Creating a narrative that engages your consumer and embraces their lifestyle will build brand loyalty and bolster your bottom line.
The power of stories in consumer engagement is undeniable, but often deciding how to develop your alcohol brand’s story presents a more difficult challenge. In the following article, I’ve outlined some keys to developing killer stories that will appeal to your consumer, grab their attention, and engage their imagination.
The goal of telling effective stories about your brand should always be to lead your consumer from initial awareness, to trial and ultimately, to brand advocate
4 Guidelines For Creating a Killer Story:
- Develop your brand’s essence.
Create a succinct one or two sentence encapsulation of the most important guiding principle or attribute of your brand, then build your story from there. Concentrate on what sets your brand apart.
Are you a small-batch, handcrafted producer? A more established producer with years of experience and credibility?
- Keep it real
Your story must be truthful. A phony or contrived story will be quickly discovered. Today, consumers have unparalleled access to information via the internet, social media, and apps which provide endless sources for fact checking.
- Keep it simple, not technical
Your story should not be a thesis on your locale or overly complex distilling nuances; instead choose the elements of your brand that are simple, differentiated from your competition’s, engaging, and most of all, compelling for your target consumer, their beliefs, and how they live their lives.
- Relate your brand to your consumer’s lifestyle
Do your homework; understand how your consumer thinks, their passions, cultural beliefs, why they choose the alcohol beverages they buy, where and how they consume them, and then provide them with a story that will strongly resonate with these considerations.
Why storytelling sells
- Storytelling builds rapport and trust with your consumer.
Great stories play on emotions and create an emotional connection between your brand and consumers. Your messaging and packaging should exude your story and “speak” to your consumer on shelf, giving them a reason to choose you brand over another.
- Storytelling gives your brand sticking power.
A good story is memorable where simply raw information could easily be forgotten or confused with competitors. Your story allows you to share why you are different.
- Storytelling allows your consumer to “sell” your brand to others
A great brand story will provide consumers with all they need to promote your brand to others; free advertising. Your story gives your consumer something to relate to and, more importantly, to share with others as they enjoy your brand at home or at a bar with friends. A great story should be easy to understand and compelling enough to pass along.
Clear, Simple, and Authentic
Every touch point your consumer has with your brand is a chance to reinforce your story. Carry your brand story throughout all your communications. Wear it like a badge of courage:Clear, Simple, and Authentic.
A great story will reinforce your consumer’s beliefs, relate to their interests and reward their aspirations in order to create an emotional and cognitive connection taking them from:
Awareness… to Trial… to Advocacy…
photo credit: Kerri Lee Smith via photopin cc
- Purchasing Efficiencies & Lead Times - August 27, 2024
- Setting the Stage for Growth for
Sonoma Distilling Co.: A Case Study - January 3, 2024 - Packaging & the Lifecycle of Your Brand - August 31, 2023
Leave a Reply