Ebook: StoryBranding 2.0: Creating Stand-Out Brands Through The Power of Story

Advertising executive Signorelli was tired of the traditional approach to his craft, which he feels resulted in soulless hyperbole and mindless drivel.

When preparing for a client meeting, he had an epiphany. Rather than doing a traditional brief for the client, identifying its brand's unique selling proposition, he wrote a story: a first-person narrative told from the prospective customer's point of view. Customers have problems they want to be solved, and their stories provide clues to understanding how the brand can solve them. Signorelli compares the "StoryBranding" process, which helps brands understand themselves, to the way stories teach us about the people in them.

VERDICT Since advertising is, among other things, about building and nurturing relationships between the brand and the customer, the timeless tradition of storytelling is a natural approach to facilitate the process.

Signorelli skillfully coaches his readers through understanding a brand's core values and aligning them to customers' needs. While branding and advertising books are a dime a dozen, the author's original approach and competent storytelling skills serve his topic well. -Carol Elsen, (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC,