Adit Garg Week 12- The Importance of Stories Behind a Successful Brand
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the difference between a successful brand and a successful product. What makes a product truly successful is that its persona keeps people interested, resonates with them, and/or tells the audience a lot about why they do what they do. However, the real question is, how does a company create this brand when the brand is a corporation consisting of lots of people, not just a single person (influencers). I think one of the, if not the best ways to do this is to publicize a story behind the company.
Successful stories are really beneficial to a company. First of all, stories are interesting, so a quick 15-second story is not going to lose the audience's attention, making it a good way to get people fixated on the brand. The second and most important reason is that stories say a lot about the company's purpose and brings the people closest to them. A survey went out that showed that about 80 percent of people look for relatability in a brand. Just from personal experiences alone, you know that you feel closer to a person when you learn one of their secrets. The same thing applies to stories. A brand that has a story brings people closer to them because they expose a lot about themselves like why they operate and keep them interested.
A successful brand story would be the ones behind Tesla and SpaceX. The story goes that Elon Musk had just become worth around 150 million dollars. He already created two very successful tech companies: Zip2 and afterward Paypal. Starting two of the biggest tech companies at the time, Elon Musk had gotten bored in the pursuit of money and wanted to change his intentions towards something more challenging and more selfless. He started a private rocket company called SpaceX and became the CEO of an electric car company called Tesla motors. All his friends tried everything they could to stop Elon Musk. They said it was too risky, and that most rocket launches are not even successful. Of course, Elon Musk knew this, but for him, being a part of the two companies was not about making money. It was about taking steps towards a better. He was expecting failure, but as long he made steps towards a greener planet through Tesla and made steps towards learning about space, losing all his money was meaningless. Is this story behind the companies the truth? I do not know. However, the story has done a good job at making people feel connected to the car company; they feel that when they are buying a Tesla they are not just buying a vehicle. They are buying into a purpose. And clearly, the brand has clearly worked because Tesla, despite struggling to meet the demands of the customers, has people buying their stock at literally 178 times what the company is actually earning (Tesla stock has the highest price-earnings ratio in the world right now). One thing is for sure: Tesla's story has managed to win the trust of tons of investors and customers.
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ReplyDeleteHi Adit! I really like your line that says "they are not just buying a [product]. They are buying into a purpose." I am often drawn to companies' purposes and motivated into supporting them after hearing the story behind their brand. Except for when I really want to get back into my game, or get to my YouTube video, I actually don't bother skipping ads some of the time because I unironically find the ones where they talk about their company's backstory somewhat enjoyable. I didn't know that Elon Musk was so selfless and your blog has changed my impression of Tesla as I previously considered it similar to Apple where it was overpriced because of its brand name
ReplyDeleteHi Adit! Firstly, I would like to appreciate you for the very fascinating connection you drew between the successful branding you spoke about earlier with a real life example of Elon Musk’s achievements. I definitely have to say that in order for a product to successfully sell in the market, an essential component is to craft a beautiful story to allow the purchasers to empathize with the need for the product. It captures the audience’s attention and lets individuals connect such scenarios to occurrences in their real life. The reasoning behind Tesla and SpaceX’s grand success in being able to earn around 178 times the amount the company is truly earning is because there is a strong story behind this. His desire for striving for a greener planet through Tesla ensures, despite knowing it might bring his downfall, is a story that gains attention by a wide range of people. Thank you so much for your blog and I hope to read more moving forward!
ReplyDeleteHi Adit! I was very surprised to read about the connection between Tesla's success and the narrative that the company had tried to push. Although, it does make sense that a company's success is dependent on a message or story they use to inspire their audience. I know that I would personally be more inclined to buy a service or product if I felt that it was relatable to me in some way. And customers would be much more loyal to subscription services over longer periods of time if a company creates that sort of connection with their audience. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed he astute observations you made about big companies in your blog this week!
ReplyDeleteHey Adit, your takes and discussions on economics and branding always interest me, so I was excited to read your continuation on the discussion of branding. I totally agree with the idea that companies and products need to "sell" a story to customers and investors to be successful, as people are inherently emotional and rational simultaneously, and to appeal to both in a significant and meaningful way, stories are essential. These stories have ranged from the definition of a company's purpose to their stats, emphasizing various aspects of their successes and placing them at the forefront of their brand to construct that essential notion of reliability and necessity that incentivizes customers and investors to participate and support in a company.
ReplyDeleteHi Adit, I really like how your blog posts have adapted to this theme of publicity and branding as it is relevant information for students to know, especially in this era of mass media. This blog post rings especially true, and it reminds me of the appeals that we learn about APENG. Although we learn about ethos, logos, and pathos in a more strictly rhetorical analysis perspective, I think your blog post shows its applications outside of writing. Ethos and pathos are extremely popular appeals used by many companies today. Thank you for your interesting post, and I look forward to reading more from you.
ReplyDeleteHi Adit, I really enjoyed your blog and learned a lot about successful marketing through your last few blog posts! I definitely agree with you that telling the story behind a company is a really effective way to create a successful brand. I think this is because stories stick with the readers and make use of pathos. While statistics and factual information is often quickly forgotten, customers remember stories for a lot longer, making this branding mechanism so effective. Furthermore, telling the story behind a company helps make the company seem more principled and benevolent. Customers are far more likely to buy from a company that they believe does social good, because they believe that by buying from this company, they are contributing to this effort and giving back to society. In the Tesla example you provided, the branding effectively sold the story that this brand was all about the pursuit of science and readers wanted to “but into that purpose” as you said.
ReplyDeleteThese recent blog posts by you have been extremely interesting, and very fitting in our modern day of fast fashion and extreme marketing. What you mentioned about personal stories is so extremely correct. In showing empathy and humanizing a product, sales will inevitably rise. However, these stories do more that just make a product stick and make the company behind it seem good. A personal story connects with the audience on a much more individual level, and they are much more likely to purchase from a company that "has" their problems in view and are working hard to fix them. I was taught that it does not matter if these stories are true or not: if they are there, you get results. Personal stories, at least from personal experience, are much more effective than a mass-marketing campaign that reaches millions but fails to make an impact.
ReplyDeleteHi Adit! I think your interest in marketing is quite fascinating as evident by your past few blog posts. It's always cool to learn about these kinds of success stories. Personal success stories especially ones depicting the founder coming from a humble background of sorts tend to garner empathy and positive feels towards a company, almost humanizing it as you said. Elon Musk is an interesting case, seen by many aspiring billionaires as a role model. However Musk was already quite wealthy prior to his success and because of it may have had advantages others who look up to him lack in their positions. However he still remains a role model to many with similar aspirations. It's definitely a great marketing ploy, both garnering empathy and devoted followers for hard to reach billionaires and corporations.
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