Brand Storytelling

# Brand Storytelling - All Guest Insights

*30 guests, 50 mentions*

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## Andy Raskin
*Andy Raskin_*

> "This structure really is about defining a movement, and that's very different from, 'Hey, I'm going to solve your problem.'"

**Insight:** Strategic storytelling focuses on leading a movement rather than just solving a functional problem.

**Tactical advice:**
- Frame your brand as the leader of a movement toward a new way of winning.

*Timestamp: 00:00:54*

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> "The third piece is what I call naming the object of the new game... I find that what's the object of the new game really boils it down as kind of the rallying cry of the movement. So the example with Zuora, the object for a while was turn customers into subscribers."

**Insight:** A brand needs a 'rallying cry' that defines the ultimate goal of the new market reality.

**Tactical advice:**
- Create a 'buyer mission statement' or rallying cry (e.g., Airbnb's 'Belong Anywhere').
- Try framing the object of the game as a question to engage the prospect.

*Timestamp: 00:23:29*


## April Dunford
*April Dunford*

> "what we want to do then is, okay, we've got this positioning, now let's put it together into a sales narrative that we can then take and test with qualified prospects and make sure it works, but we've also got something that the sales team can pitch and oh, by the way, everybody else knows how to tell the story too."

**Insight:** Positioning must be translated into a structured sales narrative to be actionable for the field and consistent across the company.

**Tactical advice:**
- Storyboard the positioning into a narrative before creating decks
- Create a script or demo that reflects the core positioning story

*Timestamp: 00:31:12*


## Arielle Jackson
*Arielle Jackson*

> "Your brand is who people think you are and developing a brand strategy is what do you want to be? What do you want people to think you are? And what are you going to do to help shape that perception?"

**Insight:** Brand is the external perception of a company, and strategy is the intentional effort to shape that perception.

**Tactical advice:**
- Define purpose, positioning, and personality as the core of brand strategy
- Use brand strategy to inform visual design and tone of voice

*Timestamp: 00:34:33*

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> "Your purpose is why you do what you do. It makes people want to root for you. And it has a big role in aligning people to come want to work for you and to have employees all feel like they're part of something. I like to think of it as we exist to blank."

**Insight:** A company's purpose should be a 10-year North Star that explains the change the company wants to see in the world.

**Tactical advice:**
- Draft a purpose statement starting with 'We exist to...'
- List cultural tensions in the world to find a relevant purpose
- Ensure the purpose is independent of financial gain

*Timestamp: 00:42:50*

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> "Strong brand spike in two of the five [dimensions]... sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness... you want to write them as statements that say we are X, but not Y, where Y is taking X too far. So in the example Google is playful but not silly."

**Insight:** Defining a brand personality requires choosing specific dimensions to 'spike' in and creating guardrails to prevent those traits from becoming negative.

**Tactical advice:**
- Select two of the five dimensions of brand personality to focus on
- Create five 'X but not Y' personality attributes to create healthy tension
- Use these attributes to guide ad copy and illustration styles

*Timestamp: 01:05:39*


## Bob Moesta
*Bob Moesta 2.0*

> "This actually comes from Pixar. The way Pixar actually does its films is it has to come back with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, statements around it... It's this notion of once upon a time... every day... one day... because of that... until finally... and ever since that day."

**Insight:** Using a narrative framework like Pixar's story