Every business needs to have a story to share with the world that captures the spirit of its brand. In order to successfully market your goods or services, you must have a brand story.

Any experienced marketer would tell you that a good product alone is not enough to drive your brand forward and bring you success. Marketing and storytelling go hand in hand - that’s because if strong visuals are what attract you to a brand, its story is what will connect with you.

Storytelling may seem easy on the surface, but building a good story takes more planning than you might think. Let’s take a look at some of the best brand story examples.

What defines a great brand story?

When marketing storytelling is done well, it:

Clearly establishes what your brand is all about – its purpose, core values, and mission;
Offers the consumer more than just a product or service, but rather an experience that transcends mundane reality;
Motivates the reader or viewer to step into that experience. This is done by crafting content in such a way that your audience feels as though they’d risk losing access to this “sublime experience” of being a part of your brand if they don’t buy, follow, or sign up right now.

Nike

When it comes to consistently telling a brand story, few brands have the sustainable track record that Nike does.

Nike’s mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. And their co-founder Bill Bowerman has once said, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

Indeed, his words weren’t just metaphorical. Just watch how he related his brand essence to every person in the world. He wanted anyone who has a body to “just do it”. To believe in him/herself enough to become an athlete.

And the brand followed, on all levels.

Nike has also been supporting top athletes and using influencer marketing since way before it was cool. Therefore, they have stayed relevant to sports culture all over the world.

What’s truly special about Nike using athletes in their brand marketing strategy is that they haven’t shown them as unapproachable. On the contrary, they always show their human side.

They have always insisted that the greatest athletes aren’t some natural-born “superheroes”. They are humans, just like the rest of us. They only accepted the challenge and dared to “Just Do It”.

Porsche

Porsche isn’t a brand that one simply talks about. It’s a brand that speaks for itself. You’d never hear someone saying “I don’t want to have a Porsche” or “Porsches are overrated”.

Watch this extraordinary New Panamera ad - it can only come from a one-of-a-kind brand like Porsche.

This is not a car commercial, this is a motivational movie.

Nobody could have put it better.

This car ad doesn’t tell you about the specifications of the car, how fast it is, or how powerful the motor is. It’s far from that. It tells you the story of a new Porsche. It says everything the car represents.

It’s really interesting to know that the core values of Porsche are tradition and innovation. They believe that those two aren’t at all contradicting.

This culture is exactly what the story is about. It elaborates on the history of Porsche; its tradition, classic design, and heritage. Then, it shifts to how that heritage is interwoven with mad innovation breakthroughs.

The new Panamera becomes a value and courage, rather than merely a car. That affects the target audience way beyond traditional car advertising.

KitKat – “Have a Break, Have a KitKat”

This iconic tagline has been around since 1958. Unlike some brands that have undergone rebranding over the years, KitKat’s belief in the importance of taking breaks has remained the same since 1937.

If there are two things that KitKat fully understands and excels at - their brand story and effectively conveying it to all their customers in an entertaining way, re-emphasizing their position as a ‘social snack’.

Lego – “Play On”

For those looking into how effective storytelling can help strengthen your content marketing, take a page out of Lego’s book. With a history of content marketing stretching way back to 1987, there’s much to get into.

Lego’s name is a contraction of the Danish words ‘leg godt’, which can be translated to “play well” – the company’s tagline. As a toy company, it goes without saying that Lego is all about bringing about good, happy experiences for people of all ages with their toys.

Who said that Lego was only for children? In 2015, it was announced that little Lego was ready to take the next step in his life – college.

Lego saw that they had the chance to create content not just for their brand’s benefit, but for science! Realizing that they profit from play, Lego thought it best to give back and support research in the field of play in education, development, and learning.

To make this happen, Lego partnered up with Cambridge University’s Faculty of Education to create a unique Lego professorship.

Bacardi

Their brand story: Rum isn’t a drink — it’s a culture.

Strong brands don’t just make products that stand alone; they make products that are part of a lifestyle. For Bacardi, the largest family-owned spirits company in the world, their rum is part of Caribbean culture, which is why their smart storytelling focuses on celebrating that culture in a unique way: through music.

Their 4-part documentary series Sound of Rum is a deep dive into the roots of Caribbean music and the artists who brought it to the world. For Bacardi, it’s a unique and creative way to create a connection with the culture while educating viewers about an important cultural legacy.

Starbucks

Starbucks exploded by not just offering customers a cup of coffee but by giving them a comfortable, sophisticated environment to relax. Starbucks also offers a place for people to meet in which they can experience affiliation and belonging.

The brand changed American culture from hanging out in diners and bars to hanging out in a local, trendy coffee shop.

Starbucks took a product that Americans were used to paying fifty cents for and were able to charge three or four dollars per cup.

How? Because they understood how their customers wanted to feel.

Their customers are willing to pay more for coffee because they sense greater value with each cup.

Tesla

When the Tesla Model S was launched, its primary function was to tell a story that, for a lot of luxury car neophiliacs, would break their current car. Tesla positions its customers as early adopters and tech geeks who are audacious and care about the environment.

Tesla tells a story that breaks the luxury car owner’s story on many levels. Break it in the sense that it wasn’t fun to own a luxury car anymore – it wasn’t worth bragging about.

Owning a luxury car doesn’t increase your status as a smart, wealthy person, who was clearly smarter and wealthier than everyone else.

A luxury car owner went to sleep the night before, delighted that the car in the garage was shiny, new, and state-of-the-art. It was safe, efficient, and worthy – and then he woke up to discover that the story was no longer true. Tesla broke that picture for many.

Tesla understood that no one who bought one of the first fifty thousand Teslas actually needed a car – they all had perfectly fine cars. So Elon Musk created a car that changed the story that a specific group told themselves.

Now, owning a Tesla gives you the status of early adopter, tech geek and environmentalist – they make you a hero.

Supreme

Their brand story: More than a brand, Supreme is art.

Supreme is a skateboarding brand that has amassed a huge following, elevating it from standard streetwear to a coveted designer item. (They even released a Louis Vuitton collaboration in 2017). Much of their allure comes from their hip, creative, and artistic approach to brand storytelling.

One classic example is their simple, brand-centric “random videos”, which immerse you in an entirely Supreme-branded world. Whether it’s a custom Supreme-branded pinball machine or a Rube Goldberg machine featuring Supreme-branded dominoes, these simple snippets feel like art installations, allowing the brand to push the boundaries of creativity. The brand tries to outdo itself with each video.

Conclusion

Stories are a great way of catching your audience’s attention and maintaining it. Not just any stories — emotional, well-crafted stories. The best brand story examples have one thing in common: a relatable hero who shows that using a product or service positively changes their life for the better.

Genius Brand Storytelling Examples