Telling more or less? The impact of blank-leaving narrative style on story immersion and brand attitude

Abstract

Purpose Brand storytelling is an effective marketing tool. However, when choosing whether to tell more or tell less, it remains unclear which of these two narrative styles is most effective. This study aims to examine whether blank-leaving(less) leads to favourable brand attitudes and compares its effects on consumers’ story immersion, to non-blank-leaving(more). Design/methodology/approach Two experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, a single-factorial design was used with 252 participants assigned at random to one of two narrative conditions: blank-leaving or non-blank-leaving. Study 2 replicated Study 1 and investigated the moderating role of implicit mindsets. Findings The results show that a blank-leaving narrative style increases favourable brand attitudes. Consumers present deeper immersion in the brand story that uses blank-leaving, as compared to non-blank-leaving, leading to a more favourable brand attitude. Furthermore, this effect is stronger for individuals with growth mindsets. Practical implications Telling the brand story using a blank-leaving narrative style is more effective in catching consumers’ attention than non-blank-leaving. In particular, a blank-leaving narrative is a good approach for targeting consumers who have a growth mindset. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to investigate and compare the effects of blank-leaving and non-blank-leaving narrative styles on brand attitudes in the context of storytelling marketing.

Once upon a game: boosting brand storytelling through gamification

“…The current research goes a step further and incorporates games into the story to improve outcomes and assess how game mechanics might influence individuals’ narrative transportation. The research also has implications for the literature examining the effects of storytelling on branding (Junior et al , 2022; Kaczorowska et al , 2023; Fan et al , 2023). By evidencing that a positive experience with a gamified story impacts brand attitude and the intention to recommend the brand and the website, this work helps to evidence the importance of creating consumer-brand connections with stories across different types of media (Granitz and Forman, 2015).…”

“…The literature on brand management agrees that storytelling is a powerful tool for marketing communication (Lundqvist et al , 2013; Delgado-Ballester, 2021; Kaczorowska et al , 2023). Brand storytelling is used by companies to establish connections with consumers (Delgado-Ballester, 2021), to break down psychological barriers (Fan et al , 2023; Júnior et al , 2022), to communicate brand values to consumers (Lundqvist et al , 2013), to generate customer engagement (Kaczorowska et al , 2023) or to influence customer action willingness (Van Laer et al , 2014). Brand storytelling has even been proposed as a crisis management strategy to combat fake news or brand-risk situations (Mills and Robson, 2020).…”

“…This study first contributes to brand management literature and to the debate on how interactive technologies and tools can change consumer experience with the brand, creating new touchpoints that connect brands and consumers (Chevtchouk et al , 2021; Gligor and Bozkurt, 2021; Golob et al , 2020). Second, it contributes to brand storytelling literature (Escalas, 2004; Júnior et al , 2022; Fan et al , 2023) and gamification in marketing (Mulcahy et al , 2020; Müller-Stewens et al , 2017) by looking at the synergies between the two tools and their potential for enhancing brand outcomes. Results reveal that gamifying a brand story positively impacts user response to the brand through a psychological process of narrative transportation in the story and by boosting the online customer experience (informativeness and entertainment).…”