Brand Personality: There’s an art to creating a brand persona. It’s the art of storytelling.

Think of a time you heard a story that you can’t forget. When our memory recalls a story, often it’s because it touched our emotions. Whether it made us laugh, cry, or scared us half to death, emotions are what make us recall those stories. It can be one that pulled at your heartstrings, frustrated you, made you happy, or made you sad. Storytelling is an influential art that takes many forms.

The art of storytelling holds no exceptions when it comes to your brand identity. Used in branding and content marketing, storytelling helps an audience relate to your ideas. It also helps the audience differentiate you and your competition.

Marketing is a different world than the written novel. So, it only stands to reason that the components that make up your brand’s personality will be different as well. The concrete elements of design, written content, and tone of voice make up a solid brand image. Your content marketing strategy should address each effectively.

First, you’ll need to know who your customer base is and what characteristics they hold. This image of your ideal buyer persona gives us your target audience. Second, develop a clear understanding of what you provide that is unique from your competition. Use this uniqueness to meet your specific customer needs better. Next, find the correct tone of voice that your target audience is expecting. Build a brand voice that fits your message and empowers the brand personality. Whether it is humorous, intelligent, laid back, or any of the possible other tones of voice, find the one that best tells your message to your customer base. Finally, create brand loyalty by making your marketing have an emotional connection with your audience.

You are creating an identity that is all your own. Branding an emotional connection may seem impossible, but it is not. Your brand strategist takes a good look at your company goals and the message you’re putting out to the audience. Then they choose the words and tone of voice to build the brand image. The new brand persona portrays how the audience views and preserves your company. Your brand strategist’s job is to make sure the audience’s perception corresponds with the message you’re trying to send.

The brand experience you’re offering is often characterized by the emotional connection you’re looking to make with your audience. Consider how you want your company seen by its supporters. Is your company authentic, sophisticated, sincere, funny, exciting? There is no standard, but we see that companies have human traits. These traits are what we want people to remember about your company or product? Your brand strategist builds out these traits and, in doing so, gives new depth to your branding.

All companies carefully, and sometimes painstakingly, choose their name and their visual identity. We’re here to tell you that it cannot stop there. Individual marketing pieces together build what your customer views as the company’s distinct personality or brand archetype. A company’s slogan, atmosphere, music, even scent all add to the brand personality traits your customer comes to depend on from you. When some elements of your message give a different impression, your brand fails to convey the correct message reliably. Our goal is to make sure that all aspects are sharing the same note.

Once you’ve established a brand, your loyal customers depend on your being faithful to it. The customers want to experience the story you’ve told them. In other words, they believe and trust you and thus expect you to follow through on what you’ve told them. When this happens, it is a great thing. If you built your brand correctly, it relays all the things your company stands for and returns on all you promised. In this way, you’ve always followed through and never let the audience down. They get exactly what you assured them each time they return to your company.

The art of storytelling makes all the difference. Consumers are naturally drawn to brands that they either identify with or that solve their problems. Storytelling is how each person becomes familiar with the story you’re communicating. Brand voice is the tone of voice your marketing uses. The style you choose describes precisely how your brand communicates with the audience.

Choosing your tone of voice is like selecting the human personality traits that build your business using the adjectives that describe your company motto. Some branding favorites are; authoritative, honest, fun, exciting, humorous, nostalgic, professional, quirky, romantic, intelligent, sympathetic, off-beat, and scary. Again, there are no set attributes. The brand voice is similar to the human traits that your company represents. Once you develop the style of voice that best describes your business, all your copy should use phrasing, wording, and visual style to further support it. Your marketing will portray a strong brand message that works cohesively throughout all marketing materials.

To extend your marketing strategy, you’ll also want to consider relaying your story through multiple media. Some stories are better suited for a video series, a photoshoot, graphic images, or even a music montage. When you think about marketing, you have to remember that it has multiple elements.

Gaber Marketing isn’t afraid to be creative with marketing avenues. Creative thinking gives you an added advantage and is often more memorable to your audience. A good marketing strategy holds true to your brand personality in multiple media. We at Gaber Marketing Studios never limit your content marketing to only traditional written content or print advertising. Famous brands use big ideas, so can you.

The elements of design used in your marketing campaign will also portray the same brand message. Many design theories and studies support how specific methods or elements of design reach people on emotional levels. For example, blues frequently express sadness, and reds often excite or bring the feeling of speed. Furthermore, the actual layout of the printed material also affects the reader.

Furthermore, when it comes to different media, your design team considers the best practices and design concepts that adequately fit each media. For example, you don’t make a page layout in a magazine the same structure you would design for a billboard. If you did, the person driving by would never have enough time to read and receive the message you’re communicating. Each media has its own best practices and reasons for results. All in all, the design team understands each media and the concepts that are successful for them. In conclusion, the design elements that make up your brand identity must also convey the same message as your written words.

When it comes to marketing the brand, the hardest thing for the business owner to remember is that marketing the brand is not about selling. There is a time for sales and a time for storytelling. If you try to sell your product or service while you’re branding, you often lose the message and the consumer. The sales pitch overturns the natural connection you’re trying to make. Excellent content marketing incorporates the elements of storytelling to relay powerful brand messages. Once connections happen, sales will follow. Water your garden, don’t drown it.