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From early humans painting pictures on cave walls to modern innovators creating sagas across cinema screens and viral moments across apps, storytelling is a tradition as old as our species.
Why does storytelling stand the test of time? A clear, satisfying narrative helps people:
- Make sense of a complex world
- Focus attention on what matters
- Create emotional connection
This also explains why storytelling endures as an effective branding and marketing tool.
A strong, compelling brand narrative gives investors, customers and employees clear reasons to believe in a business—and to take the actions that create value.
What is B2B Brand Storytelling?
In B2B context, brand storytelling is a disciplined approach to expressing purpose and value through narrative structures—linking business offerings to the outcomes audiences need.
In practical terms, B2B brand storytelling uses classic storytelling elements (characters, tension, stakes, resolution) to align facts with meaning and evidence with emotion—so decision-makers can understand the brand, remember it and act.
In consumer advertising, the approach has been proven for decades. Notable campaign examples include:
- P&G’s “Thank you, Mom” Olympic campaigns, which market household products by featuring moving displays of motherly love
- Budweiser’s “Someone Waits for You at Home” campaign, which communicates the dangers of drinking and driving from an unconventional perspective: that of a loving pet
In B2B, the same discipline turns information into impact across:
- Website and digital experiences
- Sales enablement and proposals
- Investor communications
- Recruiting and culture initiatives
- Product and service marketing
It’s highly effective no matter the medium, and for good reason. Storytelling isn’t just an art—it’s a science.
The Science Behind Brand Storytelling
Brands drive value creation when they stand out as different and, importantly, memorable. Research conducted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business shows that stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone.
Three mechanisms drive this effect:
- Neural coupling enables readers/listeners to connect stories to their own thoughts and experiences. They then interpret brand information through a personal lens, often making it easier to recall.
- Chemical reactions related to feelings enhance recall of objective facts. When our brains encounter emotionally-charged content like stories, they release dopamine—a substance that supports memory.
- Broader brain activation triggered by stories also strengthens memory formation. When absorbing new information, two regions of the brain activate to translate words into meaning: Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area. When content is delivered in story form, neural activity increases in other places, too—like the sensory cortex.
This third, final factor is particularly meaningful.
According to The New York Times, multiple studies have demonstrated that people have stronger neural responses to sensory words and even to metaphors. For example, a team at Emory University found that metaphors like “The singer had a velvet voice” triggered more brain activity than those featuring neutral words, like “The singer had a pleasant voice.”
The Times concluded that stories “stimulate the brain and can even change how we act in real life.”
The Powerful Payoff
It’s that real-world result that the Times identifies—the enhanced ability to motivate people to action—that B2B marketers must elevate as they pursue C-suite support. After all, leadership understandably cares less about neuroscience and more about marketing’s ability to drive ROI.
Research from Headstream—a social and content agency that merged with communications company Five by Five—validates that brand stories impact conversion rates.
Their data showed that when customers and clients connected with a brand’s story:
- 15 percent would purchase its products immediately
- 55 percent became more likely to buy from the company in the future
Results like these make a powerful case for change. Traditionally, B2B communications have been somewhat dry—leading with facts and specs rather than sentiment. To this day, leaders in the space can feel reluctant to infuse emotion into their marketing, considering it less appropriate when targeting businesses vs. consumers.
But as all CMOs must remember and repeat: “brand audiences” are people first. Storytelling can help even the broadest portfolio with the most complex offerings create a more compelling brand voice and build stronger relationships.
The results can be game-changing:
- Stronger memorability
- More compelling differentiation
- Deeper confidence among buyers and investors
- More durable employee alignment
B2B Brand Storytelling in Action
Because B2B brands navigate longer cycles, multiple audiences and higher risk, effective storytelling looks different than in consumer categories.
These three cases highlight common B2B challenges and the storytelling solutions that drove extraordinary value creation:
1. IBM: Turning capability into societal impact
IBM’s commitment to brand storytelling is truly enduring and effective.
In a famous 1990s television spot, the company adopted a documentary film style to highlight the emotional benefits of its technology—specifically, its commitment to improving education and investing in the next generation.
Two decades later, IBM’s 2016 “Outthink” campaign personified “Watson,” its AI technology, by depicting it in conversation with everyone from a seven-year-old cancer survivor to rock-and-roll legend Bob Dylan.
Across these campaigns, IBM reframed capability as outcome—elevating products by tying them to greater purpose while helping decision makers see their impact more clearly.
2. HP: Making security urgent and intelligent
HP took brand storytelling to a whole new level with its short film, “The Wolf.” Starring Christian Slater, the six-and-half-minute ad chronicles the perils of printer security—elevating a somewhat dull topic by using artful narration, riveting suspense and vivid imagery.
By dramatizing risk and resolution rather than listing features, the brand made a technical, often dry subject feel immediate and worthy of executive attention.
3. ENGIE Impact: Uniting multiple businesses with a forward-looking story
When ENGIE—a multinational energy and services company—merged four of its companies into a new sustainability transformation organization, leadership partnered with DeSantis Breindel to build the new brand.
Brand storytelling played a key role in our strategy. Anchored in the concept of “Right now. For tomorrow.”, the narrative linked immediate action to long-term outcomes, giving clients a clear way to evaluate progress.
The rebrand included a new name, ENGIE Impact, and a unified digital experience. Storytelling tactics—narrative flow, emotional language, concrete examples and a focus on audience-first outcomes—positioned ENGIE Impact as the solution in a complex, fast-evolving category.
Getting Started with Telling Your Story
When it comes to B2B brand storytelling, there’s no single formula that will apply to every organization. Brand storytelling takes many forms, from harnessing humor to highlighting the big-picture benefits of CSR initiatives.
That said, three disciplined practices can help leaders apply effective storytelling techniques:
1. Tie data points to impact
Numbers are most persuasive when they’re experienced. Translate KPIs into consequences and benefits your audiences can feel.
For example, saying, “Arctic sea ice is declining by a rate of 12.8 percent per decade” quantifies the results of global warming. But consider the impact of narrative framing: “With 12.8 percent of Arctic sea ice melting per decade, ocean levels could rise eight feet by 2100—putting parts of New York City underwater.”
By connecting data to recognizable consequences, marketing gives readers context that both raises the stakes and embeds the brand more effectively in their memories.
2. Trade hypotheticals for real examples
“We saved clients 20%” is factual; “We helped one hospital reduce costs by 20%, enabling reinvestment in a vital regional cancer center” is memorable—and credible.
Narrowing your focus to a single, human benefit creates a more memorable argument.
3. Crowdsource and share
Stories exist everywhere, so look within and without your organization for inspiration. Use social media to engage with customers and employees, and ask them to share stories about their own experiences with the business.
This approach will not only help core audiences feel heard and prioritized. It may also provide fresh material for new campaigns.
Tell a New Story to Create Fresh Advantage
Amid a constant stream of messages, isolated facts fade. Coherent, emotional narratives endure—within the business and across markets.
In B2B, the strongest brand stories do more than create clarity; they set direction. They sustain the trust you’ve earned while establishing the terms of what comes next, linking purpose with outcomes in ways your audiences will remember far more vividly.
When markets shift or the business evolves, use storytelling to make your progress and purpose clear across the moments that matter—sales conversations, product demonstrations, recruiting, investor updates.
Do this consistently, and your B2B brand story becomes an emotional, memorable source of advantage.
Want to discuss how strategic brand storytelling can create value for your brand? Let’s talk.
Originally published August 5, 2021, authored by Caroline Welch.
