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PART B: Authentic Brands Live Their Story! Does Yours?

October 22, 2018 By The Brand Ascension Group

A powerful brand story, when executed well—builds trust, connection, and loyalty with your audience.

In Part A of this post, we talked about authentic brands and how they live and breathe their story and how it’s reflected in their core essence—what they stand for and how they show up. You trust their story because you experience it through the living of their values and consistency in the promises they make and keep to their employees and customers.

So we posed some questions. How do you compose a compelling story that you can live up to? How do you know if your brand’s story is believable to your employees? How do you know if it resonates with your customers?

  • You’ll know it when it engages them and consistently guides their behaviors and actions in ways that make them continue to want to be a part of and insist on your brand.

And how do you guide their behaviors? Your brand must deliver to your employees and customers an experience that builds trust in what you stand for and creates an emotional bond that is continually reinforced.

  • Your brand’s story and how you live it must affect the way they feel, the way they think, and the way they act…consistently!

Here are a few ideas to kick-start your organization in living and breathing your brand’s story:

Define Your Story (What Does Your Brand Stand For?)
At the heart of your brand’s story is a special message that comes from the core of what your business was founded on and what you aspire to be. Ask the following questions:

  1. What does your brand believe in?
  2. What core values guide your behaviors?
  3. What standards of performance do you adhere to?
  4. What sets you apart from your competitors?
  5. What’s your personality as a brand?
  6. Does your brand have a strong point of view? If so, what is it?
  7. What makes your brand different or special?
  8. What emotions do you want your brand to evoke in others?
  9. What’s the overall ‘lingering feeling’ for those who experience your brand?

Craft and Communicate Your Special Story
Distill the elements of what your brand stands for into a unique value proposition by weaving the answers to the above questions into a powerful story.

  • Keep the story as simple as possible, yet compelling for your employees and customers to be intrigued and want to be a part of what you stand for.
  • Make sure it is authentic to your brand.

How you communicate is just as important as what you communicate.

  • Think about how to convey your story and the vocabulary and tone (congruent with your brand’s personality) used to express what you say you are.
  • Develop a list of words that represent your brand and incorporate those terms in all of your communications.

One story model to consider is to build a storyline around a typical customer (e.g., ‘Jane’) experiencing your brand through a guided visualization. Be sure to include multi-sensory descriptions that compel and engage the customer throughout the brand experience. This type of story-writing model is a great exercise for not only the leadership, but for the employees to attempt. This will provide you with a great sense of what your employees think about how they live your story and may be an interesting exercise to use in conveying the message.

Make sure your story is communicated clearly and directly. Get creative in how the message is expressed in all your print and online communications, and your daily written and oral interactions with your employees and customers. Consistently spread the word about your story so it reinforces your brand’s value proposition.

Live Your Story through Every Facet of Your Business—the Power is in the Execution
Make sure you hire people who can relate and share the principles behind your brand’s story. Ingrain it in the minds of your employees so everyone believes it and lives it.

  • Integrate the essence of your story into your employee on-boarding processes, training and development programs and how you reward and recognize your employees.
  • It’s your employees that make the story come alive so make sure they understand their role in playing out your story.
  • Observe your employees in action. Observe how your customers respond.

MAKE IT REAL. Infuse the essence of your story through all aspects of the customer experience from initial contact to sales or service transaction, support and follow-up.

  • Establish policies, systems and processes that support what you stand for, and reinforce the story at every touch point.
  • Continually assess and evaluate to ensure you are living your story to the fullest. Continue to ask your customers and employees for feedback. Make adjustments to ensure you live up to your story.
  • Ensure a sense of urgency to correct immediately when you ‘slip up’. This will only foster goodwill among your employees and customers in how you strive to live your story.

If clearly articulated and lived consistently, the story behind your brand can be truly inspiring—propelling the success of your business. It can unite your organization behind a common purpose—your special story, engaging your employees to live and breathe it, while captivating your customers so they keep coming back to experience it.

 

By Carol Chapman, Former Co-founder, The Brand Ascension Group

Filed Under: brand building, Brand Culture, Brand Definition, Internal Branding, Organizational Values Tagged With: brand culture, Brand Definition, Brand Stories, business branding, Business Performance, Corporate Values, Organizational Values, small business branding

Testimonials

Tonya-round-BW-web“Building on a lot of prior soul-searching and “inside work,” the Personal Brand Presence DNA process has helped me to step into an image that is consistent with who I know myself to be. It helped me to articulate what it really means to walk my talk in a way that’s visible and tangible, not just to me but also to others, and I will forever be grateful for that.”
Tonya Henderson, Ph.D, Gly Solutions
DeniseWhitaker-BW-Round“Taking the Personal Brand Presence course was like going through a re-birthing process for myself. It was truly enlightening to have that alone time with ME, and rediscover who I was. The course and consulting sessions were empowering, and added so much confidence to my state of being!”
Denise Whitaker, Realtor
“For years, I have been the gerbil on the wheel, trying with all of my energy, to be all things to all people.  It is so liberating to focus on the strengths I bring to the table and not worry about who that will line up with.  I love what you said about how when you let go of those who don’t line up, it only opens the door for more of those who do.  I am totally seeing that happen in my life and especially in my business!  I shared this with my business coach and he said that you were rig… Read more
Lisa Gross, Sr. Mortgage Lender, Peoples National Bank
“By participating in Suzanne’s Personal Brand Mastermind Group I revealed my true, distinctive brand attributes which has allowed me to actively live my true brand self. It has been a tremendous value for my networking and branding of my consulting practice. Her program was professionally crafted and delivered with personal support and guidance. I would recommend Brand Ascension’s programs for any person or organization looking to elevate their brand presence.”
Mark ShadlePresidentSpeed2ResultsColorado Springs
“When I first came into the Personal Brand Mastermind program, I felt like my business was in a good place (just landed my biggest client to date) and wasn’t sure if it was for me. After JUST Module 1, I realized how much MORE my business can be and everything I have missed or currently am missing. What a powerful program by Suzanne and the Brand Ascension Group! Can’t wait for Module 2! Check her out if you are looking to take your business to another level and find YOUR BRAND DNA!” … Read more
Nathan Darrington, CEO, ND Total Web Design
“Suzanne is a subject matter expert and superb facilitator for building a dynamic culture and brand. I have been in two organizations that immersed themselves in her engaging and powerful Brand DNA process. Her process fully enrolls everyone from customer facing staff to senior executives so that all conclusions are readily embraced and instantly internalized by all stakeholders. If your enterprise wants to experience immediate and lasting transformation, engage Suzanne.”
Robert Todd, Operations & Finance Expert
“Suzanne is personable, precise in her communications, and extremely professional. Her concept and methodology of brand development is simple and powerful, and it’s already reaping great results! Her vast experience and impeccable integrity make her a powerful member of my business team. I highly recommend Suzanne to any business owner seeking greater impact and a bigger bottom line! Great Results, Expert, High Integrity!”
Chevy Chevallard, CEO, Conduct Your Life!
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting such a breakthrough!” That is what you will tell yourself when you complete one of Suzanne’s Personal Brand Mastermind courses. If you are not aligned with your authenticity, everything in your life will suffer as a result. I highly recommend anyone who wants to get to the next level in business or their personal life to enroll in this series. This is an exclusive training program for high-caliber, high-potential clients so be ready to roll up your sleeves do… Read more
Cory Arcarese, CEO, CArc Media

SarahRyals-Pic“Suzanne creates a wonderful experience to build an understanding of brand, especially for those who are new to brand basics. Her teaching modules are clear, well organized, thoughtfully explained, and she does a great job coaching teams through the work. The final outcome is an actionable foundation for delivering a consistent, meaningful brand experience for all the brand’s stakeholders.”

Sarah Ryals, Women's Resource Agency Board Member
“I highly recommend Suzanne for website, branding, and any and all creative work. She is excellent to work with: fast, on-time, full of fresh ideas, offers solutions, great attitude, multi-talented…and also fun! Suzanne has been a tremendous asset to Grizzard and our marketing program. She is an integral part of our team and success.”
Stacy Guidice, Marketing Dir., Grizzard Communications

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