Who the story serves: you or your customers?

The About page tells about you. The brand narrative tells about the customer. It sounds simple, but most companies write both with the same logic, then wonder why the content fails to connect.

Two texts, two subjects

The About page is a text of affirmation. Customers read it when they intend to learn more and need to verify: does this company have the capability, the history, and the reasons to trust? The subject of that page is the company. That makes complete sense.

The brand narrative is a different operational story. Its subject is the customer. The business is not the main character. The business is the guide, the one providing tools, the one behind the main character, which is the customer, to help them overcome their problems. When you confuse these two roles, all written content takes on the structure of an extended About page, and the reader does not see themselves in it.

A brand is not a logo. A brand is a person’s natural perception of a product, service, or company.

A brand is not a logo. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.

Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap

Neumeier places the customer's “gut feeling” at the center of his definition of a brand. That feeling is not created by listing a business's achievements. It is created when customers look at the content and recognize it as their own story.

Signs of misidentifying the subject

There is a quick test Sinh Vũ often suggests when reviewing a brand's content. Open the homepage and the three most recent posts, and count how many times these subjects appear: “we”, “the company”, “our team”, “we believe”. Then count how many times the subject is the reader, the customer, or their problem.

If “we” dominates, the narrative is written in the structure of an About page, even when it appears on the homepage, on social media, or in educational articles. Readers do not object to that content because it is wrong. They simply keep scrolling, because nothing holds them there.

If a first impression forms in 50 milliseconds, then the structure of your opening sentence, the subject of the first paragraph, carries far more weight than the content below it. “We are a design studio with 15 years of experience” and “Your brand deserves to be seen the right way” are two opening lines that serve two completely different goals.

Why this persistent confusion?

Most businesses do not confuse these roles because they do not understand the theory. They confuse them because they write content from the perspective of someone involved. Founders know the journey of building the business well, are aware of every milestone, every decision. When they sit down to write, the most natural thing is to recount what they know best. That is their own story.

But customers do not come to a business asking “what was their journey like?”. They come asking “will my problem be solved?”. These two questions call for fundamentally different ways of writing.

This Kantar BrandZ figure does not measure product quality. It measures how strongly customers feel a brand is relevant to their lives. “Meaningful” here means meaningful to the buyer, not to the seller. That is exactly what a brand narrative has to create, and the About page cannot do it on its behalf.

Correct structure for each document

The About page should answer: who you are, what you have done, and why you are trustworthy. It can include history, people, awards, and processes. This structure is appropriate and necessary for a text of affirmation.

The brand narrative should answer a different question: where are the customers, where do they want to go, and what role does this brand play in that journey? Donald Miller in his book Building a StoryBrand (HarperCollins, 2017) describes this structure as: a character (the customer) encounters a problem, meets a guide (the brand), receives a plan, takes action, and achieves a result. The business is not the hero. The business is the mentor behind the hero.

The physique sets the stage; the other five aspects create meaning.

Jean-Noël Kapferer, The New Strategic Brand Management

Kapferer reminds us that the tangible aspects of a brand, such as the logo, colors, and images, are just the stage. Meaning comes from relationships, from reflecting the humanity of the customer, from the self-image that the brand helps them build. The brand narrative is the tool that transforms the stage into that meaning. An About page does not have the scope to accomplish this.

Impact on all content

When the narrative logic is clarified, the way everything else is written will change accordingly. Service descriptions no longer list features but describe outcomes for the customer. Social media captions no longer announce the business but reflect the problems the reader is facing. Knowledge articles no longer prove the writer's expertise but place that expertise in service of the reader.

Wally Olins defines a brand through four vectors: product, environment, communication, and behavior. The communication vector, which includes all written content, only works correctly when it is consistent with the brand narrative, not when it replicates the structure of an About page.

• About page: establishes credibility, tells the history, and answers the question “why trust you?”.
• Brand narrative: reflects the customer, makes them the protagonist, and answers the question “is this for me?”.
• Two things can coexist, but they cannot replace each other.

The About page contributes to that 75% by building visual credibility. But the brand narrative determines whether, after establishing trust, the customer continues to read, continues to learn, and ultimately continues to reach out. A good About page solves half the problem. The brand narrative solves the other half.