Starbucks became one of the hottest brands with the story of ‘The Third Place’, that refers to everyone’s place after home & office. Howard Schultz, the founder and CEO of Starbucks, succeeded in making Starbucks to the spotlight by bringing up their subculture. Up until 2006, the ready-to-drink coffee brand had more than 11 thousand outlets in 37 countries.
In 2008, everything flipped. The doubling expansion and the non-coffee menu made the quality drop. The result became obvious. Starbucks was forced to close their 900 outlets in various locations.
Refusing to kneel, Starbucks did a simple task. They organized a thorough evaluation. Known as the biggest marketing campaign cost, Starbucks built a new brand story with the tagline of ‘It’s not just coffee. It’s Starbucks’. In 2014, the revenue rocketed to USD 16 billion.
As David Aaker says at ‘What Are Your Signature Stories?’ In 2016, evaluation becomes the second step after the brand succeeds in building the brand story. Through evaluation, the brand owner is able to decide which brand story will be used as the Brand Signature Story.
These are at least the four dimensions to be considered in organising the brand story evaluation process.
1. Intriguing
The first dimension is aimed to check whether the story is able to fascinate or to provoke the market's curiosity and interest. Utilising the diction and moments that are close with the target market can make the stories become more intriguing.
2. Authentic
Market will be fascinated and even believe in an authentic story. It’s not always happen in real life, the authentic story can be fabricated or fictional. Above all, make sure to always bring the real and authentic story with no transparent selling effort.
3. Involving
The more relatable and connected to the brand story, the easier the market makes a decision. The third dimension is whether the brand story is able to stimulate an emotional response or a decision change to the market. Build a brand story that can make the target market involved emotionally or cognitively.
4. Strategic
Another dimension that needed to be evaluated continuously is the importance and the impact of the message conveyed by the brand in the brand story. Make sure to understand the impact of the message conveyed, how long the message relates to the challenges faced by the target market and whether the brand story can increase the sales and brand position in the market.
There are several elements to be considered in building the brand story. The same as telling a tale, brand owners need to consider empathetic characters, challenging conflicts or problems, surprises, visuals that are easy to understand and remember, and appropriate story details.
By doing the evaluation process, the brand and also the brand owner are able to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the brand story that will be used or that has been used as a signature story of the brand.
basicludo believes that a strong brand story must come authentically from the brand owner. We help brand owners to compose meaningful brand stories and be able to continue to develop them so that the brand can relate and connect to the market in a sustainable manner.