Human-Scale Brand Storytelling

Human civilization is what it is because of storytelling.

In the contemporary landscape, we don’t think of stories as something we rely on to function because technology has provided us with unlimited capacity to access information. It seems like stories are separate from real life. This is not actually the case. In fact, stories are ubiquitous. They frame everything, sometimes invisibly (like your inner dialogue when you’re replaying that awkward thing you said at the party last night) and sometimes extremely visibly (like on Instagram, where you literally can post to your “stories”). Brand storytelling is kind of a buzzword these days. It has been touted as “the future of marketing” by Forbes and has become an extremely popular framework in the branding world. I generally see this as a good thing. Unfortunately, as is usually the case when an idea enters mainstream consciousness, the message has become diluted. It’s lost meaning because it’s been framed over and over as a marketing strategy, rather than a core human function.

It’s true that storytelling is an effective tool for marketing. A quick search online will tell you why in a thousand different ways. But, marketing comes later in the growth process. When you’re building a brand from the ground up, think of your brand like a tree. Marketing is canopy-level, and without solid roots, the tree can’t grow. What can we do to tend to these roots using storytelling?

Small businesses are human-scale.

When I say human-scale with reference to brand design, I’m referring to the characteristics that make a brand feel relatable, accessible, and defined by humans and not simply by markets. Like many Greek-Americans, I come from a long line of small business owners, including my paternal grandfather (my Papou), who ran a small local advertising business using essentially a barter system. During the holidays, when my Yiayia would make her signature baklava, Papou would drive around St. Louis to pay visits to his clients, and gift them a little box of his wife’s baklava. A little bit of sweetness crafted lovingly in a home kitchen. Aside from the fact that our ancestral baklava recipe is the best in the world (not up for debate), the impact of this offering was a sense of humanity. It reinforced that they were part of a shared community. This is not something that a market can provide. Only human to human relationships can accomplish this.

My Papou understood that a sense of rootedness, a commitment to the local community, was what mattered to his clients.

This is ultimately what people are seeking when they choose to support a small business over a corporation. This is what we, as small business owners, are seeking when we choose to forge our own path. When it comes to creating a brand, our humanity is an asset because it is what connects us to other people.

Nothing is more human-scale than a good story.

Our brains have evolved to latch onto stories. We remember information better when it’s presented in a narrative than we do when presented with straight facts and numbers. When Papou gifted baklava to his clients, he wasn’t just buttering them up (this pun works better if you know the absurd amount of butter in the recipe). He was sharing part of his story: his heritage, his family, and the generosity of spirit embedded in Greek culture that influenced how he ran his business. It wasn’t a marketing strategy. It was his brand. He didn’t have a marketing team, he was his own customer service rep, he didn’t have a website or a TikTok. He was just a dude with a small business. And everyone adored him for who he was as a person.

Another memory from my grandparents is sitting down with them to read and hear stories together. Sometimes it was an tattered, well-loved Dr. Seuss book, and sometimes it was a story from Greek mythology told with a little personal spin. I can close my eyes and picture settling down in Papou’s lap in his big grandpa chair (you know the type) to get my storytelling fix. Stories bind us together. They’re part of our human identity: they entertain, teach, and help us create meaning from our experiences. They connect us.

This is why brand storytelling is important. We’ve all experienced the feeling of connection that stories create. Our ability to connect with our own stories connects us to our audiences, and this is infinitely more powerful than any marketing tactic. Human-scale brand design is an approach that highlights this quality and inherently challenges the status quo. Rather than framing our audiences as nameless consumers, see them as humans who share similar experiences, who have similar questions and challenges. Small businesses don’t have it easy, but we do have the advantage of already being human-scale.

Brand storytelling starts from the ground up.

Our stories are our roots. For my Papou, his connection to his literal roots were a huge part of his brand. His pride in his culture played a major role in how he presented himself in public. Though he didn’t hire a professional brand designer or do a brand identity workshop, he understood that his story was an asset and that infusing it into his business would help him form relationships.

Creating a brand can feel like a major task. And it is, especially when you’re running your business solo or with a small team and perhaps working with limited resources. It can be a big investment. The good news is that you already have what you need to work with brand storytelling because you have a story. It doesn’t cost anything to know and tell your story. It already belongs to you, and the rest of your brand can be built upon that foundation.

Brand storytelling grows from the ground up. Consider your roots.

Who are you? Where are you? What do you do? Why do you do it? How did you get here? What does it mean to you, and what do you have to offer? When you are clear on these questions, a picture of your audience starts to form. Who are they? Where are they? What challenges, problems, needs do they experience? Why might they be interested in what do? How can you support them? Each layer of the story leads us to the next. This is growth. Like a tree, all growth is connected to your roots.

The roots connected to your business may not be so direct as my grandfather’s, but they are there. Find them, get to know them, tend to them, and use them as a springboard for your brand. You won’t regret it.

Yiayia, me, my brother, Papou (c. 1997)