7 Brand Storytelling Structures to Captivate Your Audience

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(cover image: a book revealing the power of the magical art of storytelling)

7 Brand Storytelling Structures to Captivate Your Audience

Marketing can be more effective with brand storytelling, a powerful tool enabling businesses to connect emotionally with their audiences. To truly captivate them, there are seven different narrative storytelling structures to create inspiring stories that leave a lasting impression-from the classical Hero's Journey to the Quest story.

In this blog post, I will explain these structures to ensure you can craft compelling narratives that interest your target market and boost business growth through brand storytelling.

1. The Hero's Journey Brand Storytelling

The Hero's Journey is one of the most popular storytelling structures used in branding. It follows a pattern where the protagonist goes on an adventure, faces various challenges and ultimately emerges victorious. Throughout the hero's journey, obstacles and setbacks must be overcome before reaching success.

Chat GPT Response to my prompt for asking who wrote these ideas. That is the answer it gave me.

Photo: ChatGPT Screenshot

I read Joseph Campbell's book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in my English literature class in college, about the hero's journey. Campbell identified a universal pattern called the "eight stages of the monomyth," to which he analyzed the common themes and motifs in myths and stories worldwide.

Photo: Screenshot photo from blog article at DivvyHQ dot com

We see this type of storytelling in the movie from Wizard of Oz, George Lucas's movie series(Star Wars), and J.K. Rowling's (Harry Potter).

How to use Hero's Journey for your Blog Post: Connect audiences with their struggles using emotional triggers like empathy or fear. The hero of your blog post can be your customers who overcome obstacles with your help. You can use this type of brand storytelling by presenting your blog post as the hero solving a problem for your audience.

Example For A Brand Hero's Journey:

A character is the hero of your story: The more you understand this character, the better. It is your ideal prospect. Your best customer.

The problem: You must go beyond "wants to save money" or "wants to be more productive" when describing this problem.

Meets a guide: That is you, the trusted advisor—the one with the solution that will help them overcome their problem.

Create an action plan: Tell them your brand's solution, product, or service and how it will help them.

Describe the transformation: What transformation will they experience by investing in your product or service? What are the benefits and features that make it a must-have for them?

Calls to action: This is your call to action. Tell us how your product or service will help solve the problem for the hero.

Results in success: How does success look on the surface and a deeper level when they use your brand?

Help them to see the potential failure if they don't buy: What loss or pain are they trying to avoid?

Using the Hero's Journey structure allows us to relate to brand storytelling that triumphs over adversity because it captures our imaginations, and we can connect to them emotionally.

2. The Rags-to-Riches Story Brand Storytelling

In literature and film, the Rags-to-Riches story structure has been used to follow a protagonist's journey who starts with nothing and rises to great success. We are familiar with this rags-to-riches story from Horatio Alger (Ragged Dick), Charles Dickens (Great Expectations), and the classic tale of Cinderella.

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Using rags and riches brand storytelling, the hero usually comes from humble beginnings, facing various challenges.

These obstacles often include poverty, oppression, or discrimination. However, despite these setbacks, they overcome them through sheer grit and perseverance.

Examples of Brand Rags to Riches Story:

If you're promoting Wealthy Affiliate BootCamp, you can use the stories of other super affiliates who came here and are now making much money online. The stories are compelling for your audience.

Photos: Screenshot of Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories

Successful people like Oprah, Richard Branson, and J.K. Rowling came from humble beginnings and overcame challenges to achieve greatness.

Photo screenshots of Oprah, J.K. Rowlings, and Richard Branson's Rags to Riches Story photos came from Wikipedia.

Use the Rags-to-Riches story structure to inspire your audience with the message that anyone can be through determination and perseverance. Incorporate themes of hardship, determination, and triumph against all odds in your brand storytelling to create loyal followers who share the experience of overcoming obstacles and adversity.

3. Overcoming the Odds Brand Storytelling

By showcasing how an individual or business overcame significant challenges to succeed, the "Overcoming the Odds" story grabs the audience's attention. This narrative story is about perseverance, resilience, and determination with characters like Jack London (The Call of the Wild), Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time), and Rocky (film series).

In this brand storytelling structure:

The protagonist faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles but refuses to give up.

They work hard and never lose faith in their abilities, achieving success despite all odds

Faced significant adversity or criticism and have come out on top.

If you recall, a story from Nike's marketing campaign featuring Michael Jordan is an excellent example of an "Overcoming the Odds" story. The iconic basketball player suffered numerous setbacks throughout his career, including being cut from his high school team. Despite these challenges, he persevered and became one of the greatest athletes in history.

Overcoming the Odds storytelling is a powerful reminder that anyone can achieve greatness if willing to work hard and persevere in their brand storytelling.

4. The David and Goliath Brand Storytelling

The Bible (1 Samuel 17), Malcolm Gladwell (Davidderdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants). The David and Goliath story is a classic brand storytelling structure that always captivates audiences. This narrative centers around an underdog facing off against a seemingly unbeatable opponent giant, just like the Biblical tale of David and Goliath.

At its core, the David and Goliath story emphasizes the power of determination, courage, and innovation in overcoming insurmountable challenges. The protagonist faces incredible odds but emerges victorious through their ingenuity or with the help of others. In marketing, this structure is used by smaller brands against the most prominent industry giants.

Brand Example using the David and Goliath Story:

In the same way, David took on Goliath with his sling against Goliath, Dollar Shave Club has challenged Gillette's dominance with its humorous ads. It was an effective marketing campaign as it saved much money for their consumers.

Photo Screenshot: Dollar Shave Club Website

Brands can use the David and Goliath structure to differentiate themselves from larger competitors. Even small brands can topple industry giants if they showcase their unique strengths in creative ways that resonate with their customers' values.

5. The Rise to Power Brand Storytelling

The Rise to Power Story is a classic brand storytelling structure that tells the tale of an underdog who rises from obscurity to become a powerful force in their industry. Rise to power: William Shakespeare (Richard III), Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes), The Godfather (film series). These stories resonate with audiences because it fits our desire for success and achievement.

At its core, The Rise to Power Story follows a character as they journey through trials and tribulations towards ultimate triumph. Whether it's conquering obstacles or defeating rivals, this story structure emphasizes the importance of perseverance, hard work, and determination.

One famous example of The Rise to Power Story is the founding of Apple by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Working at home with limited resources (the story about starting in the garage is a myth-they worked at home, and all the manufacturing and prototypes took place elsewhere), they faced numerous challenges and many court battles with their opponent-Bill Gates. Still, they lost and persevered until they became one of the most successful tech companies in history. I am honored because I am an Apple brand user.

My Photos of My Apple Laptop

Rise to Power Story inspires us with tales of perseverance and tenacity against seemingly insurmountable odds, reminding us that anyone can achieve greatness if they put in the effort.

6. The Fall from Power Brand Storytelling

The Fall from Power Story is a classic brand storytelling structure that can captivate your audience by showing them the consequences of hubris and arrogance. Fall from power: Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Citizen Kane (film), Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. The story follows a character who starts at the top but they fall from grace due to their own mistakes or actions.

4 Well Known Public Examples of Brand DownFall Power Storytelling:

1. The Entire Collapse of Enron Corporation: a Houston Energy company founded by Kenneth Lay: Who remembers this? I do! It was one of top America's most innovative companies; Enron was discovered to be involved in fraudulent accounting practices and ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The company's executives were later convicted on charges related to fraud and conspiracy and prison time. Lay died before he was sentenced.

2. Praise the Lord Empire's downfall in 1987. Tammy Faye and her ex-husband, Jim Baaker. They were once seen as an inspiring Christian couple who had built a successful TV ministry. Jim was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy and served time for it.

3. Blockbuster Video collapse: At its peak, Blockbuster had over 9,000 stores worldwide and dominated the movie rental industry. However, the company needed to adapt to changing consumer preferences as streaming services like Netflix became popular. As a result, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and closed all its stores by 2014.

4. CountryWide Home Loans collapsed: Countrywide Home Loans was a massive subprime mortgage lender with colossal success during the housing bubble. The company was founded by Angelo Mozilo in 1969. He was dubbed "Angelo's Ashes" by the New Yorker magazine when the subprime lending market crashed; their business model proved unsustainable because they were selling high-risk loans to people not qualified to have a mortgage. They eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2008 then Bank of America took over. (This is my story: I worked for this company. I was their loan originator. I lost my job because of their dirty deeds)

You can use this brand storytelling to emphasize how bad decisions can affect people personally. This story illustrates how arrogance and self-centeredness lead to one's downfall. The key is to show the character's fall and how they learn from their mistakes. It is only through the failures that we know. Always be honest and show vulnerability to connect deeper with your audience and demonstrate your commitment to delivering ethical business practices.

7. The Quest Brand Storytelling

Quest: J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Odyssey by Homer. The Quest Story is a robust brand storytelling structure that revolves around an individual or group's journey to achieve something meaningful. The protagonist in these stories faces various challenges and overcomes them through determination, courage, and perseverance.

Quest's narrative structure's core lies in self-discovery, growth, and transformation. As the character embarks on their quest, they learn more about themselves and develop new skills and knowledge.

The Quest Brand Story Examples:

Disney's Frozen: Elsa embarks on a journey of self-discovery and learns to accept herself and her magical powers.

Harry Potter Series: Harry overcomes obstacles and discovers his hidden abilities to defeat Voldemort.

Star Wars: Luke Skywalker goes from being a farm boy to a powerful Jedi, overcoming various challenges.

All these quest-type stories require a clear goal or objective to resonate with your audience. You can incorporate adventure, mystery, and risk-taking elements into your quest story, making it more engaging to your audience in brand storytelling.

Building a compelling Quest Story takes time, but when done right, it can captivate audiences with its inspiring message of heaving humanity to reach a personal milestone like discovering oneself. It is possible to transport readers into your journey with vivid descriptions and sensory words in your storytelling approach. And resilience. The goal can be anything from s

Final Thoughts

Brand storytelling can connect a business and its consumers. With practice and experimentation with different brand storytelling structures, brands can successfully captivate their audience by sharing stories. As a website owner, you must choose a structure that fits their unique brand narrative while keeping their target audience in mind. So go ahead and start exploring these storytelling structures and make your brand stand out to beat your competitors.