Telling the Right Story

Storytelling is an art. Especially when you have limited time, attention and focus. Storytelling is about crafting a coherent narrative that flows and comes with a punchline – traits that marketers strive to achieve in a campaign and are among the hardest to master. Campaigns that evoke emotion and build memories are 99% routed towards the storytelling approach. 

Empathy is also important. If you do not empathise with your consumer, you will not understand the problem they are facing and the solution they are looking for. This is also true when it comes to emotions. We are all more giving and forgiving during Ramzan, more fearless during a sporting event in which our country participates and more vulnerable when it comes to our families. The challenge is to bring these emotions to life through empathy and connect them with the brand. This is called insight mining and involves a rigorous understanding of the target audience and sifting through large amounts of data. This is the art. It results in the consumer feeling that the brand is genuine and relatable.

Emotions convert audiences from being passive to becoming active recipients of the message. Brands strive to craft a narrative that moves past transactional interactions and adds a human touch. This triggers a bond and a voice that consumers are willing to listen to. Research shows that Gen Z relates more to brands that have a voice and a purpose and are willing to listen to what they are saying. This creates brand presence, noticeability and, eventually, loyalty and advocacy.

Dove and Coke are prime examples of brands that not only embed storytelling in their narrative; they use it to create purpose. Dove stands for ‘real’ beauty, and over the years, it has shown real-life examples of what real beauty means and why women should be confident in who they are. The campaign addressed multiple cultural norms, beliefs and points of view in its narrative and challenged the idea of altered beauty as real beauty. Whether it was a photoshopped model for an outdoor key visual or relying on filters in its recent campaign, ‘Turn your back’, Dove has always stood for reflecting the most vulnerable side of women as being the most beautiful. No wonder Dove is the strongest personal care brand globally, in terms of equity and market leadership. Coke has always stood for ‘happiness’ and spread the message through multiple distinctive brand assets, which have remained consistent over time, countries and cultures. Whether it is bringing families together for a meal or reflecting the bonds of friendship, Coke has stayed true to the shared feeling of happiness. ‘Share a Coke’ was the prime example of such a campaign, where it brought the essence of the brand to life across regions.

There are also numerous examples of local brands doing fantastic storytelling; true and close to our culture. Take Olper’s. Every year, people would wait for its Ramzan campaign that would trigger nostalgia and induce a ‘feel good’ feeling through the music, dialogue and setting.

Shan too has indulged in storytelling several times and executed it brilliantly. We all remember the ‘two brothers’ ad that brought to life the emotions of thousands of people away from home, missing their families and traditions. These campaigns resulted in recognition, memorability and sales for the brand, along with strengthened brand equity – and because the insight was captured well enough to make the brand look and sound more human.

Storytelling also has pitfalls, and only approximately 10% of all branded campaigns are successful in making an impact when it comes to good storytelling. Things can go wrong when the emotions triggered do not look or sound authentic, are too provocative or have no connection with the brand. Any of these reasons can alienate consumers and result in the opposite outcome to what the brand expected. Sometimes a campaign can seem as though the brief was simply to trigger a heightened sense of emotion, and this in my marketing dictionary is called the ‘exploiting the emotion’ syndrome. In some ways, this seems unethical because it capitalises on the consumers’ vulnerabilities. Brand teams should be mindful of not ‘cashing’ on people’s emotions.

Storytelling and triggering an emotional connection with audiences does indeed benefit the brand in the long term. However, marketers need to remember that it needs to be done in a way that resonates with the brand and not just to stand out or fit in. It should come from a need that has to be addressed, serve a purpose and be entrenched in the roots of the brand. It is funny how some brands tend to adopt multiple emotional touchpoints but never own any. It may serve the purpose in the short term, but it can be hazardous for the brand’s equity, as it may make the brand tonality inconsistent. Marketers should be careful in choosing their emotional voice and learn to deliver their story in a manner that is here to stay.

Sarah Siddiqui heads the innovation and portfolio strategyat Unilever, USA.