Brands took to storytelling like the caveman to fire. Suddenly, every brand had to have a story. But then, how many articulate this ‘story’ convincingly? Life was simpler when you just paid someone to string a bunch of words that didn’t offend anyone and called it the brand mission and vision. 
But telling a story, whether it involves a brand or not, is not easy. For starters, youhave to tap into certain established human traits as part of the brand personality and stick to it. Or you’ll be changing the personality and plot lines every time there’s a shuffle in the C-suite. Afterall, stories and storytellers have been around for as long as there were people around fires. Today, people huddle around the cold light of screens that now fire our dreams and our dreads. And that’s where stories, branded or not, are told.
There are very few brands that have a clear storyline. Brands like Nike and Patagonia come to mind as ones that have mastered the art of telling their stories across all channels they’re present in, including their websites.
A brand website is the starting point (if e-commerce is part of the customer journey) and the end point as well. If brand owners have a clear vision of the brand experience then designing the user experience around that is the best way to stay true to the brand story.
Today most agencies are more than capable of building such brand centric sites. That is, if the brand owners don’t start out by thinking they can do everything themselves.

Abut The Author: Zach Abraham
Zach has spent over 25 years in the advertising and marketing industry in a leadership position. Prior to starting Us Communications, he was Associate Creative Director at Anderson DDB responsible for all the Digital and DTC work produced by the agency. Zach has won several awards for creative excellence including the London International Advertising Award, The New York Festival and RSVP among others.  zach@uscommunications.ca