What makes our brand stories feel authentic?

Authentic brand stories draw their substance from genuine employee and customer experiences, not from a corporate narrative manufactured around a marketing trend. The Frameworks argues that audiences recognise the difference between overly curated narratives and stories about real people and their lives. Finding, shaping and presenting those stories is the creative challenge, particularly in B2B.

Involve employees from the start of the brand process, rather than treating their participation as a finishing touch. The Frameworks argues that a brand identity employees can genuinely get excited about is more likely to connect with an audience than empty platitudes. For a marketing or communications team, the practical starting point is the experience people actually have of the organisation. Their involvement gives the story substance; simply describing the brand as "authentic" does not.

Creative storytelling can be bold and experimental without borrowing another brand's personality. The Frameworks argues that language and a central idea should express something recognisable about the organisation, while stories should reflect the people the brand affects. A 2025 Content Marketing Institute survey found that 24% of B2B marketers across company sizes and industries, mostly in North America, selected differentiating content from competitors as a top-3 content marketing challenge.

For UST, The Frameworks created a film about its work with Nourish + Bloom Market, whose store is powered by UST technology. The narrative centred on founders Jilea and Jamie Hemmings and their ambition to bring good food to their community's food desert, inspired by their autistic son, Jabari. The film included suppliers, employees, UST experts, shoppers and the founders' family. The Frameworks established the narrative, then let participants tell their stories in their own words. The practical lesson is to shape a clear story around the organisation's real character and relationships, without scripting away the experiences that make it distinctive.