Good branding will lend itself to emotional storytelling quite naturally.
Storytelling is an art-form as old as time itself, and it has been used down the years as a way to connect with people while at the same time projecting the storyteller as an important, approachable and interesting person; someone who stands out.
Branding is another art-form, but it is not simply about names, logos and website design, it is about how a product or service appears in someone’s perception. The objective of branding is to make a connection with a potential customer which inspires a purchase in the first instance, and which hopefully leads to loyalty and repeat purchases. Good branding is a significant asset to a business, and emotional storytelling is a complex but hugely rewarding way to develop your branding.
Why emotional storytelling is important
Fundamentally your product or service has to supply a need and be fit-for-purpose, but how people are attracted to your product or service is often inspired by emotions. And these emotions are usually an impulse or a feeling; wanting something or aspiring to something. This is why the most important element of brand marketing is establishing who your target audience is, understanding them and designing a brand which speaks to them and is relatable.
Emotional triggers are the purchase motivations or cravings our customers feel when they see our product or service, ie. what do they want when they use it, so you need to ask yourself what emotional triggers your product or service can evoke? Common emotional triggers when looking at branding include:
Being popular or successful in life
Physical and mental wellbeing, comfort and safety
Freedom
Environmental wellbeing
Satisfaction – instant and long-term
If you can build a brand design around the emotional trigger your product or service most closely inspires, then you are making a connection and emotional storytelling.
How to create emotional storytelling with your brand
As with any form of branding, the form of communication has to be right when you are emotional storytelling. You are not telling a story in a literal sense but you are doing it through images, video, words or actions. You need to do this in a way that makes the most impact and is relatable, but it also has to be true to your product, brand and audience.
So:
What emotional trigger would you most associate with your product?
How can this best be communicated?
What IS your story? Is it about you (as the founder)? The product? What it does? What it can do to shape your future?
Create a strategy around the story which offers that emotional trigger but is also consistent with your branding and how it is projected on social media, website design and the product itself
Maintain a close focus on whether the emotional storytelling will sell your product or service. This sounds obvious but it is easy to get carried away on a rousing, passionate journey and forget the fundamental objectives of what you want your brand to do
Is emotional storytelling right for my brand?
While making a connection with your target market is critical to good branding, it isn’t true that every product inspires an emotional motivation. Some products are more functional, logical or transactional and therefore fulfil a basic need rather than inspire an emotional trigger, so you perhaps wouldn’t employ emotional storytelling if you were a tax advisor or were selling aggregate at a builder’s merchants, for example. These are not inspiring products trying to reach out to us on an emotional level.
However, if you are promoting an electric vehicle, recycled products, fitness products, fashion items or any kind of lifestyle gadget you can quite easily connect with a customer using an emotional trigger.
Successful branding advice from Rebus
At Rebus we have the knowledge and experience to understand your product, your market and how you need to communicate and make a connection with your market. Emotional storytelling is one of these methods, and it can be an extremely powerful and effective tool in making that connection and differentiating your product or service in the mind of your target audience. Contact Rebus for branding expertise which can help you identify your emotional triggers and find the best way to tell an emotional story through your branding design.