Find your brand's backstory – but don't tell it

What's the story? #9 – why storytelling will always be the key to building great brands.

There’s a famous story Richard Branson tells, about when he was a little boy, around five year’s old. He was travelling in the car one day, when his mother stopped a few miles from home, made him get out and find his own way back. She wanted to teach him to be independent and overcome his shyness.

Luckily he did, as we might not have had seat-back screens on planes, or the Sex Pistols. The story is maybe not the key to his and Virgin’s phenomenal success, but it helps to understand the driving force behind it. 

Many writers begin with writing the lead characters' backstories. Most of this will never appear in the story itself, but helps inform the characters' actions, which drive the plot forward, and make the story more believable and compelling. Make us care.

Ernest Hemingway called it his “Iceberg Theory.” The part of the character we see is just the small bit of it that pokes above the surface. What we don’t see, is what makes up the rest, that is often left unsaid – the name of the first girl or boy they kissed, and the one who broke their heart, or favourite toy. The challenges and the triumphs that make the character who they are.

Screenwriting teacher John Truby talks about a “ghost’ – a traumatic event from the character’s past, that continues to haunt them in the present, and influences how they act. Like Rick, in Casablanca, who is haunted by Ilsa dumping him in Paris.

But what does this mean for brands?

If you go on most brand’s websites, you’ll find their history. But that's not always the same as their backstory.

The history tells you what. The backstory should tell you why. This is what will make the brand stories you tell today richer and more meaningful. To make your audience care.

Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman famously used his wife's waffle iron to develop a new running-shoe sole. He just did it. Patagonia's early climbing-equipment business, was driven by the environmental damage caused by some of its own products. And the spirit of Mazda (which I worked on for a few years) to struggle against the odds to produce revolutionary engine technology and design, was forged in the inferno of Hiroshima.

But you sometimes won’t find such stories in the brand guidelines: in the five fluffy words that proclaim the brand’s core values. I know, because I’ve written quite a few of them myself. The guidelines and the fluffy words.

The key to great brand storytelling is often found in backstories like these – because they are real, human, and sometimes flawed. But you don't need to tell them. Just have a dig around in the closets, attics, and old family albums of your brand, and the stories (or skeletons) you find from yesterday, could help you tell even better ones tomorrow.