Leadership Report on Using brand Narratives. Social Media Marketing - Schulich School of Business

1. Class Leadership Report
Using Brand Narratives
Saumya Soni – 211340916 | Satyameet Ahuja - 211334778

2. A successful brand may be catering and encompassing multi-faceted features or elements in the market. However, what
makes it a brand is the identity it stands for. At McDonald, for instance, meals are not the only component what attracts the
consumers, it is the meal combined with quality, service, value for money, social involvement and place to have fun with
family, that creates a unique experience – aptly complimented by ‘I’m loving it’. But how do you portray these multiple
facets worth promoting through a single medium to multitudes of consumers to reveal/unfold the brand identity?
Well, welcome to the advent of Internet followed by that of social media networking, if the brand wants to tell its story and
be closely knitted to its consumers while displaying all that it has to offer and connect with, using brand narratives is the
way. Essentially, the concept of Brand narratives starts with what brands are: The stories and experiences consumers
associate them with.
Emergence of digital marketing propagated by Social media has clearly crafted a shift in how brands reach out to consumers
or how they need to reinvent their marketing across all media while unfolding brand traits to consumers at each unique
touch point. Until a decade back, what ruled was a monotonous marketing of brands – a one-way promotion and a single
segment focus, assuming that a brand will successfully communicate to a large mass of consumers based on one underlying
need they share in common. However, now brands are increasingly marketed through multi-dimensional and multi-
segmented storytelling– what is popularly being coined as Brand Narration/Journalism! Instead of one positioning
statement, now marketers conceptualize a “positioning narrative”. Why so - Evolution of markets, technology and social
connection have opened the gateway to communication and subsequently enlightened consumers of the layers of needs,
motivations, and concerns they have; followed by their desire to self-express. A brand needs to address all these and more
to grow. In place of rigid positioning statements, customer-driven brand positioning narratives permit companies to better
align their messages with smaller, more defined, perhaps more local, consumer segments and to deliver more germane and
i
engaging communications. This should ideally lead to consumers viewing the brand through their own perspective, usage
requirements and needs.
The brand narrative is a partnership, started by the company but ultimately steered by the consumers. Your brand narrative
ii
is what people have to say about you, and how they connect emotionally with your product or service. Similar to extending
a global brand to local markets, a ‘brand narrative’ seeks to communicate a unified brand position to audiences who may be
psychographically very different.
iii
Brand narratives offer the opportunity to combine three interesting trends:
• The idea that brands should be telling stories
• The layering of a brand’s messages across different channels and platforms, allowing each to play to their strengths
• Our desire to retell, repurpose and remix stories themselves
These trends if strategically leveraged across the multiple channels will allow the brands to remain vibrant & alive in the
minds (and perhaps, hearts) of consumers. A good storyboard for a brand typically uses traditional media to build brand
awareness; digital media to empower the message and build customer retention; and social media to create brand
ambassadors and ensure vibrancy for the brand. Customer stories stand testament to the brand’s position. To illustrate,
the Dove "Real Beauty" campaign shook the cosmetic world a few years back by standing up for individual self-esteem and
iv
exhorting people to question and defy the pretense of media-defined beauty. They did this through strategically unfolding
the different elements/facets of the brand through Television, Youtube, and Facebook.
v
The “brand narrative”, however, constantly has to address following challenges in the purview of how brand is positioned:
• Market Evolution: From a marketing perspective, we all used to be part of one large audience that shared many similar
tastes and viewing experiences. That was long before Tivo or YouTube or even broadband internet connections
• Consumer Authority: When all companies open new lines of communication & more actively engage their consumers in
the marketing process, every company is more receptive to change, and the entire market becomes as vibrant, volatile
and capricious as its consumers
• Consumer Intelligence: Research, product savvy & personal values, empowered by information technologies, are also
challenging conventional ‘positioning’ as key factors in decision-making
• Relevancy: Relevancy requires the flexibility to dress the same positioning in the clothes of each consumer group while
continually keeping one’s eye on fashion trends
• Accountability: Positioning is a very subjective, qualitative concept that can be interpreted in many ways and conveyed
in many forms – marketing, personal transactions, word of mouth, press, reputation, etc. Ultimately it is the cumulative
set of experiences with the brand, versus other brands, that combine to form the consumer’s mind share.
• Consistency: While narratives permit a more liberal, flexible expression of the brand position a balance between the
articulation of a brand, its core purpose and existing market conditions is required

3. i http://www.ddb.com/pdf/yellowpapers/DDB_YP_BrandNarratives_0108.pdf
ii http://www.firstbestordifferent.com/blog/?p=1389
iiihttp://misterthreesixty.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/brand-narratives-whats-the-story
ivhttp://www.wikibranding.net/2008/05/whats-your-brand-narrative.html
v http://www.ddb.com/pdf/yellowpapers/DDB_YP_BrandNarratives_0108.pdf