Paradigm Shift in Brand Management:

The Storytelling Approach

By S. Thomas &KK. Gupta

Branding Elements

The Brand Building Elements: A Brief Description

Building a brand requires use of the elements of marketing communication mix. The dominant elements are :-Advertising: Is a paid form of non personal communication about an organization, product, service or idea by an identified sponsorPersonal Selling: Any paid form of personal presentation of goods and services. Face to face communication between the sender and receiverPublicity: A non personal, indirectly paid presentation of an organization, service, or product is termed as publicity Sales Promotion: A short term inducement of value offered to arouse interest in buying a product or servicePublic Relations: It is an important activity which is done by all from CEO to the employees of the PR DepartmentWebsites and Internet: The use of electronic medium

Objectives of the study

• To provide insights about the shift in Brand Management through the storytelling approach

• To propose a model adopting the storytelling process

• To examine the managerial implications

Research Methodology

• Content Analysis was carried out

• A random search using Google using search key words

– Storytelling approach of branding

– Narrative branding

– Narratives

– Narrative branding activities

• Filtered relevant narrative branding activities

• Articles on Narrative branding

• Details from Websites

Proposed Model

Creating the Brand

Sustaining the Brand

Safeguarding the Brand

Storytelling Process

The Storytelling Approach

• We start our learning process through the different stories we hear in our childhood

• “In one of his last appearances, ‘man’ emerged as a storytelling animal, an animal whose main preoccupation is not truth or power or love or even pleasure, but meaning”(Gabriel, 2000)

• Narrative is now seen as one of the fundamental ways in which humans organize their understanding of the world

• “Narrating is, after all, a major means of making sense of past experience and sharing it with others” (Cortazzi, 2001)

The Storytelling Approach contd..

Creating the Brand

• Brand needs constant shift and release itself in smaller ideas or patterns to the customers for better involvement

• Smaller ideas and patterns through stories make the brands livelier

• Sharing stories becomes pleasurable because one can share anger and happiness (Schindler & Holbrook, 2003)

Creating the Brand contd..

• Patterns make the brand evolve over time and these patterns or ideas can build brands which seem to be more human and could result in a memorable experience when compared to a single and bigger idea maintained by a brand

• Narratives happen to be mental constructs that structure our thoughts towards the phenomena which provide meaning by uniting constituents that lead to outcomes

• “Human memory is story-based and episodic memories provide multiple indices for retrieval and interpretation and therefore facilitate learning” (Shank, 1990)

• Instead of maintaining a pertinent "frame of reference" when focussing on the audience, brand narratives or stories echo with target audiences and deliver vital truths to consumers

• If one tells stories and repeats it on constant basis then it invites clarity (Weick, 1995)

Sustaining the Brand

• Brands have more meaning when they are regarded as conversations• Consumers would seldom recite the positioning statements but they would

definitely recite stories in their mundane life. Stories would turn out ultimately to be more measurable than disassociated facts and as a result spread faster. The audience are engaged in terms of hearing, understanding and remembering the company’s larger narrative concept by sharing stories

• Consumer stories about brands repeatedly involve the user and the usage associations alongside psychological and symbolic benefits which enhances the value of the brand (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993)

• What a brand signifies to a consumer is based on the narratives he or she has structured in the memory that incorporate the brand and it helps in forming a narrative map that links to our memories (Shank & Abelson, 1995)

• Brands would survive longer in the memory of the consumers which would straightforwardly serve the purpose of a brand manager who aims to safeguard the brand

Safeguarding the Brand

Few Examples• Harry Potter Novel: Harry Potter fans shared countless stories about the wizard

which provided an altogether new experience. The stories tend to create further stories and so on. In the technological world these stories which are produced by a consumer could be disseminated around the world

• Exboyfriendjewelry.com: The women sold on this website specific jewelry which their ex-boyfriend gifted. In the product description women shared stories of their breakups which aided in the high sales of the jewelry. The stories are very popular with the buyers who visit their websites regularly

• Rapha Cycling: The Rapha cycling brand sells high end cycling clothing and each clothing consists of a narrative of a legendary cyclist or historical cycling events which make the product more appealing and stronger as a brand

Managerial Implications

• The story telling approaches of brand development could be utilized as a major and effective medium by which brands can become associated powerfully with consumers

• With storytelling approach the space that brand occupies in the hearts and minds of the customers are reinforced strongly

• The manager would have a daunting task managing the meaning in the context of the stories

• Tailor made marketing messages could be devised and moreover the stories could be narrated keeping in mind the company’s employees, founder members or consumers since the future lies in entertaining and emotional narratives

• As a manager the area of prominence would be to realize that people construct stories to make sense of what goes on in the marketing world and the true meaning of a brand is often the outcome of its being part of a story

Thank you