Most organizations strive to influence brand perception through social media , various marketing efforts, and customer service. However, not everyone fully appreciates how quickly brands are created and remade in the public eye.

Thanks to a combination of social media and the ubiquity of Yelp-style reviews on all services and products, information asymmetry has plummeted in recent years. On the flip side, many companies neither initiate nor participate in most conversations about themselves.

With outsiders likely driving conversations about your company, it’s more important than ever to build strong brand messages that permeate your marketing materials, user experience, internal communications, and more.

This is where a brand history file comes into play.

Brand stories are an extension of your company’s core messaging. Beyond your values ​​and mission statement , they include your history, challenges , and triumphs. In short, they put your message into a linear narrative format.

Why stories?

A good story doesn’t just grab your attention. It affects you physically and chemically. There’s evidence that listening to a well-told story releases oxytocin, special lead a hormone responsible for feelings of human connection. It also activates mirror neurons, which tell your brain that you and another person have performed similar actions.

In simplest terms, essential features to look for in storytelling literally creates empathy .

For companies with a well-defined brand story that permeates their communications, customers who interact with those communications will feel like they are part of the story. They are not just customers or users; they are part of something bigger than themselves.

Of course, afghanistan business directory defining your brand story and figuring out where to apply it is no easy task. Good storytelling is a skill that many people spend their entire lives perfecting. Fortunately, all the best brand stories—and stories in general—include a handful of common elements. Once you learn to recognize and include them, you’ll be on your way.

Here are the four elements of a powerful brand story.

1. The Hero’s Journey

The hero’s journey is a concept as old as writing itself. Classically, it involves a central hero who embarks on a journey, faces a series of trials, overcomes a decisive crisis, and ultimately returns home forever changed.

There are many variations, but the vast majority of great stories throughout history involve the hero’s journey in one way or another.

In your brand story, you can think of the brand itself and your team as the collective hero. The beginning of your brand was the call to adventure, and helping the world access and benefit from the services you offer is the challenge the hero faces.

One important difference between this hero’s journey and the classic one is that you shouldn’t think of your brand’s journey as complete. You want to position yourself at the center of the action ( in media res , to use the literary term) so that your audience feels the excitement of your story unfolding.

This brings us to the next important element.

2. Put your users in the storyThe purpose of developing your main message as a story is to create empathy among users and make them feel part of the adventure.

To facilitate this, it is important to weave them into the fabric of your narrative. Your users can be heroes or allies of the hero, as long as they are actively participating in the action. This should be present throughout your UX and marketing copy.

The image above is a great example. Regardless of the specific space theme, notice how the company shows users going on an adventure and working together to accomplish their mission.

If the challenge of the hero’s journey is to help the world benefit from your service, focus your copy on the users who realize those benefits and help others do so, too. Speak about them in the second person and celebrate the small steps they take on their journey. For example, if you sell software project management , assigning and completing tasks are small steps toward accomplishing your mission. Celebrate the users who do that as part of your story.

3. Well-defined values

Details are what makes a great story . Even when the plot isn’t entirely original, a story with three-dimensional characters and detailed scenes will stick in readers’ collective memory.

The details by which your brand stands out are your brand values. Even companies that do very similar things stand out because of the values ​​they emphasize. Companies that don’t understand and clearly communicate their values ​​fail to stand out.

How you define your values ​​affects the central challenges of the hero’s journey, as well as which user actions you emphasize in your story.

What value does your product or service provide? What problems are you most proud of solving for  These questions lead you to the values ​​you need to communicate.