What to consider when planning a brand story?

One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned over the years is to not make branding stories about the brand. That may seem counter intuitive, and it was to us at first.

The most important aspect of your brand story is what you do for your customer, or your audience. When potential clients are searching for solutions you need to show them you can provide the answers, and can resolve the issues they face. You can help them over come the antagonist of their story. Is that helping under resourced communities flourish? Is that creating a product that allows people to grow fresh vegetables without needing a garden? You need to be the guide in the story, and not the hero. The client is the hero and you are here to help them!

One of our favorite on going projects has been Bedford Collab. At the heart it’s a story of seeing potential in a community, and the risks that two people are taking to help the community improve. DeAndre and Merrick are the central characters, but they are not the brand telling the story. Community One, based in Evansville, Indiana, saw the work the pair of entrepreneurs were doing in a neighborhood that much of Community One’s work is taking place. Instead of telling a story about themselves, Community One decided to highlight the work of others. They chose to guide others into a story of community impact.

It’s always a risk to put funds into projects that don’t directly scream, “look at what we are doing.” Hopefully the payoff is much bigger. It’s not Community One’s goal to further their brand identity. They have a much larger vision, which is to transform cities from the inside out through neighbors loving neighbors. Bedford Collab is a story of neighbors loving their neighbors. Building a commercial kitchen in an under resourced neighborhood is a huge risk, but the motivation is the hope of transforming a neighborhood.

On the practical side of brand storytelling one needs to decide the production level. This is driven by your audience and where the film will be distributed. Decide what production quality you need to support credibility versus the authenticity of your brand.

We do a ton of what we call “banded documentary” films. They are documentary in style, but are still carefully crafted to communicate the brands identity.

We’ve also done cinematic short films to help a brand highlight social issues and challenge audiences to think about certain stereotypes.

There are a ton of options, but the key is to hire a production company to guide you on which solutions work best for your brand.

How should you hire? Well, of course we recommend Plot Line Media. Why? We have years of experience, and value relationships over business. We are always willing to meet with potential clients to ensure the relationship will work before drawing up contracts and signing agreements.