Story Counts!

Abstract

Brands have always sought to establish relationships with their audiences through marketing and communication: two disciplines that are defined as natural enablers of transformation processes owing to their important role in connecting businesses with the market and consumers. This paper discusses the importance of storytelling as a mythopoetic engine (now amplified by technological developments) that allows brands (profit and non-profit) to use the power of stories to promote social values and to activate processes of change. The first part of the paper presents a formal approach to discussing the narrative phenomenon, and the second part of the paper discusses the use of storytelling in brand communication. The focus is on brands that have introduced social issues into their communication campaigns to strengthen their connection with audiences through the promotion of social values and realities that use story-based strategies to activate sustainable social change.