Narrating a Product/Brand Story
What is a Product Story, why do you need to stitch a good story around a product, how do you craft a product story and why does it matter so much?
At the end of the day, all you as an aspiring Product/Brand/Marketing personnel are trying to do is illustrate how your product suits to satisfy the need of your target audience, and moreover convince them to buy or try it.
But sometimes, harping about the products features and benefits don’t really seem to cut it. Have you ever wondered why some brands within the same product sector do better than the others? Why some brands manage to emotionally hook their audiences with a compelling narrative. You must have guessed it right from the title and the questions that the answer lies in a good product story.
What is a Product Story?
Product stories are essentially the journey of the products from its inception i.e. the inherent need that gave birth to the concept of the very product, or a narrative that augments the existence of the product.
Product stories tend to rely on an emotional sentiment to connect with the audience and nudge them into believing that the product is meant for them and them only.
Product stories do sometimes tend to be a subset in a larger set of brand stories — which essentially humanize the brand and add a dash of an inspirational and human slant to the brands story. If crafted correctly, it becomes very difficult for competitors to imitate this narrative and pull your audience away from you.
How to write a Product Story?
These stories in principle do speak about the features and benefits of the product and about the “why” it needs to be bought/used; but whilst doing so the stories tend to revolve around the central character and those characters are none other than the consumers themselves.
The 4 basic rules are:-
- Address the problems and provide context
The very reason why the product exists is because of an underlying problem, which is why the soul of the story should lie in why the consumer needs to get the product. This is the part where one must highlight the benefits of the product and correlate those with the needs. In some cases one could take one step further and explain the benefits of the benefits.
** The basic idea involves filling in the following blanks: When [need/situation] happens, I want to [motivation/drive] so I can [result/outcome]. - Don’t go on and on about the technicalities and features
A common thumb rule that every marketing/sales professional hears is — “You are not selling a product, you are selling a solution”. This is absolutely true, because to a lay man, she/he does not want to hear fancy industrial terms, jargon and fancy-flamboyant words. Just stick to the “why” and loop the audience in emotionally. - Stick to your message and the narrative
A frequent mistake that a lot of brands and products make these days is that they do not stick to their messaging. A product story, unlike the product does not often need an update to remain relevant. The story is what endears the audience to the brand and over time the connection tends to solidify. Stick to it and let the magic happen. - Listen to your audience and build upon the story
While it may seem that I am refuting the last point that I just made, sales and marketing is always about first listening to your customers and then delivering.
What I am now trying to say is that, there should generally be alterations to wording, tone, technique etc. as opposed to changes to the story itself.
Now that we have the what, how and the why out of the way. Let us take a look at a few examples of great product/brand storytelling.
Harley Davidson
A few years ago, Harley Davidson motorcycles realized that their ongoing association with masculinity and lack of engagement with women on a large scale was not only limiting their reach but could potentially be considered problematic in the modern day socially conscious business.
At the same time, they just could not go ahead and deliver a product especially meant for the newly decided audience i.e. women. What they then did was beautifully crafted a story around their products to entice an altogether new segment of probable audiences. Offering up merchandise, clothing and even motorcycles as a potential product to them.
Uber
Our friendly neighborhood cab service has a short and simple story to narrate: They say, they evolve as the world moves and explain — “By seamlessly connecting riders to drivers through our apps, we make cities more accessible, opening up more possibilities for riders and more business for drivers”.
Now while this is just one of the many stories that Uber explains, they have crafted a ton of others to not only address the riders but also the drivers, as they too are an important part of their ecosystem.
Airbnb
While this one is not the most relevant in the times of the pandemic, but Airbnb too has crafted an excellent story around their service and the brand itself. They claim they they are a trusted community marketplace for consumers to list, discover, and book unique accommodations for unique travel experiences.
And that’s about it, Airbnb offers nothing but accommodations and experience to the lost traveler, the businessperson, the young millennial in search of a staycation and everyone else. Welcome home!
Whirlpool
Whirlpool, the consumer electronics giant, learned through research that around 4000 children in the USA missed school daily, due to lack of access to clean clothing, they launched the Care Counts Programme. This is their narrative —
Whirlpool brand created and continues outpacing goals of its Care Counts™ Laundry Program, through which the brand is committed to helping create educational equality by installing washers and dryers in schools to help remove one small but important barrier to attendance — access to clean clothes.
All they did was choose a social cause, do what they could in their capacity, address a need and craft a story around how they wanted to help elevate the problem.
While this does not really resonate as a product story, the story crafted around their brand and approach did help them connect to many households.
If you did like this article, please feel free to read my article on storytelling for professionals.
More examples and case studies on product/brand stories coming soon.
* Image credits to respective owners and websites.
