Washington Business Summer 2018 | Washington Business | Page 25

what’s working
Brand-building Through Storytelling
Companies are leveraging brand journalism to capitalize on
compelling customer and employee stories to build brand
loyalty and values awareness.
Bobbi Cussins
What’s in a brand? That’s the question companies from associations like AWB and the National Association
of Manufacturers to purveyors of coffee and airline companies are asking. The answer for today’s
communications professionals, and the companies they serve, is that a brand is not just about the product,
but rather the story of how what it makes and its culture connects communities and improves lives.
At A Glance
Brand journalism is the practice of journalism-
s tyle storytelling on behalf of a company to
accomplish the same goal of earning and keeping
an audience’s attention.
Brand journalism, also called “strategic
storytelling,” creates news-style content of
stories about a company for consumption by
the company’s main audience, its employees
and the media.
The shrinking number of reporters has aided
in the growth of brand journalism.
In the 1980s, there were roughly 40 Olympia
statehouse reporters compared to six full-time
statehouse reporters and three broadcast
journalists that cover Olympia politics
part-time in 2018.
Behind every company — large, small and everything in between — there is a story
of why it was created and who it serves. It’s that story that is the driving force
behind a product’s “brand.”
At its root, a brand is a reflection of its values.
“A brand is not just a logo. It’s not just colors and fonts. It’s ideas. It’s a philosophy
and it’s action,” said Michelle Hege, president and CEO of Spokane-based DH, at
the Association of Washington Business’ 2017 Spring Meeting in Spokane. Hege
was speaking during the unveiling of AWB’s new brand logo. It was AWB’s first
logo redesign in more than three decades and it provided a visual representation
of changes taking place within the organization.
The way employers communicate with audiences is rapidly changing, too, fueled
by a rise in new technologies and a decline in the number of traditional reporters.
Increasingly, companies, including AWB, are engaging directly with employees,
customers and prospective customers, on a human level, through brand journalism,
or “strategic storytelling.”
AWB launched its own brand journalism channel,
AWB News, this year as a way to fill the gap in
news coverage at the statehouse.
Starbucks Newsroom – Ask Better
Questions Campaign:
bit.ly/StarbucksAskBetterQuestions
Grow Here:
www.growherewashington.com
Coca-Cola:
www.coca-colacompany.com
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