How do I tell a brand story without it feeling like a commercial?
Stop making your brand the hero. Make the customer the hero and your brand the tool they use. Real stories have tension, stakes, transformation. If your 'story' is just describing product features with a beginning, middle, and end, that's not storytelling--that's a list with a timeline. Give us characters we care about facing problems that matter.
What if my product doesn't have an interesting story?
Then you're looking at the wrong story. Every product solves a problem someone has. That person's journey--their struggle, their frustration, their breakthrough--that's your story. The product is just a supporting character. If you can't find a human story worth telling about your product's impact, you've got bigger problems than marketing.
Example: How it could look
Nike doesn't tell stories about shoes--they tell stories about athletes pushing past limits, facing self-doubt, achieving impossible goals. The shoes are barely in the frame. The story is human transformation, and Nike is the gear people wear during that journey. Story first, product second.
Or like this:
Why is Storytelling a great technique?
Stories create emotional engagement and memory formation in ways factual information simply can't match.
Triggers empathy and emotional investment
Makes abstract benefits concrete and relatable
Creates memorable narrative structure
Allows audience to see themselves in story
Humans are wired for stories--we remember them, share them, and use them to make sense of the world. When you tell a real story instead of pitching features, you're speaking the language our brains prefer. That's not manipulation, that's effective communication.
! When not to use the Storytelling Technique
When you're wrapping product features in narrative window dressing and calling it storytelling. If the 'story' is boring, tell it differently or don't tell it.