Exhibit 1️⃣ — Imagine there is a brand that is selling traditional Indian snacks — let’s say namkeen. You know the quality is the best, it is made with proper hygiene.
Exhibit 2️⃣ — Imagine there is another brand that is also selling traditional Indian snacks, namkeen only. It has all the qualities the above one has, same no palm oil and no preservatives. But it also says that — to empower the village women in Rajasthan, they started this brand. Now, more than 3000 women work with them. It has helped them educate their daughters and protect them from child marriage.
🤔 Now tell me which brand you would support?
You may say— But Diksha, the story of the second brand is too emotional, not everyone has a story like that, C’mon!
Fair, fair, I hear you. Let’s try another one.
Exhibit 3️⃣— Imagine there is a brand that is selling traditional Indian snacks. Best quality, best hygiene, no palm oil, and no preservatives. Their origin story goes like this —
One Diwali evening, a family was sitting together after the puja. The couple was telling their children that their grandmother used to make extensive snacks and food for Diwali. It used to be a week-long process. Now the children want the same snack, and the couple also wants them to have the same food that they had grown up eating.
In the quest to recreate it, they searched every brand out there and tried multiple South Indian traditional snacks. Some were too spicy for children, some were too unhealthy to give them, and none of them had the taste that they grew up eating.
So the couple searched for the authentic recipe. It took them a while to find it and perfect it, but they finally managed to give their children the taste of their childhood.
Something that started as a small moment has now become a shared joy. SMJ brand provides you with the authentic taste of your childhood — the snacks you grew up eating. Authentically sourced. Made with Grandma’s love.
🤔 Now tell me, would you want just a snack (Exhibit 1st) or would you want to eat the snacks of your childhood (Exhibit 3rd)?
Most likely, people would want to go with the 2nd and 3rd options because you aren’t just consuming the snack, you are either supporting women in Rajasthan or eating dadi ke hath ka khana, which you have grown up eating.
That's why brand stories are important and why they need to be on the homepage
This is what we are going to talk about in today’s edition — How to write ‘Our Story’ section well.
🙄Every time I go to a website of a D2C brand, I notice two things — either their origin story exists in the footnote of the website buried with 36 other things or it stays on the homepage but it doesn’t evoke any emotions and doesn't serve its purpose.
Hardly have I come across any brand that is telling the brand story right.
We’ll cover — why it is important to have the story section on the homepage (now you know), how to get it right so it moves the needle for you and what not to do in this section.
Shall we move ahead?
How to get it right?
The basic hygiene of utilising the ‘Our Story’ section in the right way includes:
1/ A dedicated section on the homepage
2/ Not burying it in the footnote
3/ Using it further in the content to reinforce it
I believe there is always a story — we just need to dig deeper. It gets missed when founders don't think it's strong enough or emotional enough to be worth telling. Sometimes founders aren't naturally expressive. They don't feel things loudly, and that's okay. But that doesn't mean their story isn't there. Journally exercises help in this case.
Apart from it, here are three questions that every founder can ask themselves to write a better brand story.