How To Use Your Brand Story To Get The Attention You Deserve
INTENSIVE BRAND MASTERCLASS: PARTICIPATION INFORMATION
The future belongs to those who can tell their story. We’re here to help you tell yours with 5 Stories.
Honestly? It breaks our hearts that so many sustainable and ethical fashion brands aren't getting the attention they deserve. Especially over the festive season with fast fashion flowing out of highstreet doors. Enough of that! We believe better brand storytelling will make our world more sustainable.
LDC Accelerates x With 5 Stories have designed a six-part brand storytelling programme for 12 amazing fashion businesses doing good in the world so they’re seen more, heard more and understood better. Why? Because we believe the world will be a better place with them in it.
The programme (in a nutshell)
Our six-part brand storytelling programme is designed to give YOU the dedicated space, time and place to reconnect with your business truth and the magic of your story. You’ll be surrounded by like-minded business owners who want to hear you, understand you and give you the courage to stand up, bang the table and say, “I’m here. We’re here. This matters”.
Using the pioneering 5 stories methodology, you’ll complete the programme inspired and ready to tell your story in new, inventive ways. We’re here to celebrate you, encourage you and show you why your story matters. Want in? Join us.
What you’ll learn
Over the course of six workshops, you can expect to:
- Define your Empathy, Purpose, Origin, Product and Vision Stories
- Get super clear on what you do – and how to talk about it
- Gain more confidence when communicating with your customers
- Create more sales, stronger communities and better aligned teams
- Become a brand people care about and want to shout about
All this PLUS you can expect some special guests to inspire you with different, creative ways to use each of your 5 Stories in your everyday marketing.
This isn’t just about learning together. It’s about doing together and sharing what’s worked and what hasn’t. Saying we’re taking your brand to the next level is an understatement. Trust.
The sessions we’ll run with you
Your brand in 5 Stories
In the first of our six-part interactive brand storytelling programme, you’ll be introduced to 5 Stories. These stories will become the foundation of your brand to everyone you interact with.
Every brand has a story. Our masterclass series will help you tell yours in new, creative ways. We understand that you want to build a brand that people care about. 5 stories will help you get there.
How to lead with your Empathy Story
We’ll take you on a brand-building adventure. Consider it a consolidation of what we’ve learned from years of helping turn businesses into brands people get behind.
You’ll start with Empathy. Empathy is the backbone of every good story. The secret ingredient behind turning your copy into something that makes people feel seen and heard. You’ll learn how to:
- Identify your Empathy Story
- Make your messaging more human
- Understand the real reason you started
- Know what brand empathy means in actual, everyday practice
How to put your Purpose Story into practice
Purpose. As founders and marketers, we all know we need it. But actually implementing it and talking about it? That’s where things get a little trickier...
In this session, you’ll be given practical pointers to owning and sharing your brand purpose. You’re going to learn:
- How to help your team understand the importance of purpose
- THE questions to ask yourself when establishing your Purpose Story
- How to create purpose-driven marketing within the context you exist
- How to back it up with data and insights from the people who matter most: your customers
How to own your Origin Story
From a single sketchbook to shelves all over the world. From one small bottle to a brand that’s helped collect 30 million plastic bottles from our oceans. These are the kind of Origin stories that have an impact. After this session, you’ll leave knowing:
- How you don't need to save the world, you just need to articulate how you're solving a genuine problem in your world
- A series of questions every founder should answer for more powerful Origin storytelling
- The importance of relatability, above all, and how to channel it in all of your communications
How to tell your most compelling Product Story
The best product doesn't always win - the best communicator does.It's no secret that 90% of startups fail, but did you know that marketing mistakes are the most common reason why? Research shows that the biggest problems startups face, on average, is a lack of product-market fit.
This session focuses on giving you the full lowdown on how to position your product, the emotions you should be conveying, and why nailing your all-important Product Story could be the best investment you make in your business. You’ll learn:
- The consumer psychology every founder and marketer should know
- How to find your own product copy formula
- The three questions to guide every Product Story you tell
- The product storytelling checklist you should always, ALWAYS keep in mind
How to create value with your Vision Story
In recent years, businesses have become OBSESSED with creating mission statements. The kicker? Most mission statements say a lot without saying much at all.
Every business wants to be the best. But to become a brand, not just a business, you need to have a Vision Story that belongs to you and your customers. You’ll learn:
- How to identify the biggest global problem your brand is solving
- Why a seven-year-old will give you your best feedback – trust us
- The five sentence openers you can use for your Vision Story
- The simple questions you should ask your team on the regular
The nitty-gritty details
The cost: £555 per person/business
Start date: Wednesday 27th October
The location: The first and final session in the programme will be in real life at the Lone Design Club’s pop-up London store. These IRL sessions will focus on sharing, listening, encouraging and celebrating with each other. In other words, everyone will have a space to share feelings, thoughts and learnings. The rest of the four sessions will be online
The duration: 4 weeks
Who should attend: Founders and Senior Marketers building fashion startups
How many spaces we have available: Just 12 - and only one person per company
Application requirements
This programme isn’t for everyone. It's for brands that are ready to start telling their story to grow their sales, community and confidence.Before we accept anyone onto the programme, we want to have a short 1-on-1 conversation with you to better understand who you are, where you are and what you’re hoping to achieve. We also want to hear a bit about your story and why you believe more people need to hear it.
This is a super interactive 4-week programme with like-minded people that will share your stories, values and beliefs. We need to know that you’re willing to participate in a group that needs your support, encouragement and celebration as much as you do. This isn’t a programme for people to sit in the shadows. This is a space to show up, stand up and bang the drum to a beat everyone can get behind. And YES, we will have drums. 🥁
What people say about our workshops and the 5 Stories
“When you're working on your own a lot of stories are trapped, and you're not sure if any of it makes sense to anyone. Your workshop helped me make sense of it all.”
“You have helped me believe in what I am doing again.’“This has made me feel so much more confident in expressing the brand.”
“I actually didn’t think about myself as a storyteller before!!! I always thought everyone else was a storyteller but not me.”
“The workshops were well organized, with clear messages and actionable strategies that each attendee could walk away with. Their energy and passion for storytelling is infectious!”
“The series of workshops were one of the most encouraging and inspiring online sessions I have ever attended! The 5 Stories framework allowed me to tap into my inner storyteller.”
“You’ve made me feel less alone.”
“The workshops gave me the space to understand how I can use my stories to engage the customer. I left with the confidence to start telling my stories in different ways.”
“How do you get the world to care about your mission? 5 Stories.”
“Your workshops created an environment where our founders could be open and vulnerable while feeling empowered to go forth and create their 5 Stories.”
"The 5 Stories is such an asset. You have these 5 ways you can now talk about the brand.”
“If you're struggling to articulate your brand story, the 5 Stories workshops will help you unpack who you are, who your customer is, where the opportunity is and how your story can help you seize it.”
A bit about 5 Stories, the storytelling consultancy
5 Stories is a storytelling consultancy that helps brands connect more with the people they exist for. They’ve been building brands, strengthening teams and shaping strategies for well over a decade. They’ve worked closely with founders and marketing teams at Koru Kids, Soldo, Ocean Bottle, Nimble and Airhead to help them tell better stories.
Everything they do starts with their 5 Stories methodology, made up of your Empathy, Purpose, Product, Origin and Vision Stories. Why? Because they believe stories have more than a beginning, middle and an end. The best stories have heart, courage and honesty, too.
They turn beliefs into messaging, products into powerful words and content into connection. The result? Higher conversion rates, stronger brand awareness and more aligned teams.
Get to know your workshop facilitator, Amanda Baker
Amanda is the founder and creator of the 5 Stories methodology and she’s OBSESSED with helping founders and their businesses tell better brand stories.
In 2012, she raised some money for her fashion startup and three years later, it failed to reach product market-fit because she was communicating the wrong message to the wrong people.
This failure was the springboard into her fascination with building brands and understanding the stories behind businesses.
Over the years, she’s learned that A LOT of businesses struggle to communicate clearly, so she’s vowed to help the ones doing good in the world be seen and heard. She’s been building brands with 5 Stories ever since.
In her mind, businesses don’t need vision statements that only live in brand books. They need stories their teams and customers can rally around. They need 5 Stories.
Now, Amanda’s on a mission to make sure every purpose-driven business on the planet has access to her storytelling methodology. Why? Because the world really is a better place with them in it.
She’s helped hundreds of businesses of all shapes and sizes tell their stories better. Including, HANX, Ocean Bottle, Koru Kids, Cotton Comfort, Lone Design Club, Nimble, Soldo and many more. She’s the brand communications ‘Expert in Residence’ at the London Business School and she’s the brand storytelling mentor at Bethnal Green Ventures.
And finally, why are we doing this and what’s the purpose?
Because too many independent fashion brands aren't getting the attention they deserve because they’re communicating the wrong messages. They don’t realise the power of their story and how to use it to connect with people and get the attention they deserve. We believe the 5 Stories methodology can help.
Because our stories alone aren’t enough. We believe our collective stories have the power to make change happen. In the context of this collaboration, we believe we can inspire people to choose more clothing that’s made sustainably and ethically over the festive season.
Because storytelling alone is hard and isolating. So many brand stories remain unheard and untold because of two things: clarity around who they are and what they and for as a brand – and confidence with telling their stories. We believe we can help by bringing together a group of brands that are all connected through their vision to shape the future of fashion retail for the better. Less waste. More life.
Because stories aren’t worth much if we’re the only ones telling them. people are becoming more and more conscious about where their clothing comes from. They want stories. They need stories to pass on to people. They want to shop consciously, knowing the story behind every purchase. The problem is, a lot of independent fashion don’t know what stories to tell and how to tell them in creative ways.
Because there’s nothing simple out there that helps brands connect back to their story. Marketing and branding can feel intimidating and complicated for many young, independent fashion brands. So when it comes to telling their story, it’s more about the product and how it’s made. Which means it can feel flat and soulless and messy. We believe the 5 Stories methodology will give brands a simple way to connect back to the heart of their story and spring out into different, creative ways of telling it.
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