• Ad Age, Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:46 AM

Storytelling has been a primary method of communication for centuries, and two authors say marketers need to find a true, compelling story about their brands in order to succeed.Christian Budtz and Klaus Fog are top executives at Sigma, a European-based branding agency, and co-authors of  Storytelling: Branding in Practice. Their thesis is that unless companies can dig into their past and find a real story to tell about their brands to distinguish them from the competition, they will be forced to compete on price alone and will never establish a strong identity. “Today's traditional brands are under growing pressure as cheaper alternatives and look-alike products invade the global marketplace,” they write.  “A brand is no longer just a matter of top quality or great design. Physical and rational attributes are easy targets for copycats. Companies that want to maintain brand status in the future must justify to consumers what makes them so special. Does your company have an original story to tell? A story that is so honest, captivating and unique, that we are willing to pay a price premium to become part of it?”  The pair cites Perrier mineral water as a classic example of a brand that used the story of its founding as a successful marketing tool.

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