4 Brands with storytelling at the heart of their marketing strategy

Storytelling is the oldest form of communication we have – you could think of fireside myth makers as an precursor to brand managers. Although it may become a little more sophisticated, people are still engaged by brilliant storytelling – here are five brands that do just that.

1. Whirlpool – Care Counts

In a bid to keep the poorer US students enrolled in school, the brand conducted research that uncovered a disturbing truth. Nearly 4000 students had dropped out of school or were failing to attend due to the fact that their families just couldn’t afford to wash their clothes. In a bid to counteract this and tell a compelling brand story along the way, Whirlpool launched the Care Counts initiative, which installed washers and dryer in the school of those most affected. Keeping a close eye on the affected students they found that school attendance and grades improved exponentially. This positioned Whirlpool as far more than just a home appliance provider and gained the loyalty of millions of consumers.

2. NIKE

When it comes to storytelling, there aren’t many brands that can do it as well as sports apparel behemoth Nike. The brand have been telling their stories long before most of us were even online. Famously they release a television advert as a tribute to basketball legend Michael Jordan. In this particular commercial there was no mention of the brand until the last 2 seconds when the Nike slogan “Just do it” and the famous Nike tick were overlaid on a school photo of Michael. This was an effort not to force the brand on consumers but to let them here the story and make up their own minds about the brand at the end.

3.GoPro

When it comes to telling stories about adventures and the outdoors, there is no brand that does it better than GoPro. There Youtube channels boasts a following of nearly 6 million people and hosts a vast array of videos to entice and attract adventure seekers curiosity. The brand also encourages GoPro users to share their stories of adventure, whether it be a surfing holiday in Bali or an afternoon stroll in the Himalayas. This turns their consumers into brand advocates all telling their individual stories with the world.

4.Airbnb

Airbnb are well known as the accommodation giant that doesn’t actually own any property. How have they been so successful? Well a lot of their success stems from a great ability to tell stories about unique travel experiences and even more unique accommodations. Because of this the brand is now a direct competitor to hotel industry because it is able to offer more than just your run of the mill one night stay in a normal hotel and they have locations in more than 35,000 cities across the world.