Aria Bryan believes the brands people remember aren’t those with the biggest marketing budgets. They’re the ones that give customers a different way to see the world. While advertising can put a brand in front of more people, it’s the story behind the brand that gives customers something worth remembering and repeating.
“A category story has a point of view,” says Bryan, President and CMO of The Harkey Group. “A brand should be rooted in something unique about your product, but a great story finds its way into the consumer’s life.”
A category story has a point of view. A brand should be rooted in something unique about your product, but a great story finds its way into the consumer’s life.
— Aria Bryan, President/CMO, The Harkey Group
The distinction changes everything. Many brands spend months refining positioning statements, value propositions and messaging frameworks. They become experts at describing themselves instead of giving customers a new way to see the category.
This is where memorable brands separate themselves. “The best stories are simple,” Bryan says. “I like to say they give more than they take. Before the audience encounters a call to action, the message should have brought some value.”
This mindset starts by identifying what genuinely makes a brand different—not what brands want people to notice, but what customers actually experience. “It all starts with the product,” Bryan says. “And product can really be anything. What is unique about your brand? Start there and then put it in a way that makes people care. Ask yourself: How does this fit into my audience’s daily life? If it makes sense, you have a good story to tell.”
But finding that narrative is only the beginning. Bryan says the best brands start with something that’s internally true about that brand. “People must buy in before the new stationery goes to print. If you build from a place of truth and bring people along, you’ll have internal advocates creating things that embody the brand.”
It is why Bryan rejects the idea that branding belongs solely to marketing. “Selling the story to those who create the brand is where the job starts. Listen to what people are saying. Look at how they use the product in ways you wouldn’t expect. And then, let them own it. Support your advocates or fans if you have them, and let them create the message for you.”
To see this strategy in action, take PETERMAYER’s Brand Joy Lab, an ongoing research initiative that has surveyed more than 13,000 Americans about what brings them joy. While most agencies would have treated three years of proprietary research as a competitive advantage, PETERMAYER made it open source. “We’re all about bringing more joy to consumers,” Bryan says. “The more brands and agencies that have this data to work with, the more our industry can deliver that experience.”
Where Customer Stories Begin
For Courtney Henry, every great brand story begins with one question: Who is the story really about? Too often, the founder and Principal Strategist of GrowthMinded says, the answer is the brand itself.
“The biggest mistake I see brands making is that they still believe their brand message or value proposition should be about them,” Henry says. “Your brand isn’t actually about you at all; neither is your marketing. It’s about the person you solve the problem for and what story they form about you.”
For Henry, memorable messaging starts with empathy, not features. “A compelling brand story meets your ideal audience where they are, in the emotional state and thought process they are in, and guides them to a solution. The customer is the hero. The brand is the guide.”
Henry is quick to dismiss the idea that bigger budgets solve weak messaging. “Budget gets you seen, but it’s your message that determines if someone who sees your brand forms a positive or negative association with it. If your message doesn’t resonate with your audience, no amount of money can mask that. In fact, the bigger budget just exacerbates the problem and makes the disconnect worse.”
Budget gets you seen, but it’s your message that determines if someone who sees your brand forms a positive or negative association with it.
— Courtney Henry, Founder/Principal Strategist, GrowthMinded
Before spending another marketing dollar, Henry says brands should spend more time listening. That means customer interviews, surveys, focus groups—even Reddit threads where people often reveal what they really think about brands and their competitors. “I cannot overstate the importance of listening and then repeating what they want to hear. It’s about figuring out where there is synergy between what they want and what you deliver.”
A recent client showed just how transformative that approach can be. A Vancouver-based laneway construction company believed it was marketing to empty nesters seeking rental income, but the research revealed a different audience. “The people initiating the conversations, doing the Googling at 11 p.m. and showing up to discovery calls were adult children,” Henry says. “They weren’t building a laneway for rental income; they were solving a family problem.”
Henry says that was the point. When brands truly understand their audience, the impact extends far beyond marketing. “Marketing is a mindset, not a department. Every single department within a business is doing some form of marketing—customer service, delivery, packaging, scheduling, billing. When both teams understand the problem their customer is trying to solve and the emotional arc they travel, alignment becomes a natural byproduct.”
In the end, customers don’t repeat marketing messages, they repeat stories that feel true to their own lives.
5 Ways to Build a Story Customers Repeat
- Lead with a point of view. Don’t describe your product. Reshape how customers see the category.
- Make the customer the hero. Focus on their problem, not your features.
- Build from what’s true. Ground your story in authentic strengths, not marketing slogans.
- Listen first. Interviews, surveys and customer conversations reveal the story worth telling.
- Make it everyone’s job. Every employee should understand and reinforce the brand narrative.
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