Storytelling and Image in Brand Communication

Abstract

Storytelling has been used increasingly in brand communication, as it has proven to be effective in capturing the consumers’ attention and creating brand personality in order to differentiate itself from the competition. Perceived as a rather “vague” concept (Gerber et al. 2013: 6), storytelling is the story of the brand, which uses emotions, through images, to make consumers adhere to brand values or purchase the product. Emotions mainly characterise the luxury brand communication, represented especially by perfumes and cosmetics. The promotion of these products is often carried out through celebrities, although studies on this strategy are contradictory, and the purchase of products is experienced as a cultural act. Our analysis focuses on an emblematic brand of the luxury market, CHANEL, for which the use of storytelling is considered a constant and whose story is built on the significant moments in Gabrielle Chanel’s life and career. We aim to highlight the persuasive power of storytelling both in brand communication and in promoting the legendary perfume No 5. Due to the fact that communication and positioning are based exclusively on the type of stories for perfumery products, our goal is to analyse how the figure of the founder, Gabrielle Chanel, contributes to the brand story and transfers certain personality traits to it, thus managing to create emotion and make the brand desirable.

Keywords

• storytelling
• image
• brand communication
• emotional responses
• star strategy
• brand personality