Brand, Meet Story by Heather Pemberton Levy

Brand, Meet Story

by Heather Pemberton Levy

Think of the last great article you read or the last great speech you heard. Chances are, if you remember one key message, you also remember one compelling story. That's because the best content starts with a story. When it comes to marketing, the best business content starts with a story the audience cares about, not the brand's message about what it wants to sell them. In Brand, Meet Story, Heather Pemberton Levy describes the Story Comes First method, a practical approach that combines techniques from journalism and fiction writing to help brands tell stories that put the readers' interests first. Whereas most brand marketers create content to sell their product, service or technology, the Story Comes First method turns this approach on its head to create content with the "human moments" that truly engage an audience. Filled with examples from Levy's experience creating content marketing programs, trade books, and hundreds of articles for a variety of B2B and B2C brands, the book shows readers a step-by-step approach to create content designed to deliver business results. Brand, Meet Story explains the key ways to uncover what your audience cares about and how to turn brand messaging into stories that matter. Levy inspires readers to develop a compelling voice that will carry the brand tone and values across all channels, and helps them turn their ideas into engaging, story-driven content their audiences will read, love, and share.

Reviewed by Joséphine on

4 of 5 stars

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Brand, Meet Story is exactly that which the title promises. It's much shorter than I expected when I first stumbled across it but this book is proof that we don't always need long books to adequately cover a topic. Levy presents her ideas in a straightforward manner, employing her own methods in how she organises the book. Most ideas on content creation and how the audience relates weren't new to me but I liked how they were consolidated and linked up to outline the process of branding.

Ultimately, it takes time to develop a skill, which Brand, Meet Story encourages readers to do by providing a cheat sheet at the end. Levy prompts readers to apply her methods and to keep referring to them in future. The focus on active learning is bound to make this a useful book for many, regardless of their (lack of) experience in branding, and marketing at large.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 30 April, 2017: Finished reading
  • 30 April, 2017: Reviewed