The marketing trend that's starting to feel fake
These days, it feels as though every brand believes it needs a ground-breaking, emotional, or life-changing story to tell. Spend five minutes on LinkedIn and you'll find founder stories sandwiched between thought leadership posts (often AI-generated, but that's a topic for another day). One founder started their business from a garden shed, another built theirs after a life-changing experience, and someone else knew they wanted to create their brand when they were ten years old.
As marketers, we're taught that storytelling is one of the most powerful tools available to us, and that's true! Humans connect with stories, we remember stories, and we buy into stories. The thing is that storytelling has increasingly become associated with having a compelling founder story. Not every business was born from adversity, not every founder had a lightbulb moment, and not every brand exists to change the world. Sometimes, someone simply spotted a gap in the market, created a great product, and built a successful business around it, and that's perfectly fine.
We now seem to be operating in a world where brands feel increasing pressure to explain not only what they do, but also the story behind how they got there. As a result, consumers are exposed to more founder stories than ever before, many of which have little bearing on the actual value of the product or service being offered. In a world where we're already overwhelmed by content, it can all start to feel like a bit of extra noise.
If a brand genuinely has a fascinating story behind it, then of course it should tell it. If a founder's personal journey is central to what makes a business unique, then it absolutely has a place in the marketing. But not every brand needs a compelling origin story, and not every founder needs to share one. Consumers don't always need to know the founder's journey. More often than not, they simply want a product that solves a problem, a service that delivers on its promise, and a brand that communicates clearly and consistently.
Storytelling still matters, of course. In advertising, in content, in the way brands demonstrate customer outcomes and communicate value. What matters most is telling stories that are relevant to the audience, rather than feeling obliged to centre everything around a brand's origin.
After sixteen years in marketing, I've come to believe that the best brands aren't always the ones with the most compelling stories. They're the ones that understand exactly who they are, what they offer, and why anyone should care.
At Nicklin Marketing Group, we work with businesses to strengthen marketing performance through strategy, structure, and specialist execution, helping teams scale smarter, not just spend bigger.