Every successful brand is an amalgamation of multiple stories. Marketers are the story-tellers. Storytelling ads with appealing scripts and fascinating images are more likely to get embedded in the human memory and stay for long.
Today, while writing this, some ads that are flashing in my memory from my childhood in the 80’s are that of Bajaj bulbs, which showcased within few seconds, a sweet story on the jingle ‘Jab main chhota bachcha tha, badi shararat karta tha’, and that of Bajaj scooters, evoking patriotic feelings through ‘Buland Bharat ki buland tasveer, hamara Bajaj’.
And then also those refreshing old-time Amul ads that were replayed during COVID 2020 to convey positive & comforting feelings that the ad storylines could instill, along with touching the nostalgic chords.
Not just ads, but every element of a brand – be it the name, logo, symbol, mascot, packaging – has something to say to the customer. The impish mascot, Gattu of Asian Paints, established relatability between the brand & its customers in earlier days. Those of you who never had the chance to interact with endearing Gattu should go to my article recounting the Asian Paints story under the Brand Stories section of The Branding Nook, after reading this one.
Marketing communication has travelled a long road, undergoing transformation at every turn. Most impactful has been the infusion of technology, which has widened the canvas for marketers to tell stories in new forms. Gattu, devised in 1954, could touch hearts of customers by just standing still with a paint can & brush in hand.
Videocon, in order to change its image, underwent re-branding, with the symbol ‘V’ becoming more fluid to denote the new energy of the brand. In 2009, Videocon devised two fictitious animated characters Chow and Mow who won hearts with their hyper moves and antics. They made up two distinctive parts of Videocon’s logo ‘V’, portraying the new value proposition of ‘Experience Change’. Technology marvel well displayed.
One brand whose every element, from its name, products, packaging, ads, tagline, music (of TV show Malgudi days), all come together to create a beautiful story portraying its brand positioning of childhood memories & nostalgia is, as many of you must have guessed already, the ethnic beverage brand Paper Boat.
So we see, many roles are played by a story in helping a brand achieve its different objectives. Be it awareness creation, image building, image change, giving meaning, evoking emotions, building relations and so on.
All of you marketers, skill up the art of storytelling. Stories that sell will bring you close to those sales which ultimately matter in business.
Brands & life are very closely inter-linked, each inspiring the other. And stories form an integral part of both.
A phase of life, memories of which infuse a celebratory rhythm in our body, wrap our mind with a sweet aroma and bring immense joie de vivre into our heart, is our childhood days.
This one statement I am sure has made all of you nostalgic with so many images, moments & memories flashing before your eyes.
One memory of the childhood days, which most of us have in common, is of growing up with different tales. Be it the magical fairy tales, bed-time tales or anytime-everytime tales from our doting Grand Ma. We imbibed life’s important lessons and values through those childhood tales and stories.
Stories form an important part of every culture, which get passed from one generation to another and add to the well-being of the society. Humankind since times immemorial has remained closely connected with stories, though the source & form may have differed. From the cave walls to Facebook walls, from our prehistoric ancestors to Gen Z, every age has/had the charm for the storied world.
As development, be it industrial, scientific, economic, social, technological and others, picked pace and started to change the world with lightning speed, somewhere the pristine glory of stories started getting lost. Happiness found new abode in material, machine & media, and it is very transient. The stories from our childhood stay with us for many years together, even generation after generation. Can we say the same for today’s stories, which we consume from new media?
Stories have not lost their captivating power. Its only that their navigation through the complex and cluttered environment of today has weakened their staying power, as expressed by Lavanya Wadgaonkar, Head, Global Strategy and International Communications, Nissan Motor Corporation, at India Communication Summit ’21. Fast-paced life, resultant stress, has shortened the attention span of human brain, making the old long story forms lose their relevance.
Traditional story style was pushed to the side and had to be re-invented for a break through.
When stress, depression, illness started showing their burgeoning effects, solace & relief was found in stories. When FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) and the likes dominated world weaved the inescapable web of humongous info & content, re-invented stories increasingly caught our attention and found credibility. As per Statista report, published in June, 2021, the global data creation is projected to reach more than 180 zettabytes by 2025, up from 64.2 zettabytes in 2020.
That’s the immensity of content floating around us. Mind boggling, isn’t it?
In the current zeitgeist of the digital & data loaded world, stories in new avatar have re-surfaced and can be found occupying the centre space. Nowadays, I see the word ‘Story’ at so many obvious & non-obvious places and uses.
Old tools are getting re-packaged. Like the era of traditional CVs is gone past and is replaced by Portfolios, which tell a story about the candidate.
New tools are getting created. Like Storytelling has become a popular teaching pedagogy. Teaching Management through Mythology, another engaging tool. Devdutt Pattanaik, famous Indian mythologist, writes extensively on relevance of mythology in modern times, and gives lessons in areas of management, governance and leadership, by relating to stories from Indian mythology.
New methodologies like storyboarding helps in data storytelling. Data visualisation tools and technologies like Tableau, Power bi, Qlik etc. are used for reporting and visual analysis. Then there are qualitative research tools like ATLAS.ti which help analyzing textual, graphical & video data. All of these help presenting & analyzing data in new, interesting ways. Thus, makes the trickiest and most crucial area of business, appealing and easy to comprehend. Recently, I got completely blown away when I came across ‘The Cartoon Guide to Statistics’ by Larry Gonick & Woolcott Smith. What more can a data fearing person like me ask for!
Today, anything & everything ‘Story’ catches the eyeballs. On Spotify, I am following a podcast named ‘Story tellers and Story sellers’. The content is definitely very engaging. But was my selection of this podcast due to the appeal factor of the word ‘Story’ in it? Maybe yes.
Stories are no more confined to certain defined media and boundaries. Creative marketers have turned every space available, which meets any of the human senses, to be a space capable to tell a story. Recently we have seen many brands saluting the efforts of COVID warriors through their innovative storytelling campaigns.
The brand Slice, a mango drink from the house of PepsiCo India, has launched an Instagram augmented reality (AR) filter that changes its logo, though only digitally, into a small blurb, which shows the name of a COVID hero and their noble deed. This is a unique way of presenting an inspiring story of a COVID warrior. ‘Aam Nahi Khaas Ho Tum’ is the campaign message that celebrates ordinary citizens who had put extra-ordinary effort to help others by providing free meals and free rides to hospitals, and even helped procure beds, medicines, or oxygen.
Also, recently, brand Dettol took up the role of being a harbinger of hope by displaying on its pack stories and images of 100 COVID warriors and other citizens who stood up as noble souls, helping the struggling people with supplies of medicines, oxygen, ration kits and medicines. Four million of these special Dettol packs are being sold across 500,000 stores across the country. For the first time in its history, Dettol replaced its iconic logo, for the big purpose of spreading optimism in the country.
After writing at such length on the mystical world of stories, the urge to relay the meaning and story behind the logo of The Branding Nook is arising within me, in order to bring this article to an apt conclusion.
The Branding Nook
The colours in the logo and on the website denote happiness which synchronises with one of the values of The Branding Nook, that of contributing to wider happiness. Mixing of different colours denote inclusivity which synchronises again with one of the values.
The shape of the logo denotes a blob of mixed colours, as one finds in the colour mixing palette of an artist. This denotes the creativity of the learning platform; the innovative tools being used to share knowledge.
The logo in its entirety, also has small circles around, which are making it look fluid, giving movement to it. This denotes a moving, growing brand. Those small circles are like splash of colours around, indicating the spread of knowledge from this hub to impact many all around.
The plain simple font used depicts the authenticity, honesty & trustworthiness of the brand.
The tagline ‘Stand at ease with Prof. Prachi’ brings across the vision of the brand, which is to provide learning with ease, away from stress of books. The experience, expertise and credentials associated with the name Prof. Prachi adds credibility to the brand.
Most importantly, the logo depicting the blob of colours, belongs to small palette, not to the wide cluttered space. The brand is in its niche, dedicated to insights on Marketing & Branding. Hence, the Nook.
So marketers, always be on your journey of creating appealing stories, keeping each brand element immersed in credible ones. Tell stories in a meaningful & effective way, keeping them visible & impactful at all times, backed by right values & performance.
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