CHAPTER 6

Turning Your Brand DNA Into Your Brand Narrative

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining itself.

—Hannah Arendt

You are constantly telling stories about your business. Whether that story is told in a speech, in ordinary conversation with coworkers or customers, or on your Website, advertising, or packaging, your story is aligned with the public face of your company and it must be carefully crafted from your Brand DNA.

So, once you have a clearly delineated Brand DNA, you need to start creating narratives that embody it. Here is a proven methodology you might employ. And, of course, you can also invent your own methodology if you prefer. The key thing is not “mine vs. yours,” but to understand your Brand DNA and then systematically create internal and external communication in the form of brand narratives that help disseminate the message of your brand.

Prof. K.’s brand narrative methodology

Once I’ve spent hours working with a brand team and everyone has approved the Brand DNA, we are ready to move into the dissemination process. Please note: You need universal, 100-percent buy-in of the Brand DNA before you can move forward. Any less can lead to problems down the road, both with team members and the message. Get everybody aboard and get them to buy in, and then later in the process, if they disagree with a brand narrative, you can always point to the Brand DNA and show how it is in keeping with the core essence of the brand, which they agreed upon.

Here’s an outline of Prof. K.’s 7 Step Brand Narrative Creation Methodology:

Step 1—Brand DNA Creation.

Step 2—Logo/Image Ideation via Physical Metaphors.

Step 3—Story Brainstorming.

Step 4—Brand Narrative First Draft.

Step 5—Revision and Rewriting.

Step 6—Testing and Fine Tuning.

Step 7—Brand Narrative Fruition Across All Media.

Now, let me break this down further and provide an explanation of each step for you. First, we have Step 1—Brand DNA Creation, which I just covered in detail in the previous chapter. Next, we have Step 2—Logo/Image Ideation via Physical Metaphors.

What does this mean? Here are the specifics for you. In order to find a way to systematically differentiate a company and/or product and then navigate a course of action to communicate this differentiation, you need to start with a physical, concrete visual metaphor that embodies who you are in a single glance. Think in terms of a point of uniqueness that is mentioned in your Brand DNA and can be fleshed out in a simple image. This is you at a glance. This is your brand in concrete metaphor. I look at this image and I instantly get what you are about. I understand your brand just from this.

Once you have one or more images that you like, it’s time to start doing some compelling storytelling; it’s time to create a brand narrative that embodies your new meaning. Look at your Brand DNA and your physical logo/metaphor. What kind of story does it make you think of? What kind of story is begging to be told about you?

As I’ve already mentioned and will continue to discuss throughout this book, one cannot just think of a story, write it down, and be good to go. The development of a powerful brand narrative is a long, tedious process and one that encompasses the next four steps of my methodology: Story Brainstorming, Brand Narrative First Draft, Revision and Rewriting, and Testing and Fine-Tuning. So, let’s look at these four now:

Step 3—Story Brainstorming. This step is rather self-explanatory, but it is important. To create fresh and exciting new brand narratives, an environment must be created in which anybody on the team can throw out any story idea without the fear of negative repercussions. My nickname for this step is the “Shit and Wit Session.” In calling it this, I give everybody permission to come up with the shittiest stories possible. In other words, one must be allowed to say and try any and all stories, no matter how good or bad, and in doing so, they might just spur the team on to discovering a truly great narrative.

Step 4—Brand Narrative First Draft. When the team comes up with one or more brand narratives that everybody likes, it’s time to flesh out the story. Note that when I mention this methodology, I constantly speak of teams, not individuals. Sure, an individual can engage and successfully execute this process, but I prefer engaging in this methodology with teams. This process works best with teams of knowledgeable, passionate individuals who know the brand and can work in concert to create a brand narrative that is more powerful than something that any one individual can come up with.

So, work together, release any judgment, and just create. Write a first draft, no matter how bad it seems, and get it out there on paper or on the computer screen. Finish it. Complete a first draft of a story with a beginning, middle, and end, no matter how good or bad.

Step 5—Revision and Rewriting. This can sometimes seem like an endless process, but it is a valid and necessary one. There is no right number of necessary revisions, but I always recommend sharing the story with all team members, assimilating their notes, and then sharing again. Do as many revisions as necessary until you get universal acceptance by all team members. Then, and only then, test the story with people outside of the team.

Step 6—Testing and Fine-Tuning. Hollywood does test screenings of all its films for a reason. No matter how hard you’ve worked on your story, you have to test it and then, as a result of that test, fine-tune it and test it again before you go out to the public with it. There is nothing to be ashamed of here. Stories have to be refined over and over again before they are ready for consumption.

Step 7—Brand Narrative Fruition Across All Media. This will be covered in detail several chapters later in this book, but for now, let me just say that it is about determining what forms that story should take—oral, print, video, online, internal, external, etc.—and then adapting the brand narrative to fit that form of media.

I have come to see through experience that the methodology of this seven-step process is incredibly applicable to far more than just marketing alone. The process has been used successfully in sales, manufacturing, problem-solving, and team building. Engaging in this process can work as an assessment tool for uncovering core issues, and then it helps users to navigate useable, practical solutions to problems that have arisen. It works in concert with human nature and provides a way for one’s inner brilliance to flow outward instead of being suppressed. The outcomes from this process allow managers to stop draining their efforts on managing consequences and resolve issues once and for all, regardless of their category of work.

Ideally, anybody should be able to understand this methodology and employ it, but this is not a simplistic tool that anybody can just plug in. It helps to have an experienced facilitator to really work it properly—one that is outside of the team and can give objective feedback as the brand narrative is created, nurtured, and then executed across different media platforms. In most cases, at first, the facilitator is usually an outside consultant who comes in, facilitates, and, in doing so, also trains one or more in-house personnel to serve as facilitators for future sessions.

A case study: Pureffic Gourmet Foods

Pureffic Gourmet Foods is a new company that is creating specialty food specifically for the dysphagia market—those people who have problems with chewing and swallowing. Let’s look at how I led their team on a brand narrative journey.

Step 1—Brand DNA Creation. We got out a white board and went a bit crazy, throwing out any and all ideas that came to mind. Here is a list of some of the ones that we wrote down as we progressed:

• Satisfying.

• Homemade.

• Empower.

• Kitchen.

• Gratify.

• Real food.

• Wholesome.

• Eating is beyond nutrition.

• Discovery and rediscovery.

• It’s about taste, pleasure, family, texture, gratification, flavor, joy.

• Labeling.

• Patient centeredness.

• Patient satisfaction.

• Statistics.

We then worked through all these ideas to get to a core concept, the Brand DNA that we reduced down to three words—Pureffic’s new slogan: Rediscover Real Food.

Step 2—Logo/Image Ideation via Physical Metaphors. Logos are a physical manifestation/embodiment of your company and, as such, are hugely important. What image do you want to come to mind when people think of you? And how does that image embody your Brand DNA, your brand narrative, and the emotions you want to ally yourself with?

Hence, the logo is a huge step and should not be taken lightly. So, we now needed to throw around a lot more ideas in terms of physical metaphors that might help us to find the perfect logo/image for the company.

What are the physical images that might represent us? Here is some of our work that came out of our session:

• Fork.

• Plate with ribbon representing phase A.

• Black chalkboard.

• Banana.

• Apple.

• String of apples.

• Artichoke.

• Fruit and vegetable.

• Olive branch.

• Spatula.

• Mop.

• Fireplace.

• Chef’s hat.

• Orange wedge.

• Mason jar.

• Kitchen table.

• Spoon.

• A four-item circle.

• Red.

• Stethoscope.

• Purple.

• Green.

• Yellow.

After we felt like we’d covered all that we could, we put our heads together and ended up with a new logo that is basically the following: a brown stethoscope, a green fork, a red spatula, and a yellow banana rolled together into a circle with the name “Pureffic” in the center of that circle.

Step 3—Story Brainstorming. We discussed all the different stories that we could associate with the brand. Here are some ideas we came up with:

• An animated video: imagine a plate with good food on it that comes out of the oven, gets eaten, and all that is left are a few crumbs. Then, a mouse appears and eats the last crumbs. Then, our four physical metaphors come out one by one to form the logo.

• No matter what, they need to be emotional stories.

• A story with a family, the product user, and his or her caregivers.

• What are the best locations for our stories?

• A story about who we are.

• A story about how much money we want and why we need it (90 seconds).

• Caregiver story (60 seconds).

• User story (60 seconds).

• A doctor story (3 minutes).

• A technical aspect of our product story.

• A scene with everyone eating real food and a dysphagic eating horrible mush.

• A doctor explaining all the phases of our food and its labeling and all natural ingredients.

• Everyone sitting around table, shouting “Rediscover real food!”

As you can see, this is really a list of story elements and story premises, and almost none of these are fully fleshed out, fully realized stories. It then becomes incumbent upon your team to take these ideas and structure them in a compelling way to create a narrative that will have an emotional impact on the audience.

Step 4—Brand Narrative First Draft. Now, here is a first draft of The Pureffic Signature Origin Story:

“I’m hungry!” It’s the winter of 2014. My name is Shalini Chandra and I’m a doctor at Johns Hopkins. But right now, I’m a patient who has just had tongue cancer surgery. During the early months after my surgery, my family and friends gathered around our dining table for delicious meals that I could only see and smell, while I drank my meals from a mug.

It was horrible, but what alternative did I have? I couldn’t chew and swallow solid food. So at every chance I got, I would drum up my strength and go foraging through the wilds of supermarket aisles for foods that I could chew and swallow.

Each time I returned with the same bland cups of applesauce or mashed potato buds. I was miserable until a few days later when my life changed, thanks to my kind friend and next-door neighbor. Fellow Johns Hopkins’s physician Suchitra Paranji came over with a cup of smooth and thick butternut squash soup.

I loved it so much, I asked her where she found it and could I please have some more. She responded that she created it with all natural ingredients from scratch in her kitchen. This was the birth of Pureffic, and Suchitra and I became the cofounders of Pureffic Gourmet Foods.

As hospital-based physicians, we see patients every day who struggle with chewing and swallowing disorders, many of whom can’t cook for themselves. Through our nutritious and delicious gourmet foods, we hope to provide a way to bring everyone back to the dining table. (And please note: For every purchase of a Pureffic Gourmet Food Product, 50 cents will be donated to our dysphagia not-for-profit foundation once it is established.)

Step 5—Revision and Rewriting. All good stories only get to be that way as a result of lots of rewriting. So, I gave the team notes and notes and notes, and they kept reworking the stories until they were well-polished works of art.

Step 6—Testing and Fine-Tuning. We shared the Brand DNA/slogan, logo, and brand narrative with business associates, family, and friends to get feedback. What was working and what wasn’t? What led to questions and what was clear?

And then we revised some more.

Step 7—Brand Narrative Fruition Across All Media. Once Pureffic finishes its funding efforts, they will use the capital to create videos and a Website that will spread their message across all digital media forms. They are also considering crowdfunding sources such as Kickstarter and even trying to appear on TV shows such as Restaurant Startup and Shark Tank. With such a great origin story and such an important purpose, they’ve got a wonderful chance to be a real success.

Next, I got to speak with storyteller, creative director, and all-around marketing whiz Al Pirozzoli, about brand narratives. This is his take on things:

RK: What role do you see storytelling playing in branding and marketing today?

AP: Storytelling in advertising is often abandoned to the flashy no concept, people dancing, animal spokesmen, and on it goes. I’m not suggesting there isn’t any company out there employing stories, but they are far and few between. Storytelling is crucial to successful messaging of the brand’s personality. Nothing draws, holds, and creates recall more than stories that actually relate to the consumer. I realize we only have 30 to 60 seconds in a TV spot, and moments in a print ad and Website, so telling a story is now more vital than ever. The best one can do in these formats is convey mini-stories, but that forces the creative director and team to understand the brand like never before. In tough economic times people still buy, but they are much more likely to discriminate.

RK: How do you create, cultivate, and sustain lifelong relationships with customers via digital narratives across all forms of media?

AP: Storytelling is the key to building affinity. With all the research and experiences we have under our belt in advertising, one would think advertisers and their agencies would clearly understand this. Cultivation of customers has always been and will always be centered on developing affinity. If you get lost in the technology of the digital platform and forget the process of building affinity, you will not see long-term loyalty.

To my understanding, a brand narrative (BN) is essentially the history and the future focus of a particular brand. This is crucial because it should, if produced properly, give a brand a real sense of continuity. Further, it offers a way for the consumer to belong to something that has some particular meaning, which equals affinity. Well communicated stories—BNs—that have the ability to transform into new social changes and consumer likes and dislikes are timeless.

Your brand is your story. If that isn’t true, you don’t have a story; you are promoting a fable that consumers will see through. BNs are stories, and do have a beginning, middle, but hopefully no ending. I don’t subscribe to the idea that you create a BN. It must already exist and be uncovered and then communicated. Consistency is key. As to control, if you don’t control your BN, others will.

Quick cut to Lego. Who doesn’t know what that word means? The company has endured for some 80 years or so. Their narrative? Always the same: provide a product that engages young people to think and act out creativity. They stay current by joint ventures with movies, NASA, and many others. No doubt they control the content of their messages, but they never change the essence of the brand’s personality.

RK: How do you use stories to emotionally differentiate any brand from all of the others in the same category and how has storytelling moved toward brand narratives told by many creators online?

AP: First, I think the common mistake is the way companies attempt to build a BN based on their product’s attributes. Generally speaking, most products offer the same or similar attributes. My wife uses L’Oreal products. Oil of Olay makes very similar claims, and so do others. The BN for L’Oreal creates an emotionally unique connection with its followers: Because I’m Worth It. That’s not a product attribute; it’s a consumer result that no other brand can claim even if they can deliver it.

When you think about it, those four simple words are actually a brand narrative that imprints itself on those who accept and believe it to be true. In terms of social media, smart marketers have tremendous opportunities to engage their consumers in telling their stories. Media technology may change, but the brand narrative, if handled well, doesn’t change. The application to its consumers evolves. Bloggers are a tremendous advance to BN. They move mass communications to a personal, one-on-one level. That’s powerful because it develops engagement. People seek relationships and through social media have that opportunity, both with other brand evangelists and the brand itself.

RK: Do you have a specific process with which you craft brand narratives that you would be willing to share with readers?

AP: I developed a method called Motivated Abilities Pattern Process (MAPP), which takes the client’s brand through an idiosyncratic process. This is typically applied to people, but it works efficiently for discovering and/or supporting a BN reality.

—Al Pirozzoli, Creative Director/Storyteller, Pirozzoli.com