Author: Jim Signorelli
Title: Story Branding 2.0
Subject: Non-Fiction
Release Date: Available now
Reviewer: Rebecca Ross
Jim Signorelli’s StoryBranding is an information-packed, user-friendly guide to brand development. This is not an instruction manual for advertising, but a comprehensive toolkit to help companies and individuals improve their brands through the effective use of storytelling. By going back to the foundation of brand identity, Signorelli shows how to find your brand’s story and acquire not just buyers, but believers. As he points out, it is better to give people something to think about than tell them what to think.
Signorelli’s style is engaging and has a conversational quality that draws readers in and makes the concepts he presents easy to grasp. Marketing is not the most exciting subject out there, yet he manages to capture and hold the interest of readers as they follow along from the origins of storytelling to the development of successful brands to the use of themes and plots to identifying archetypes and everything in between. If you want to learn how to identify and establish a set of beliefs that will connect your brand to the public, this is the ultimate source to reference.
StoryBranding is very well-organized and easy to follow, with each chapter building on the last in an organic way. It is packed with great information, but does not lose readers in the details. Instead readers will put this book down ready to take action; they will feel both inspired and prepared. Signorelli’s background in advertising, his personal stories of discovery, and his extensive research instill trust and his injections of humor make for a quick read.
The stories about how the most popular and successful brands have gotten where they are today are enjoyable and insightful. For example, did you ever stop to think that Disney isn’t selling theme park rides and cartoon characters, but a belief in the joy of magic? It’s true! Signorelli explains that by making a brand the main character of its own story, it gives people something lasting to relate to.
StoryBranding will make you think about how you respond to the brands you know and trust.
For Signorelli it all comes back to relationships – the relationships between brands and their prospects and how to strengthen these bonds in the name of improving your brand. A relevant, engaging, and thorough presentation.
