How To Use Story-Telling To Strengthen Your Arts Brand | Alternative Fruit

Associating an artist with a story gives their customer base a sense of comfort and attachment that helps to sell their work. There are many proven psychological effects in the brain when listening to stories. Putting people's minds at ease with a short story about the brand and its products is a way of offering transparency and nurturing trust. We have to earn the respect of our potential customer by always producing good quality works and relating to them. We are all emotional beings, whether we admit it or not, and this means that the way we feel is a clear factor in the decision making process. If a brand hasn't taken the time to tell the story behind it then winning over this element of our personalities will be harder. We don't spend our money unless we want to or really have to.


As with all stories, there are certain rules that apply. If we follow these rules in some form for our stories then it will do the job you need it to when it comes to communicating the desirable side of your wares.


Ask yourself, “Who am I talking to?”. Knowing your audience means appreciating what they're into already and who their influencers are. What kind of people are you aiming at with your arts? You need a story that says something to them. Think about the language you'd use, the metaphors, the literary quotes. Try to tailor the story to meet the emotional landscape of the audience, let them feel comfortable with the whole message.


What are you trying to say? There has to be a point for your story, and it will be concerning your brand and products. Whether you've engineered a new toaster or created a batch of acrylic paintings, the story has to be about these things and how they fit into the lives of your audience through examples.


How will you tell it? The individual stages of your story need to make logical sense to the audience. If they don't understand it or if it makes them feel uneasy then the audience will quickly lose confidence in the brand. The story must have a clear structure that can be easily understood.


Are you being honest? If the truth is sabotage then you're not ready to sell. Your story needs to represent the truth about your brand and product in a way that makes it clear for the audience to understand it and accept it. If they can't see the elements of the story for themselves, they won't be interested.


What problem does it solve, what effects will it have on the lives of your audience? The story has to make it absolutely lucid as to what your brand does and what it is for. If it's arts then explain the medium, influences, emotional background, be creative! People want to feel a connection to their art so build as many as possible.


Talk about, don't push. We're all on the same team, we created our brand because we want to enrich society in our work. Teachers are good in the classroom and in lecture halls but in the marketplace people want to talk to a friend. Casual language makes it more digestible for people and a non-authoritative tone will be listened to a lot more.
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Put pictures in people's heads. Memorable stories stick in our minds because of their imagery. We imagine the setting and the situation so the more detail and imagery we get gives us a clearer picture. The better the resolution the more memorable it is. Visual story-telling is a great way of achieving this. 


Remember the human side. It is never just about your brand or your product. It's about how it fits in with the lives of everyday people. There are emotional reasons people like particular brands and names as much as they like the style. Customer loyalty is difficult to establish so it's vital that your audience likes you and accepts your brand. Nurture the emotional side with empathic relations and demonstrations of authenticity.


A good story will sell itself, it will be retold and changed over time. If you can tell a story that becomes one of these, and it's clearly involving your brand, then that brand will stick around forever. If you want to continue on the journey towards telling a great story then you can read this inexpensive book.
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