Storytelling in Marketing and Brand Communications
Routledge Studies in Marketing Series

Storytelling has redefined marketing from a brand monologue to brand-consumer dialogues, conversations and co-creation. Drawing on interdisciplinary narrative literature and the perspectives of legendary practitioners, this book reveals the art of storified brand communications and how storytelling affects our brains using consumer psychology and neuroscience insights. With theories, practice, application, and several conceptual models, tools and techniques, this book invites researchers, academics, marketing practitioners, and students to decode the art of storytelling and join the debate on how storytelling transforms the discourse of marketing and brand communications.

Ancient people gathered around fires to bond and tell stories, passing wisdom from generation to generation. Likewise, we tell stories through social media platforms that transcend time and space. Moreover, digital storytelling in multiple forms and formats has transformed marketing, ushering in an era of a creative renaissance by infusing the imagination of human minds with the power of technology. In this context, the book positions brand storytelling as an artistic science, evolving in the content creators' playground that fosters brand-consumer conversation and co-creation. Although the future of storytelling is mysterious, the author argues that human minds will continue to dominate machines, creating marketing magic at the intersection of narrative art and technological science.

With a balance of theories and practice, including conceptual models, tools and techniques, this book offers valuable insights, allowing researchers, academics as well as astute marketing practitioners and students, to follow how the art of storytelling, empowered by science and technology, is transforming the discourse of brand communications in the imagination age.

Foreword

Professor Yasmin Ibrahim

Chapter 1: The Divine Gift that Makes Us Human: Evolution of Storytelling and the Language of Marketing

Chapter 2: Strategic and Tactical Brand Stories: Creating Emotional Triggers to Connect with the Consumers

Chapter 3: Tango of the Brains: The Influence of Narrative Art Explained through Consumer Psychology and Neuroscience

Chapter 4: Narrative Theories: Deciphering the Essential Story Elements

Chapter 5: Storytelling Strategies: Life Philosophies and Narrative Tactics Explained in the Light of Genres

Chapter 6: Make Your Customer the Hero: The Hero’s Journey and Heroic Transformation in Marketing

Chapter 7: Storified Brand Communications: The Art of Fiction-told and Purpose-told Storytelling and Their Application in Marketing

Chapter 8: Brand-Consumer Romance in the Digital Age: Dancing with Transmedia Storytelling

Chapter 9: Finding Your Voice in the Imagination Age: The Art of Personal Branding through Storytelling

Chapter 10: Brand Storytelling in the Age of AI: The ‘Artistic Science’ that Sparks Magic and Mystery

S M A Moin is an Associate Professor in Marketing and the Director of Teaching Associates at Queen Mary University of London: School of Business and Management. He is an interdisciplinary researcher in brand storytelling, creativity, and consumer trust. Before moving into academia, Moin worked in several industries, including the military (Navy), media, publishing, and financial services. As a management consultant, he advised various companies, worked for the world’s largest international newspaper and was part of a $4 billion international subsea project.