Storytelling, influencer & personalisation: The art of brand communication

Only the methods that get to the heart of the matter and look at long-term gains really stick the landing

With new digital platforms mushrooming, brand communication has definitely evolved over the last decade. Having said that, there are certain aspects of communication that form the crux of it and have remained timeless essentials that work to build a brand. Here are three such trends:    

Storytelling

The art of storytelling remains powerful and paramount in the world of marketing. Simply because stories serve as effective communication that consumers connect with. Things that move us, be it with humour, emotion, or anything else, leave an impact, and brands have been quick to grasp the many benefits of utilising this. Using storytelling captures attention and reels people in to see the story through to the end. This increases brand recall, awareness, and more importantly, a connection with a brand that consumers can identify with. 

This is best understood through stories of how some brands used engaging narratives to set the stage to pack an emotional or meaningful punch. Be it the films that BMW launched in the early 2000s to showcase their cars or the recent Puma campaign on what it was to be a “proper” woman that used the stories of successful women such as Mary Kom, Dutee Chand, Anjali Lama, and others, to celebrate and give expression to individuality and women empowerment. The common aspect of both these campaigns is effective storytelling that got the audience’s attention. This is an evergreen trend that will continue to be the most important aspect of marketing.

Influencer/word-of-mouth marketing

How many times have we tried a product just because a friend said it worked well for them? We all do this. Hearing from someone else that a certain product worked for them, or about an interesting ad that piqued their interest can do wonders for a brand. This is where influencer marketing comes into play and this type of word-of-mouth advertising has remained a strong driver for customer engagement. Brands have employed influencers and celebrities alike to promote their products for them. 

Suneil Chawla, Co-founder, Social Beat

People follow these personalities as they can identify closely with them and want to be like them. Word of mouth creates an image of trust and reliability around the product and serves as first-hand product testimonies. 

Case in point, Himalaya facial wipes, whi-ch focused solely on marketing through word of mouth, employed influencers from a range of different niches — from lifestyle to fashion. These influencers used facial wipes and created engaging content on both their blogs and social media handles. The content was eye-catching, tailored to the kind of followers each influencer had garnered. By exuding class through the product itself, and reliability through the firsthand nature of its marketing, their facial wipes were featured in images across the globe, helping them to amass a total impression of 1 million and a total engagement and clicks of 170,000.

Personalisation

As we mentioned before, people connect with brands more when they identify with them. One of the key ways to make that happen is by personalisation. It is a crucial part of the customer journey and the experience itself. This is why brands incorporate personalisation with three relevant and significant elements in their marketing strategies — geographic, demographic and language. Personalisation, as a trend, has remained unchanged because of how fundamental it is in any campaign. Segmenting your audience and showing them customised messaging based on their likes and interests can positively influencer any campaign and the brand connect.

With marketers having access to real-time data and AI coming into play, personalisation is going to become a lot more accurate, making the customer journey much more enjoyable if used the right way. 

So while this decade saw some great new marketing trends come up, only the methods that get to the heart of the matter and look at long-term gains really stick their landing. As the world around us changes, these techniques also evolve and grow to accommodate newer inputs. With a whole new decade upon us, marketing will see new technologies unfurl and change the playing field, pulling brands to think out of the box.