Get To Work
Creatives Scale Logo
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
  • Sign Up
    • Freelance Signup
    • Business Signup
  • Features
  • Blog
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Support
Creatives Scale Logo
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
  • Sign Up
    • Freelance Signup
    • Business Signup
  • Features
  • Blog
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Support
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
  • Sign Up
    • Freelance Signup
    • Business Signup
  • Features
  • Blog
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Support
Creatives Scale Mobile
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
  • Sign Up
    • Freelance Signup
    • Business Signup
  • Features
  • Blog
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Support

Blog

Home Business Agencies How Your Origin Story Can Help to Build Your Brand
AgenciesBranding

How Your Origin Story Can Help to Build Your Brand

David Lutkin March 5, 2019 0 Comments

You might have heard a famous origin story. The ones like the famous tales of Google and Apple’s humble beginnings in friends’ garages. Perhaps the more infamous tale of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook creation adventures in ‘The Social Network’ movie spring to mind.

The most successful marketing and branding campaigns come from an idea that grabs people and resonates with who they are. Telling the story of your inception can epitomize the idea that defined your brand in the first place. Likewise, it can inspire your audience to become invested in your future.

Why Telling Your Story Will Solidify Your Foundation

Your target audience has a set of values which they can and want to identify with.

Many industries are tending towards increased globalization, conglomeration and monopolistic practices. Conversely, people are increasingly looking for more local, sustainable and environmental alternatives.

Origin stories utilize the same concept of authenticity as trends like farm-to-table restaurants. They build the social profile of your brand. They turn ‘family-owned’ into ‘I am part of the family.’

Nostalgia Is a Powerful Tool.

Some brands are presently using products sporting retro or throwback branding in addition to their video advertisements and social media posts. Find a sense of nostalgia that works with your individual brand to engage your audience in a memory of the past.

The British breadmaker Hovis is a brand associated with a morning bike ride on an old-fashioned English village hilltop. The director of Britain’s favorite advert, Ridley Scott (yes, the famous one), tapped into the viewer’s nostalgia. In essence, he connected a feeling of enjoying a warm loaf of local-bakery bread in a cozy atmosphere with Hovis.

You can follow the same steps.

How to Begin Telling Your Story

Follow these steps in the order that makes the most sense for your story. Try to include as many as possible!

1. Be Honest and Genuine About What Happened

You can begin humanizing your brand by introducing it in a similar way you might introduce yourself. Keep your origin story as close to the truth as possible. Work hard to emphasize the unique factors that really set you apart and defined the character of your brand.

Decades ago, origin stories came to life in album covers. What time period is your story from?

2. When Did Your Story Occur?

You don’t have to be very date-specific. However at least a decade or an era around an event will help to throw your audience back into the right time-frame.

Try to use examples, which will give your audience a strong association to the time period. Perhaps a particular summer during the disco era, or another more global event, which is easily recognizable.

3. Which Location Had the Biggest Influence?

The geographical location of your inception may or may not be as critical as Bethlehem or Palo Alto, but your audience wants to know where you are from! The culture of your brand’s homeland is one of the biggest indicators of the environment which has helped you to thrive.

4. What Drove You to Start Your Brand?

This one can be tricky, but try looking at it from the perspective of your audience. What problem did you start out trying to solve? How did that drive you forward in the early days? Your motivation for setting sail with your brand can really inspire people who resonate with it.

This is a good topic for tying into how your brand has evolved into what it is today.

5. Who Were the People Involved?

Make it personal. Introduce your eclectic cousin Clarissa and your future best man Mike. Share with your audience how their unique characters and skills helped shape your brand.

Even if you are running more of a one-man-show you should include this. This can be a great opportunity to share some of your more personal origins. Furthermore, there are always influencers around you who may not be directly involved but have still had a huge and lasting impact on your brand origin. Who are they? Include them.

6. What Characteristics Made You Different?

The identifying characteristics of an origin story can take multiple forms. For instance, a wonky delivery bike you used, or a pungent aroma of malt and hops from the brewery next door.

The fast-food chain Shake Shack started with one hot dog cart inside Madison Square Park. Quentin Tarantino writes all of his scripts with a notebook and pen.

Think about an aspect of your origins, which will really enable your audience to put themselves into your shoes. Something like the smell of onions and hot dogs, or the scratch of a pen on paper.

Tie Your Past Into Your Present

Now you have shared your origin story. This is the perfect time to bring your brand story back full circle. Ultimately, you want to merge your origin with your current mission and your vision for the future.

A Road Less Traveled

Share a short summary of how your experiences in the startup stages have led to the road you are walking today.

Be sure to keep the personal and novel aspects prominent. This is especially critical for larger organizations, with which people may have a harder time connecting.

This whole process is about giving your customers a reason to empathize with you. You want them to invest emotionally in your brand and in what makes you different.

These kinds of unique elements are what will give your brand the recognition and foundation to push on towards your next adventures successfully.

Become one of the companies, organizations, and individuals who is sharing these stories with their audiences. Be open to opening up about what made your brand what it is today and what it will become. Even if you came from a cramped cupboard under the stairs, people love a happy-ending story almost as much as they love rooting for the underdog.

24
413 Views
AboutDavid Lutkin
Deal or Dive: the Anti-Trend GenerationPrevDeal or Dive: the Anti-Trend GenerationFebruary 19, 2019
The Difference Between User Experience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX)March 12, 2019The Difference Between User Experience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX)Next

Related Posts

AgenciesOnline MarketingSocial Media

Dark Social: The Future of Online Marketing

You may have come across the term “Dark Social” during some of your late-night...

Caz Bevan December 7, 2018
AgenciesOnline MarketingSocial Media

Dark Social: Shedding Light on Private Social Networks

So, you think you’re pretty tech-savvy? You know a few things about the social media...

Caz Bevan January 7, 2019
Related Posts
  • Put A Little Sass Into It! Creating A Voice For Your Brand
    Put A Little Sass Into It! Creating A Voice For Your Brand
    July 30, 2019
  • First, Break All Your Best Practices
    First, Break All Your Best Practices
    May 20, 2019
  • How To Focus On Quality Content For SEO
    How To Focus On Quality Content For SEO
    May 7, 2019
Recent Posts
  • The Benefits of Working as an Independent Contractor January 18, 2021
  • What Do QA Editors Review For Each Topic? December 11, 2020
  • Home for the Holidays November 30, 2020
  • How To Overcome Common Grammatical Errors in Content Writing September 11, 2020
  • How To Format Content Writing For SEO September 10, 2020
Categories
  • Agencies 15
  • Branding 4
  • Digital Nomads 1
  • FAQs 6
  • Freelance Marketing 1
  • Freelance Writing 2
  • Holiday Marketing 1
  • Influencer Marketing 3
  • Knowledge Base 6
  • News 1
  • Online Marketing 13
  • Remote Work 1
  • SEO Best Practices 6
  • Social Media 8
  • Success 4
  • Website Content Best Practices 2

all white Creatives Scale logo

Everything you need to grow, manage and develop your creative freelance career in one place. Join the most exclusive group of writers, marketing specialists, and designers -- where the pipeline is always full and the more you do, the more you earn.
Get A Gig
Create Content Calendars
Do Keyword Research
Conduct Site Audits
Write Blog Posts
Create Web Copy
Design Featured Images
Contacts
For Support: Click Here
Services Agreement | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2020 CreativesScale. All Rights Reserved.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT