Thursday, 23 July 2009

Branding is really just Storytelling

I'm not a huge fan of the branding culture.

And don't get me started on all that personal branding nonsense.

In my view there is a lot of hot air spoken by a lot of supposed experts.

However where I do agree with branding types is that there must be an idea at the centre of your business. An idea that is customer centric and then you must convey that idea to the market in the form of a story that your market gets.

So all branding is storytelling.

Is it that simple?

Remember simple is often not very easy!

1 comment:

Kunocreative said...

I agree that branding is just storytelling, but I wouldn't dismiss personal branding completely. After all, sales is sales, whether you are selling your company, a product, an idea or yourself. An effective brand leaves an indelible mark in your head, one you associate with good or bad feelings, for example Peace Corps or Nazi Party. The story sets the mark and the symbology anchors it. You can think of people like that too, some names that evoke trust, like Walter Cronkite and other that stir up angst in some people, like Rush Limbaugh. Marketers try to create the story and the symbol to fit the desired persona, but it still needs to be delivered via some medium. The best brands seem to deliver themselves, but that's really about clever marketing - both brand creation and delivery.