The big misunderstanding of the Brand Story

Selfie, FOMO, Cloud School. Just a few of the buzzwords that have emerged recently. Marketing communication is no exception, we also have our trendy things. Words that most professionals feel like they have to put in the ppt file to be considered up-to-date. The Brand Story is one that gives way to a lot of interpretations, many of which are totally wrong in my opinion.

Before I joined Ogilvy a few months ago, we had developed a new brand building method with some friends. Our starting point was that the traditional models of Brand Positioning do not work anymore in the conversation era. We merged memetic science, consumer archetypes, and a special storytelling tool to create a system that resulted in the Brand Story instead of a Brand Positioning. But to tell you the truth, the reason marketers need one of these two models is exactly the same. There should be a clear definition of the brand and its consumers before you go out to the market and start communicating.

As I can see all over the web, many professionals think that the brand story is an actual testimonial of a consumer using the brand. Well, if that is the case, we will end up with a billion identical pieces of videos.

I believe we should give the Brand Story a much broader definition. It is the role of the brand in the story of the consumer's life, it is the way a brand helps reach your goal, the way you can overcome your difficulties and finally, as the hero of your own story, find the happy end.

Well, you could ask then, what is the difference between the Brand Story and the Brand Positioning? Actually, not much. But there is one thing that changes the way brands will have to communicate in the future. While the focus of the Brand Positioning is the brand itself, the Brand Story has a hero, and it is always the consumer. Marketers should understand that their brands are no more in the spotlight, but they are only one of the tools the hero of the story can decide to use when he sets off for his fictional journey and tries to achieve his goal.