The anatomy of great brand stories

Faith Ocampo Published on January 12, 2016

excited-businessman-reading-laptop

A timeless marketing strategy, storytelling is the key to building an active and fully engaged audience.

Good stories are memorable stories. They tug at the heartstrings, reinforcing ideas and teaching us important lessons. Great storytellers have the power to inspire, persuade, and most importantly, make people think.

bearded-businessman-reading-book

For these reasons alone, business storytelling has emerged as a timeless content marketing technique that all brands must embrace. According to a research by digital marketing company NewsCred, 78% of chief marketing officers think that the future of marketing revolves around content. While this can be viewed as a great challenge, marketers won t run out of opportunities to create great content, as social media and blogging platforms have turned themselves into massive storytelling hubs.
Unfortunately, not all kinds of brand stories work. Businesses need to tell great stories—those that stick to people’s memory and create a lasting emotional impact. But how?

1.     Remember the 5 C’s.

businessman-using-lalptop-on-stack-of-books

Captivating stories are all about the 5 C s: circumstance, curiosity, characters, conversations, and conflict. When telling your story, no matter what form it takes, laying out the circumstances (i.e., the context) is crucial. Doing so warms up the audience for what s coming next. Add in the element of interest (curiosity), people (characters), and how they relate to each other (shown through conversations) and the story would flow smoothly. Conflict, perhaps, is the most important component. All good stories build up on how characters encounter and then resolve a conflict.

For a better marketing strategy, try to base your stories on these questions:

•     What s your constant struggle and how do you deal with it?
•     What did you gain and lose from starting your business or a project?
•     How many times did you fail before you succeeded with an idea?
•     How did you find yourself in this business?

 

2.     Start in the middle.

shocked-woman-in-glasses-reading-laptop

To entertain your audience and completely engage them in your story, learning the art of withholding information is important. Giving too many details upfront and recounting events in chronological order often take away the element of surprise. If you want to create a big “AHA!” moment, keep your audience on the edge of their seats by not giving them the interesting bits all at once.

 

3.     Present your vision and dreams.

businessman-in-white-shirt-putting-plushie-heart-on-shirt-pocket

Before you place yourself under the spotlight, remember that customers nowadays scrutinize everything. A marketing strategy fails when the audience thinks it benefits only the brand and the people behind it. To put it bluntly, customers don t care about your marketing goals. When you leave out the part that explains how they can benefit from what your company offers, they ll stop being interested.

A story that emphasizes your vision and dreams not only for the organization but also for its stakeholders lends a sense of authenticity and adds value to your brand. It s worth telling your audience how you and your team are gradually fulfilling your goals.

 

4.     Tell the audience why your brand matters.

bearded-businessman-giving-thumbs-up-by-laptop

Content marketing is powerful. A brand s messages can shape customers’ perception about them—for better or for worse. Storytelling allow companies to openly and honestly communicate with their target audience. Thus, marketers must focus on what makes their brand socially relevant. How does your company contribute to people s lives? What opportunities can you provide to everyone? How do you empower your customers?

Stories are the basic building blocks of effective marketing campaigns. Always keep in mind that your messages should encourage customers to stick with your brand. Often, simple and truthful stories can do the trick.
 
 

Faith is a digital media enthusiast aiming to become an active part of the tech world by sharing her insights. She likes to blog about everything digimarketing, technology, and social media.
Join us on facebook
Open Access BPO 8 days ago
The world is getting smaller, and your customers come from all corners of it!
Partnering with a culturally diverse #CallCenter team isn't just the right thing to do, it's a smart business move.

Learn about the key benefits in our blog:
https://buff.ly/360SqHP

----------
Want a high-value #CustomerExperience for your diverse audience?

Let our multicultural teams help your brand break into international markets without worries.

Contact us today: https://buff.ly/59i7YD6

#WeSpeakYourLanguage
#CX #diversity #inclusion
Open Access BPO 8 days ago
Open Access BPO is kicking off our Pride Week, a dedicated series of events celebrating #PrideMonth. This initiative underscores our commitment to fostering a workplace culture built on #inclusion and #diversity.

Throughout the week, we've planned a series of meaningful activities designed to celebrate the #LGBTQIA+ community. We believe that fostering an environment where every individual feels valued and empowered is crucial for our collective success.

Our dedication to creating a safe and equitable space extends beyond this week, reflecting our ongoing commitment to a more inclusive future for all.

#WeSpeakYourLanguage
#PrideMonth #Pride2025 #UnitedByLove
#OneWithDiversity #PrideMonth2025
Open Access BPO 8 days ago
Open Access BPO is kicking off our Pride Week, a dedicated series of events celebrating #PrideMonth. This initiative underscores our commitment to fostering a workplace culture built on #inclusion and #diversity.

Throughout the week, we've planned a series of meaningful activities designed to celebrate the #LGBTQIA+ community. We believe that fostering an environment where every individual feels valued and empowered is crucial for our collective success.

Our dedication to creating a safe and equitable space extends beyond this week, reflecting our ongoing commitment to a more inclusive future for all.

#WeSpeakYourLanguage
#PrideMonth #Pride2025 #UnitedByLove
#OneWithDiversity #PrideMonth2025
Open Access BPO 9 days ago
Open Access BPO conducted Plant It Forward, a two-part tree-planting initiative, held in Laguna and Davao in May and June 2025.

Volunteers from both activities planted 300 Philippine indigenous trees, which were selected to help maintain the biodiversity in the area.

“This program is more than just planting trees; it’s about cultivating a culture of social responsibility within our organization and demonstrating our commitment to the communities where we operate,” said Joy Sebastian, Global VP at Open Access BPO.

This is only the start. Open Access BPO vows to continue investing in such environmental projects, affirming its core value of creating positive impact.

Read more about the green initiative here: https://buff.ly/HjTlHZC

#WeSpeakYourLanguage
#OABPOPlantItForward
#OABPOcares #IdeaHubOABPO
Open Access BPO 9 days ago
𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 #𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬.
This means transforming basic interactions into meaningful connections.

It's the secret to building strong customer loyalty and driving business success by making customers feel valued and understood.

Dive deeper into what makes a truly value-added #CX and how it can significantly boost #CustomerLoyalty and overall business success: https://buff.ly/8Wxb9gw

——————————
Ready to transform your customer experience? Don't settle for less; elevate your #CX by partnering with a #CallCenter that truly goes the extra mile 24/7.

Learn how our dedicated team can enhance your customer interactions and drive loyalty.
Take the first step towards superior CX today: https://buff.ly/L6dUG5E

#WeSpeakYourLanguage
#CustomerSupport #BPO
Open Access BPO 12 days ago
Reposted from @tdcxgroup

We’ve made yet another bold move.

Just last month, TDCX Group launched Chemin to help the world’s most ambitious companies realize their AI goals — faster, safer, and smarter.

To accelerate our ambition, the Group has acquired SUPA, a cutting-edge data annotation platform known for its agile, gig-powered model and elite talent network.

SUPA will now be part of Chemin, as we make moves to deepen our ability to support everything from training foundational models to safeguarding mission-critical AI systems.

“The future of customer experience is AI-powered, and AI itself runs on increasingly complex, curated data. SUPA brings us the right capabilities and talent frameworks to fuel that future. By embedding SUPA into Chemin, we’re doubling down on our ability to support enterprise and frontier AI labs with world-class data operations,” says Laurent Junique, CEO and Founder, TDCX Group.

As the demand for precision, scalability, and human-in-the-loop intelligence grows, we look forward to delivering the kind of nuanced data interpretation and domain expertise today’s frontier AI requires.

Slide into our inbox — we speak AI.

Tap the 'Press Release' link in our bio for more details.

#CX #Outsourcing #AI #EnabletheFuture