on the subject of brand narrative

laurence vincentgroup director, strategy

11.20.08

foundational

brand narrative forms

The External View

The Internal ViewPromise Values Voice

a story that permeates from the inside out

foundational projective

brand narrative forms

BRAND PLATFORM

Identity systemInteractivePrint AdvertisingProductVehiclesRetail SignageUniformsEnvironmentsIdentitymanagement+Amplifire™+Namequest™

ExperienceWebCommunicationsCultureTransactionsEnvironmentProducts

Strategies NamingBrandarchitectureMessagingSimplificationTechnology

Identity elements Logo(s) ImageryColorTypographyGraphic motifFormatSound

SIMPLIFY AMPLIFY

foundational projective infective

brand narrative forms

living folklore with…

+ strong basic story-appeal

+ foundation in actual belief

+ meaningful message or moral

narrative structure

resolutionact three

complicationact two

situationact one

dramatic tension/ conflict

climax

Subject at rest until forces act upon it, setting it in motion. The dramatic question is posed, tension is introduced.

Series of beats which raise the tension and complicate the dramatic question. The “meat” of the story unfolds with several twists and turns.

Subject comes to rest in a new, changed state (often the polar opposite state of act one). All dramatic questions are answered and tension is relieved.

= beats

narrative

theme characters plot aesthetics

narration channels and devices

narrative

theme characters plot aesthetics

cause

promise

stakeholders products touchpoints

+visual system

+voice

narration channels and devices

brand narrative mapping techniques

narrative mapping attempts to connect past and present story points with current and future touchpoints, so that the desired story is more concrete.

past eraact one

current eraact two

future eraact three

stakeholderscharacters

business activity

plot conflicts

identity elements

aesthetics

+ shareholders

+ b2c customers+ media

+ shareholders

+ b2c customers+ developers

+ media

+ shareholders

+ b2b/b2c customers+ media

+ developers

limited to master brand + core product brand

extended to a master brand portfolio of products and platforms complete ecosystem

challenger brand vs. the rest of the world

innovator vs. wall streetdominant brand vs. needs of the little guys

foundational projective infective reflexive

brand narrative forms

tradition

early americans

identity linked to old-world customs and generational norms

inner

transcendentalists

identity linked to lessons learned in childhood and readings from the “inner compass”

other

modern era

identity linked to consumption and feedback from environment and “others”

a brief history of identity formation in the u.s.a.

brand use and personal narrative

sequence:

brand activity:

narrative driver:

consumer engagement:

selection

theme

role preparation

influence: definition and construction of identity

post

experience

aesthetics

evaluation / feedback

others’ response to identity performance

during

use

character

performance

plot

presentation of identity to the others

pre

narrative priming

+ the source narrative already exists in the consumer’s head

+ brand touchpoints prime the brain to recall the story

+ through repeated experiences, the brand is linked to the narrative in long term memory and validates identity constructs

story beat exposed to consumers

beats

narrative identity stored In consumer subconscious

consumer matches beat to the narrative stored in identity centers

of the subconscious brain

“Unlike purely cognitively based priming effects, which decrease after a short delay, our results show that the effect was actually magnified: while participants primed with IBM (a goal-irrelevant brand) were uninfluenced by delay, Apple-primed participants’ creativity increased in strength over time, a hallmark of goal-directed behavior.”

+ Journal of Consumer ResearchJune, 2008

harley-davidson

+ product use activates a narrative identity

+ behavior is driven by brand attributes

+ voice is tuned to resonate with personal identity drivers

foundational projective infective reflexive communal

brand narrative forms

+ beliefs

+ agents

+ narrative

+ culture brand mythology cycle

the silicon valley narrative

+ setting the humble garage

+ characterstwo misfit inventors

+ plotrags to riches as a result of brilliant technological innovation

+ themefortune rewards good ideas and hard work

+ beliefs

+ agents

+ narrative

linking brands to cultural conflicts

37 signals

+ poster brand for GTD and web 2.0

+ a culture first, a collection of products second

+ navigating several cultural dramas with a solid foundation, but much uncertainty

foundational projective infective reflexive communal universal

brand narrative forms

Call to Adventure

Meeting the Mentor

Crossing the Threshold

Helpers & Challengers

Into the Innermost Cave

The Supreme Ordeal

Seizing Your Treasure

The Journey Home

The extraordinary World/The World of

Transformation

The Ordinary World

archetypes

+ a personality type observed multiple times

+ persistent in literature throughout the world for centuries

+ used in Jungian psychology to suggest a heritable memory ingrained in the collective unconscious

+ driver of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory about the one great narrative that transcends time and geography

tapping the collective unconscious

+ ritual dimension of consumer behavior

+ tribal branding

+ mono-mythic experience design+ phonetic symbolism

+ ‘basic level’ brand architecture

frish

frosh

frish

frosh

+ Phonetic Symbolism and Brand Name PreferenceJournal of Consumer Research, 2007

“...back vowels such as the [u] sound in dull or ugh are very often found in words expressing disgust or dislike (e.g., blunder, bung, bungle, clumsy, muck), and words beginning with sl also tend to have a negative connotation (slouch, slut, slime, sloven). Words beginning with fl often express movement (flutter, flap, flicker). Across languages and cultures, similarities have also been noted. Words connoting “little” in non-English languages are kleine (German), petite (French), piccola (Italian), and mikros (Greek), all of which have front vowel sounds for the initial syllable. The same is true for suffixes.”

brand architecture and prototype theory

bird chair iPhone

sparrow Stickley 3G

animals furniture Apple

basic level

superordinate

subordinate

summary

+ every brand has the potential to tell a story

+ some brands are more literal than others in the way they choose to narrate

+ other brands enable stories already at play in the mind of the consumer or in the community in which they participate

+ understanding the drivers of narration is key to managing brands over time

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