What you were great at yesterday will no longer be a strategy for the future.

When you ask someone what a typical aspect of luxury is, the one word answer is often “expensive.” This is because luxury items are usually among those with the highest price points in a category.  

52 percent of millennials say that they always research background information before buying goods or services, compared with 45 percent of Generation X consumers and 41 percent of baby boomers. So, companies that don't invest time, effort, and resource to keep pace with the dynamics of change tend to be the losers in the world of commerce.

To be able to break out of the reference price barrier of the “normal” segment, luxury brands need to have a powerful brand story that often takes years to build and can be destroyed in no time if not executed with the utmost precision.  

The reason we fall in love with a brand is its brand story. 

The story triggers a signal, and when we perceive that signal, we see ourselves in a different and better light. 

"Équité Research findings suggest that up 90 percent of brands have significant brand storytelling deficits that prevent them from utilizing their value creation potential, hence negatively affecting their ability to price".  

For example TikTok isn’t a social network — at least not in the traditional sense. People don’t open the app to see posts from their friends. They open it to watch creators. And yet, retailers and brands continue to call it exactly that.

Most retailers no longer tell a “brand story.” Instead, they define themselves by their category what I call a “category story.” 

The problem? Those are not brand stories. We can’t even identify which brand is which from these.

Even worse, when all brands in a category tell a similar story, there is no story, no differentiation, and, frankly, no brand value created. 

Most TV adverts today for fashion brands like Flannels, JD Sports, BooHoo, JD Williams, FGH, M&S and many others all seems to merge into the same product/category story yet come the festive season they jump into memorable storytelling.

Brand associations are dramatically more important for Gen Zers than any prior generation. And because of this, ESG, diversity and inclusion, and, most importantly, a brand’s story and values matter. 

Yet most brands have significant brand positioning and story weaknesses.

Given this, many brands and categories are much less successful and profitable than they could be.

In the virtual world, fundamentally, the same rules of the real world apply. 

Extreme value is also created by the power of the story. However, there are several differences that influence the psychology of buyers.    

I agree with the view that the best TV adverts are those that tell stories, not those shitty 'sell, sell, sell, intrusive ones.

We have an inbuilt ability to be able to recall stories more than we do with the modern day disease called 'intrusive push advertising'.

As brands compete for time and attention to create desirability, this increased immersion will require much more sophisticated content. 

Therefore, the overall quality of brand storytelling must dramatically improve for brands to remain relevant.

In summary - Since man became the social animal we are, we have passed on our knowledge via stories, and in many cases through songs. 

This is something that all tribes around the world have done in order to keep the history and culture alive.

So when you see those nostalgic festive adverts that are all based around storytelling you're actually behaving in the same way our ancestors did.

And what's this behavior saying to us?

Stop selling, start telling more stories, because social media is our new campfire and we all have a story to tell.