From Aesop’s Fables to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Great Gatsby to the most enduring historical texts, people have used stories to make sense of their lives since the beginning. The stories we choose to tell help us decide what’s important to us, who we aspire to be, and how we can best reach our goals.

Storytelling isn’t just about grand narratives, either. Ancient cave paintings dating back 45,000 years depict what we’d now think of as “campfire stories.” They show the fearsome beasts hunters encountered, plus the routes they had to pass through to find them, the same way we’d tell a similar tale today.

In the privacy of our own minds, we tell ourselves stories that can help or hinder us. For instance, they might convince us that the person who just cut us off must be a terrible human being, or that a modest donation could never make a difference for an important cause. Done right, though, stories uplift.

Brené Brown says, “Human beings are wired for story.”

Your brand development can tap into those same timeless instincts.

How? The concept is simple to understand, but challenging to truly master:

Stop thinking about “blog posts” or “video” as disconnected marketing tools.

Start thinking about brand storytelling.

Narrative Marketing Fosters Real Emotional Connection

When brand marketing is truly compelling to your audience, it leads to unparalleled customer engagement. But how do you break through in a world full of noise? First, the harsh truth: No one cares about “the hottest news and updates” from one more brand – and no one intentionally seeks out a “brand relationship,” either.

People don’t care about products or services. They care about solutions and stories.

The story is how you inspire people to care.

In their early years, kids use storytelling to rehearse the kind of person they want to be. Whether they’re playing make-believe with friends or watching the latest Marvel blockbuster, they’re learning what might be possible in their world. The secret? Adults do it, too – and they follow that road before every major purchase.

It’s true: every meaningful purchase is a hero’s journey; the same kind outlined in Joseph Campbell’s exploration of mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Every problem that requires a purchase is a new adventure, one that starts with uncertainty. Your brand helps facilitate that quest and guides customers to the end.

Here’s how it looks, borrowing from Joseph Campbell’s storytelling framework:

• Every buyer journey starts with the ordinary world – before the prospect knows they have a problem.
• When the problem becomes clear, they face a call to adventure, one they refuse by deferring a choice.
• Then comes meeting a mentor – your brand – who shows that a solution and a better life are possible.
• Crossing the threshold means following or subscribing, cracking a door to a deeper brand relationship.
• The ordeal is the customer’s decision-making process; the reward is when they finally make the buy.
• A return with the elixir is when they reap the benefits of their purchase and (hopefully) tell others.

At every step within this journey, your brand needs to be ready with micro-stories, milestones on the road. The customer is the protagonist of their own tale; your brand is the advisor who helps them choose the right path to achieving their goals. Every time you tell a story, you give them the chance to become a hero.

When your stories are more compelling than those told by other brands, you’re the one most likely to get the sale, even in a crowded and competitive market. Luckily, storytelling is a skill your entire brand can develop. It starts with a single, simple idea: Tell stories about the customer, not just about yourself.

In Narrative Marketing, Customer-Oriented Stories Matter Most

To introduce yourself to future customers, you’ll inevitably tell stories about yourself.

Who you are. What you do. Whom you do it for. And why your way will fit them best.

But even the most personal brand storytelling is really about customers – because customers are the ones who make it all possible. Threading the needle that way might seem difficult, but it gets easier when you incorporate narrative as a cornerstone of the way your brand shows up in the world.

Let’s take a closer look at the stories that make an emotional connection:

1. Your Origin Story

Kal-El arrived on Earth from his doomed home on the planet Krypton. Peter Parker learned the true meaning of “With great power comes great responsibility” after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Bruce Wayne vowed “Never again!” after his parents’ murder. For each, there was a “before and after” that explained who they are.

They took on the mantle of Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman not because that’s who they were destined to be, but because that’s who they chose to become. They saw injustice and stepped forward. In business, we can look at injustice as the problem, and heroism as the market gap each one identified and walked into.

We bet those folks who didn’t get hit by a runaway train were glad Superman was “in business.”

How do you tell this kind of story about your business? Answer these questions:

• How did the problem you solve now impact you, your loved ones, or the community “before”?
• How did you first get involved in helping people really solve that problem – not just react to it?
• What are the biggest lessons you learned, and why do those lessons matter to your customers?

Done right, origin stories are some of the most powerful you can tell. They lend themselves easily to a simple, dramatic “three-act structure.” Plus, they are evidence of passion – a mission that goes beyond profit. People are more likely to trust you when they know you care about what you do.

2. Your Customer Mission

People who are perfectly content with life aren’t your buyers. In fact, they’re not anyone’s buyers. Your future customers are searching for an answer, be it a way to straighten their kids’ teeth, a solution to the leaning tree in the back yard, or a route to Mt. Doom that won’t lead them straight into the clutches of Ring Wraiths.

The change they want to realize is their mission.

It goes beyond “what to buy.” It’s about “who to be.”

Every customer’s mission is different, so you need to tell stories close to the customer’s heart – ideally, in words they could’ve chosen. After all, a hero doesn’t need just any guide: The hero must have the right guide for the journey. If they need a Gandalf, they’ll walk right past you if you talk like Yoda.

Storytelling about the customer mission can be easier than it looks – but only if you truly know the customer’s voice well. Videos about customer mission are most effective once you’ve built a library of video testimonials and invited your fans to tell their story in their own words.

Then, it will sound authentic when you echo those same story beats.

3. Your “Why Now?” Message

You know the best time to take action on any problem is now. But would-be customers feel differently. Even though they might yearn for their problem to be solved, they can get mired in doubt and inaction – just like Bilbo telling Gandalf, “We don’t want any adventures here, thank you!”

Your brand storytelling overcomes this hesitance by focusing on:

• The time-sensitive nature of your offer (their opportunity for change).
• The cost of choosing to do nothing, especially in lost time or money.
• A compelling emotional reason for them to abandon the status quo.
• Any upcoming changes (like law, etc.) that will make waiting costly.

As a rule, people are more likely to take action to avoid loss than to secure gain. With a “Why now?” narrative, you tap into that core reality while remaining respectful of your audience. Weaving in customer spotlights can work wonders here, too: Someone “just like them” can tell your customers that waiting isn’t worth it.

When you want to move real people to action, you need more than brand development basics. You need to define and articulate your message consistently in the universal human language: Narrative. That’s how you access the drives that color your customers’ lives and position yourself as a guide they can trust.

Contact New York Ave to learn more or begin.