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Find your brand story

‘How we make it’ and four other ways to spot a good story

The other day, my husband came home with a bottle of Kelt — not his usual cognac. When I asked why he’d switched brands, he pulled out the box and started reading:

Find your brand story
Why did my husband switch cognacs? Brand storytelling made him do it. Image from iStock
Centuries ago, it was discovered that cognac, which was sent from France to the colonies, improved dramatically during the long sea voyage. The rolling of the sea, the temperature variations, frequent air pressure changes and the sea air itself rounds the spirit off in a beautiful way.

In the 20th century came the age of brands. This meant the spirits were shipped in bottles rather than in oak barrels. The magical effect of the sea was lost as a spirit does not mature once it is bottled.

Kelt has revived the tradition … We send our already aged spirits, still in oak barrels, on a three-month sea voyage around the globe. This, the Kelt Tour du Monde, creates a unique spirit and restores an aspect of quality lost for almost a century.

My husband takes his cognac seriously. Why did he change his brand? The story made him do it.

Whether you’re writing sales pitches or social media status updates, brand storytelling can help you sell products, services, programs and ideas.

The good news is, your brand story probably already exists. In fact, you may already be telling it. Here are four ways to spot a good story that might be right in front of your eyes:

1. Share your product’s history.

Want a little drama to go with your drink? I read this story off a bottle of Blenheim water:

Within the majestic setting of Blenheim palace, an ancient spring has been supplying natural mineral water to king, queen, duke and duchess for centuries. The superior quality of the water was discovered by King Henry when he hid his secret love at Blenheim and built her a pleasure pool by the lake. To this day Rosamund’s well remains as a poignant reminder of this fatal love — for the jealous queen discovered the king’s lover in her bower and stabbed her to death!

Must be something in the water. Perrier also tells its interesting history, including these highlights:

  • In 218 B.C., Hannibal’s army camped out by a carbonated spring in what is now Provence in southern France.
  • In 58 B.C., Julius Caesar’s soldiers built a stone basin at the site. They drank the water and bathed in it for its healing powers.
  • In 1863, Napoleon signed a decree acknowledging that the spring contained natural mineral water. Health-seekers flocked to the spa.

Today, the spring is the source of Perrier, the most popular bottled water in history.

We can’t all claim that Julius Caesar used our product. But most of us can reveal interesting stories from our product or services’ past.

2.Tell the stories behind the lists.

Too often, communicators cover employee awards by running lists of winners’ names. But that reduces the drama of human achievement to a series of bullet points and a few dry words.

Instead, take a tip from FedEx World Update, and run mini stories about award winners. In boxes throughout the magazine, the editors cover the company’s Humanitarian Awards with stories like these:

When courier Thomas Roberts of Colorado Springs entered a jewelry store for a delivery, he found that the store was empty. He walked to the rear of the store where he noticed jewelry on the floor.

Roberts then proceeded further into the business, entering a back room where he heard a faint voice coming from inside a safe. He opened the safe and found the owner, whose hands were secured with duct tape during a robbery. The owners would have suffocated in the safe if Roberts had not continued his search …

Substitute drama for lists … and give award winners the attention they deserve.

3. Tell your process story.

I first fell in love with St-Germain over a Poivre (St-Germain, pear vodka, champagne) at Luke in New Orleans. Had my husband’s cooler head not prevailed, I would have retired on the spot and devoted the rest of my life to savoring these luscious cocktails.

My second meeting with my new best friend occurred over appetizers on our foodiest friends’ deck, where they topped the elderberry liqueur with Prosecco.

That’s where I read St-Germain’s process story, delivered in a gorgeous little booklet attached to a bottle right out of a 19th-century French perfumerie. Here’s the story:

In the foothills of the Alps, for but a few fleeting spring days, this man will gather wild blossoms for your cocktail.

The blossoms in question are elderflowers, the man un bohemian, and the cocktail a stylishly simple creation made with St-Germain, the first liqueur in the world created in the artisanal French manner from freshly handpicked elderflower blossoms. …

After gently ushering the wild blossoms into sacks and descending the hillside, the man who gathers blossoms for your cocktail will then mount a bicycle and carefully ride the umbels of starry white flowers to market. Vraiment.

There are no more than 40 or 50 men such as he, and in a matter of days they will have gathered and bicycled to us the entirety of what will become St-Germain for that year. You could not write a better story if you were François Truffaut.

No, you could not.

Since Coors differentiated its beer through a process story — it was the only major brand to use cold filtration rather than pasteurization — companies have been building their brands by telling the stories behind their processes.

Sometimes “how we make it” can make a great dramatic narrative. What’s your process story?

Learn how to tell a process story.

 

Tell better stories.

Would you like more tips for finding stories that engage readers’ hearts and minds?

Master the Art of Storytelling, creative-writing workshop, on Feb. 19-20 in San Diego
If so, please join me at Master the Art of Storytelling — our two-day creative-writing workshop on Feb. 19-20 in San Diego.

There, you’ll learn how to engage readers with creative elements like concrete details, description, wordplay, metaphor and storytelling.

Save $200 when you register by Dec. 31.

Register now.

Book an in-house
storytelling workshop.

“It changed how I think about communicating and storytelling, and gave me skills & tools I can use daily. Thank you!”
— Allison Mattson, assistant advisor, JayRay

 

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June 23, 2022

Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop on July 11-15

Save upto $100 with our group discounts.

Register for Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop on July 11-15
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