and I think companys and designers should publicise the history and journey of their brands more.
The Abel & Cole website is really nice, such an organic feel to it, I really love this page as they’ve even managed to reflect an organic feel in the various images.. Such a great example of GOOD brand identity.
June 9th, 2009 at 8:48 am
You know what they also do … just before your first order is delivered they phone you to check you are happy with everything and to pretty much just welcome you to the service.
Then after the order is delivered they phone again and ask if it was ok and tell you that if anything isn’t perfect they’ll come and take it and replace it!
The style of the phone call just feels like a good friend is calling you, totally relaxed and friendly.
The whole ‘brand experience’ with them is shockingly good, I don’t think I’ve had such a good customer experience in my life.
The whole experience just completely 100% matches the style of their story, the website, the literature they send - everything is in perfect harmony with the image they want to present.