The role of visual storytelling in strengthening the brand and building strong relationships with consumers: Analysis of the usage of brand character storytelling on the Nike Court Instagram page

Absztrakt (kivonat)

The purpose of this thesis research is to investigate how the brand characters are being portrayed in social media and how their visual storytelling strengthens the relationships between the brands and their consumers. Companies are having difficulty creating their identity, making an impact, and leaving a signature in the minds of their customers. Therefore visual storytelling helps brands to establish their values, connect with their consumers and strengthen brand recognition. This thesis research reviews various literary and scholarly works on visual storytelling, narrative construction in business, archetypes of brand characters, and the effect of stories on consumers’ perception of the brand. Scholars like Fisher (1984), Gabriel (2017), Gardner (1955), and Mark and Pearson (2001) studied how brands establish their message through the usage of character archetypes and telling their stories. In order to research how brands create their identities and deliver values through storytelling, content analysis has been used as the main research method to study how brand character storytelling is built on Instagram. The questionnaire research method has been used to analyze the effect of brand character storytelling on the audience. The results revealed that brands extensively use characters in social media communication to deliver the brand’s values and messages. The findings also suggest that brand characters used in visual storytelling on Instagram are emotionally appealing, thus enabling the creation of a brand-consumer bond. Current thesis research also contributes to the managerial implications by providing practical recommendations for marketing practitioners. Social media marketing managers can also find information about the usage of brand characters in delivering their brand’s identity and conveying the main message useful for their practice. It is recommended to research several brands from different areas to compare how they implement brand character storytelling in their communication. It will be also valuable to investigate the visual storytelling on different social media platforms and identify the peculiarities of the brand portrayal through characters.