Brand and Butter

Building a Brand Story That Powers Emotional Connection

• Tara Ladd • Episode 45

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Have you ever wondered how to create a brand narrative that connects deeply and evolves with time? Then strap in, because I'm talking about creating a brand story that aligns with your core values and adapts and grows with your business. I also touch on real-life examples and illustrate how emotional connections and founder stories can set your brand apart. 

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Speaker 1:

you're listening to Brandon butter a straight-talking occasionally in your face no BS branding podcast for modern marketers and business owners here for those who want to understand the influence and power of branding and how pairing associations, consumer behavior and design thinking can impact what people see, think and feel. I'm your host, tara Ladd, the sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable and often unapologetically blunt founder and creative director of Brandon Design Agency. Your one and only. Hi hi, welcome to this week's episode of Brandon Butter. Hi hi, welcome to this week's episode of Brand and Butter.

Speaker 1:

Today, I want to talk about the importance of narrative for your brand. So we often hear the words thrown about of needing a brand story or finding a founder story, and I had a really good conversation with someone recently after I completed a panel and this seemed to be the topic of discussion, and I think why it's important in constructing a brand narrative is that you need to understand the nuance of what a brand narrative actually does to create the perception of how people see your brand. So, to put simply, your brand narrative is like the story that you tell people about who you are, what you do, who you're here for, all of the intricacies around, why people should or could or want to connect with you, and we see things from two different perspectives, and this is the conversation that I actually had. How do you know what to say? And so think of a brand story like an evolution and why you would have. You will obviously have your founding stories to why the brand exists and why it began and always begins with the founder, but then, as the brand evolves if it does and you want it to grow beyond that and a lot of our clients sit in this space of having you know a team and what that you know what they need to be saying and how they can be evolving.

Speaker 1:

And it can be quite complex because you'll put something out and it doesn't work. You don't know why, and then you'll hear people talk about pillars. Let me put it down simply your brand narrative is what you want people to think and say about you, so that it builds that connection and this should be constantly evolving on what you do. But there'll be things that stay cemented in, I guess, what you stand for, that won't adapt and that's part of, I guess, the original brand foundation. So that even makes sense. Let's rewind. So, to put simply, when you create a brand strategy, you create off building blocks and you want to make sure that it cements who you are. Didn't even mean that that you know what is a metaphor. Is that a metaphor? But yeah, basically you want to make sure that people know who you are, what you stand for and what you're about all those things that I just mentioned and you do that through carefully structured conversations.

Speaker 1:

Your brand story is how you came about, and that's always something that people want to know about, and then there's like little intricate details of specific parts of the story or specific parts of people that you can create to generate, you know, connections. So the way that I see it is that your One and Only started with a foundation of DEI, so diversity, equity and inclusion, and it wasn't until recently that I even figured that out because it was so authentically done, and so how that crosses over with my personal brand as the founder is that I speak to a lot of things that naturally speak to these subjects, and so then I realized that I needed to continue the story on how that correlates. So, to give you an idea, you know your one and only was established because I worked agency and I did not see myself progressing past that due to inequities of gender, of imbalance, of location, all of these different things, flexibility, you know, when I became a parent, or if I was to choose to become a parent, it was what are the? What's that going to look like? For me? It was vastly different to a lot of other people, and how was I going to make that work? So a lot of those things were one of the key drivers as to why I wanted to start.

Speaker 1:

I also saw there being a glass ceiling as to why I couldn't grow beyond that. And then also, you know, seeing really good people not be given the opportunities, because a lot of internships and experience that was given to people in big agencies were, at the time, free internships and so a lot of people just can't, you know, do things for free because their parents can't afford to do that. So I saw these, you know, moments where people just kept getting these advantages and you know it didn't sit well with me. So that's kind of where a lot of that started. And obviously, that whole watching amazing women leave and come back after having children and then be shoved in a corner pretty much to do a shit kicker job and watching that value just diminish was something that I hated to see and I was like I don't want this to happen. I don't believe this should happen and I want to change that narrative. And so to me it was all about changing the conversation around um, how I wanted my agency to look and how I wanted that to evolve, and so that's become a core part of my brand story, but also a very core part of my um, I guess, my individual narrative as a founder, and so it kind of stems from um continuing that story as to why I exist and that actually builds a lot of relatability with people. And then I continue that story on my Tara Ladd profile around how that's more centric to you know, disability and inclusivity of the neurodiverse space and how that relates to me as a person. But I don't bring that narrative so much into your one, and only because when it's a business brand, it's actually an umbrella of a lot of people.

Speaker 1:

So whatever you say is then you know coming from a group of people rather than yourself. So if you want to say something that's a little bit disruptive, a little bit ballsy, then by all means go for gold on your personal profile, knowing that it still could have implications on your business profile. But if you are in a business profile, you're now representing the team and the future reputation of that business and what that business stands for, and sometimes that goes outside of the individual. Now, businesses always start with the founder at the bottom. So why the business exists, how it came about, always starts with the founder, and when you see things evolve or people go through people, brands go through a rebrand, it's generally because it may be moving beyond a team of one or they've now moved into a group of people, and that meaning as to why it exists or the value they're bringing, or even the positioning of where they sit in the market due to evolution or adaptations or for whatever reason, it needs to change.

Speaker 1:

So you may find that you might have hit what you started the business for and the goal wasn't big enough and you need to make a bigger, more audacious goal, and therefore you get the business for and the goal wasn't big enough and you need to make a bigger, more audacious goal and therefore you get the team involved then, because then the brand becomes synonymous of the group of people and the culture that the business stands for. Now a lot of people completely miss that brand is just as much about the culture that you lead as it is about the product and service that you sell. So it is a memory and an association, and it's all of these things that people want to connect with, and it's also a reflection of identity. So people will go to work for specific brands because they like what they do or what they stand for, and it's the same thing with people when they buy, and so you need to have these conversations so that people know what it is that you do, why you exist and why they should part ways with their money for your brand or why they should bother to connect with you this is really important or why they should bother to connect with you. This is really important.

Speaker 1:

So narrative then plays a role in how you then create that reputation and how you cement those associations. So what you look like, what you sound like, the key messages that you have and the I guess the conversations that you decide to leave, the pillars that you speak to and what you want to be known for are very specific in structure and strategy, so that you're curating and strategizing a way to create those conversations that you want people to know about you, and then you show up with authenticity and integrity and you continue to lead by action. It's not about having a list of things to check. It's about making sure that what you say you are and you are doing it with conviction. And so when you're talking about brand narrative, what that's doing is creating that connection between your audience, or your future audience or future client, in what you want them to see of you. And it should be authentic because you don't want to lead with something that's disingenuous because people will call that bullshit a mile away. So you know, it's essentially. It's essentially telling people who you are, what you stand for and why anyone should actually give a shit.

Speaker 1:

And when you're scaling or you're repositioning your brand, your narrative becomes pretty crucial because it's your chance to introduce yourself, introduce your team, introduce the culture that you lead and show how you evolve and what you know and thought leadership pieces and why people should trust you essentially and what you're capable of. But then it's also a really good way of how you can connect with your audience, and this is important because community and a sense of belonging is something that you really need to be focusing on. It's that likability where people feel that they're part of something that's bigger than them or part of something, even if that's your brand journey and watching you evolve. Bring them into that process, like people love to see that underdog that started and they've become this big thing and they've followed you from the beginning. It also taps into the in-group bias where people are like I've been following them from the beginning and you want to create that sense of, I guess, connection and something that people feel, where they get it. And even if that's not about them, it's about feeling like there's something or someone out there that gets it. And that's why we connect with brands on this emotional level that we're unsure of or not unsure of of, but it's such an unconscious like decision that we just gravitate towards these things without even realizing.

Speaker 1:

I've always said and I continue to say, there's three things that we should be really focusing on, and that's values, so that your beliefs and your alignment match. Likeability, so your personality and how that comes across, so that you've got those people that connect with you on a real, authentic, you know, true level. And then there's obviously belonging, so it's building a connection and community of people that think and act and behave the way that you would and it's a reflection of their identity. You know we buy products and I say this all the time. We buy products and we invest in things that we want to be an extension of who we are, an extension of our ego, an extension of what we believe in, and all of these things are centric around the narrative that you tell.

Speaker 1:

If you are not telling the story or talking about the things, people will not know that you do them. As Bezos says, you know you are what people say about you when you're not in the room. So if you're not constructing and focusing on controlling your own narrative, people will just go and make their own up. So it's up to you to make sure that you're putting the narrative out there that you want people to know about your brand. So with that comes building trust and credibility. So you need to showcase your experience and your expertise and commitment to your values. Again, they're not a box ticker. You need to make sure that whatever you're doing and how you're doing, it is led with action and conviction, and so these things will.

Speaker 1:

This is why we're talking about this on such a real level, and authenticity seems like such a buzzword, but it's mainly because people know how to research these days. So if you do something that's wrong or off or off brand, I put in inverted commas. People could see through that and they will call you out on it. So that's why it's always best to just be yourself and or be in alignment to the brand. That suits the organization. And this is why brand is so important, because you hire to the brand.

Speaker 1:

If you are making hires for that business, this is when a lot of people say, oh, they weren't the right fit or things didn't work, and of course, this isn't always foolproof. But when you hire based off culture of what the brand is and what it stands for, you essentially create this list of things that you're trying to look for. Does this person fit our culture? If you think about the way, I think always comes to my mind is JB Hi-Fi. And back in the day, when CDs were a thing you know, going back, it was that they had those scene kids you know. They, all you know, had tats and piercings and they looked like people that were at music shows, and that was an intentional hire. They wanted to make sure that you were getting looked like people that were at music shows and that was an intentional hire. They wanted to make sure that you were getting advice from people that looked like they were in the scene, and that's why it's so important to know what your internal culture is, so that you can then hire and attract people with your external brand.

Speaker 1:

So that's what you look like, what you're saying and exactly what we've been talking about here is the conversations that you lead, and it's also how you differentiate yourself, so how you create unique stories. It's a story that is going to cement in the memory of someone. I'm saying cement a lot today, but memory is established from emotion. Every day of the week, you know, we choose and we buy from emotion. It doesn't matter what you think or say, it's always an emotional choice, and so this is why you'll see people always talk about emotion, because it's emotion before logic every day of the week, and this is why you see calm, collected people sometimes lose their mind because their emotion takes over Everyone, by the way, that's not just women. So when we're talking about creating a differentiation story, sometimes that can come from something that is so deeply personal, that has gotten someone to a certain place that that can't be replicated or copied. That's just a unique experience, and that can be and always.

Speaker 1:

Usually is a founder story, and so tapping into the founder story is when people build that connection as to why they got to where they are. I've been using my story about my son, ari, because he played a pivotal role in the business progression during COVID, and I find that that's something that people really relate to, because she did the fan for a lot of people during that time and nothing was perfect. And so what I'm finding is that when you talk about things that didn't go well, people relate to that more, because when things don't go well, it's more relatable than when things do go well, because most of the time, you have to fail a few times in order to make sure that that success happens. And so when you're talking about what you did and the hurdles that you jumped, it's more people can relate to that on a more one-to-one level, and so that's when the founder story really comes into it, or how you've progressed. One of our most successful posts is when I talk about scaling back our business from a team of four to just me and my sister at the moment. So it's, and people are kind of championing us to get back to where we were, and it's at the moment. So it's and people are kind of champion, championing us to get back to where we were, and it's happening right now. And now we've got a group of people that are wanting us and cheering us on to do that, so it's really really cool.

Speaker 1:

So, to summarize, I want to say that there is a few things that make a brand narrative great. It's authenticity Again that word. You've got to be real, you've got to be raw and you've got to tell it how it is. No bullshit allowed. People will see through it. Emotion you have to bring emotion, things that connect with people beyond the surface level crap. People are overhearing tips and tricks. They want to know these real gutsy things that connect people, that go far beyond just what you do.

Speaker 1:

Then there's clarity. It should be really easy to understand what you do and how they can get in touch with you. Make it easy for people to understand and that sometimes means narrowing in, narrowing in, narrowing in until you get to one really core thing that you do so that people can remember exactly what it is that you do. Reduce the cognitive overwhelm, give them something really easy to remember and say this is what we do and this is what we do for you. And then you have to be relevant. You know you have to resonate with your audience. You have to understand their aspirations and their pains and really dive into the psychographics as to what they want. And that means listening. So create stories, test them, optimize them and build the narrative around what it is that they need to know. So people are asking these questions. Make sure that you're the one listening instead of just presuming you know what they need.

Speaker 1:

This is probably the most important point. And then, of course, it's consistency. So people always fail. Before it progresses into anything, make sure that what you're doing is over and over and over again. You're doing it over and over and over again. I mean so if you're not staying consistent, then what happens is you do it for a little bit, people start to get onto it and then you stop, and then the momentum drops. Think of it like climbing a hill If you have to keep stopping halfway, you're going to, you know, roll back down. It's about being consistent, chip by chip. Some's going to hit, some are not going to work, and so you need to make sure that you just need to keep telling your story and doing what it is that you're doing and seeing what's hitting and what's not, and then all it takes is like one thing that can work. So don't stop because you think it's not working.

Speaker 1:

It takes time to build audience. It takes time to build, you know, reputation, and it also takes getting yourself out there in front of people reputation, and it also takes getting yourself out there in front of people. So, to wrap up, we have a masterclass coming in a couple of weeks. You can jump in and sign up to email. It will come out across that, but keep your eyes open because it's going to be on how you can create a great brand narrative. So that's it for today. I hope you really liked it. Once again, as always, slip into our DMs if you have any questions, but don't be afraid to just go out there and be you and test things out, because sometimes the things that you don't expect to hit are always the ones that do. Did you like that episode? I hope so, because if you did, why don't you head over to whatever platform you listen on and rate and review? It's much appreciated and helps others know what we're about. If you want to follow us, you can find us at yourwannanonly underscore au on Instagram.

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Tara Ladd

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