The ques­tion, “Who are you?” can be either sim­ple or com­plex, depend­ing how philo­soph­i­cal you want to get. Many peo­ple live their lives with­out real­ly con­tem­plat­ing the lat­ter. Brands don’t have that lux­u­ry. In fact, fig­ur­ing out the answer should arguably be their first order of busi­ness – before any prod­ucts stock shelves or press releas­es hit newswires.

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A brand sto­ry isn’t just a valu­able mar­ket­ing asset, it’s also a brand’s guid­ing prin­ci­ples and impacts every facet of the orga­ni­za­tion. In oth­er words, it’s not just a mar­ket­ing mes­sage, it’s also a sales pitch and a roadmap for the C‑suite.

Momen­tol­ogy sur­veyed the prover­bial land­scape and iden­ti­fied 10 brands that tru­ly know them­selves and their sto­ries – and have had major mar­ket­place impact as a result.

In tak­ing a clos­er look at these brands, we dis­cov­ered sev­en com­mon traits. Brands that have nailed their brand sto­ries:

1. Start With Prob­lems

From the begin­ning, many of these brands have iden­ti­fied mar­ket needs and/or injus­tices and, sim­ply, have solved them. The result is a com­pelling brand sto­ry.

“It’s impor­tant to have a sto­ry that peo­ple can under­stand and con­nect with,” said Jen­nifer Eggers, group direc­tor of brand com­mu­ni­ca­tion at brand­ing firm Siegel+Gale. “Espe­cial­ly with new­er brands, peo­ple care and expect that the brand is com­ing into exis­tence for a good rea­son – to solve a prob­lem, to change how we do things, to meet a spe­cif­ic need – and the sto­ry is cen­tral to com­mu­ni­cat­ing the brand’s pur­pose.”

2. Embrace The Under­dog Sta­tus

Many of these brands were/are under­dogs who were unde­terred when it came to tack­ling titans of indus­try. They’re the so-called dis­rup­tors. And they have good sto­ries to tell as a result.

3. Rede­fine An Expe­ri­ence

A good brand sto­ry is good in part because it has some­thing to say – and, many times, that’s because the brand itself has tak­en an expe­ri­ence or an indus­try and turned it on its head.

4. Fos­ter Com­mu­ni­ties Of Rabid Fans

Brands that have a clear iden­ti­ty and pur­pose are able to form more mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions that result in tru­ly devot­ed fans. It’s not just a brand or a prod­uct, but rather a means to an end per­son­i­fied by said brand. In oth­er words, the brand is inte­gral to a cov­et­ed lifestyle. At the same time, this can also result in detrac­tors, but, brand­ing experts say, that’s just fine.

5. Have Vis­i­ble Founders

There’s pas­sion in these brands. Their biggest fans, often, are Employ­ee #1. In these cas­es, the founder does not sim­ply hand the reins over and watch checks roll in after cer­tain objec­tives have been real­ized, but rather retains an active role in the com­pa­ny he or she start­ed and holds the title of Chief Evan­ge­list.

6. Know Who They Are And What They Stand For

While many web­sites have more elab­o­rate ver­sions, each of these sto­ries can be dis­tilled into a sound byte that rep­re­sents all the com­pa­ny exem­pli­fies.

7. Do Good

Many of these brands incor­po­rate an ele­ment of social good into their sto­ries – whether that’s giv­ing back to com­mu­ni­ties or fos­ter­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty or help­ing con­sumers find their best selves. And, again, these lofty goals make for good sto­ries.

So which brands have an excep­tion­al brand sto­ry? Here are 10 exam­ples.

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Toms Shoes

Brand Sto­ry: Accord­ing to the web­site, which includes The Toms Sto­ry, founder Blake Mycoskie “wit­nessed the hard­ships faced by chil­dren grow­ing up with­out shoes” while trav­el­ing in Argenti­na in 2006. “Want­i­ng to help, he cre­at­ed Toms Shoes, a com­pa­ny that would match every pair of shoes pur­chased with a new pair of shoes for a child in need,” the site says.

In a Nut­shell: One for One.

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: To date, Toms says it has giv­en more than 50 mil­lion pairs of shoes to chil­dren in need, has helped restore sight to over 360,000 peo­ple, and has helped pro­vide over 250,000 weeks of safe water in six coun­tries. In addi­tion, Toms launched its Bag Col­lec­tion in 2015. With each bag pur­chased, the brand says it will help pro­vide a safe birth for a moth­er and baby in need.

Why it Works: In an era of unprece­dent­ed com­pe­ti­tion and an abun­dance of com­par­i­son data, Stephen Gol­ub, vice pres­i­dent of dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing agency DXa­gency, notes a new con­sid­er­a­tion point has become increas­ing­ly impor­tant: Do peo­ple like you?

“With social media, brands are now more than their price points, they are liv­ing, breath­ing enti­ties with per­son­al­i­ties, goals and val­ues,” Gol­ub said. “Con­sumers want to feel not only like they are get­ting a good prod­uct, but that they are get­ting it from a good brand. For exam­ple, Toms was able to enter an extreme­ly com­pet­i­tive indus­try with prod­ucts very sim­i­lar in price, qual­i­ty and style to that of its estab­lished com­peti­tors. They were able to do so by com­bin­ing their prod­uct offer­ing with a robust brand sto­ry that con­sumers could get behind and feel good about being a part of.”

Also: It solves a prob­lem, has a vis­i­ble founder and does good.

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Warby Parker

Brand Sto­ry: In its Sto­ry, eye­wear retail­er War­by Park­er says it was found­ed as a rebel­lious upstart to tack­le the prob­lem of expen­sive eye­wear after one of its founders lost his glass­es on a back­pack­ing trip and couldn’t afford to replace them as a grad stu­dent. What’s more, like Toms, War­by Park­er part­ners with non­prof­its such as Vision­Spring to dis­trib­ute a pair of glass­es to some­one in need for each pair sold.

In a Nut­shell: Good eye­wear, good out­come.

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: War­by Park­er says it has dis­trib­uted over one mil­lion pairs of glass­es and has trained over 18,000 men and women to give basic eye exams and bring glass­es to their com­mu­ni­ties with Vision­Spring.

Why it Works: War­by Park­er solves a prob­lem, has a rebel­lious spir­it and does good.

Also: See Toms.

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GoPro

Brand Sto­ry: In a let­ter from founder and CEO Nicholas Wood­man on the GoPro site, he writes, “GoPro helps peo­ple cap­ture and share their lives’ most mean­ing­ful expe­ri­ences with oth­ers – to cel­e­brate them togeth­er. Like how a day on the moun­tain with friends is more mean­ing­ful than one spent alone, the shar­ing of our col­lec­tive expe­ri­ences makes our lives more fun. The world’s most ver­sa­tile cam­eras are what we make. Enabling you to share your life through incred­i­ble pho­tos and videos is what we do.”

Befit­ting­ly, the brand also has a video sto­ry:

In a Nut­shell: Think it. See it. Do it.

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: The brand recent­ly added a Periscope inte­gra­tion, allow­ing users to broad­cast live from their HERO4 Black or Sil­ver cam­eras, among count­less oth­er part­ner­ships, includ­ing one with the NHL. It also recent­ly announced it expect­ed 2015 rev­enue to be $1.6 bil­lion.

Why it Works: It’s all about com­mu­ni­ty and shar­ing. Accord­ing to boil­er­plate, what began as an idea to help ath­letes doc­u­ment them­selves, GoPro has “become a stan­dard for how peo­ple cap­ture them­selves engaged in their inter­ests, what­ev­er they may be.”

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SoulCycle

Brand Sto­ry: The fit­ness brand says its vision was “to cre­ate an alter­na­tive to the fit­ness rou­tines that felt like work.”

Now the brand says it pro­vides “an inspi­ra­tional, med­i­ta­tive fit­ness expe­ri­ence” called a “car­dio par­ty” that is “the best part of our rid­ers’ day, every day and that has trans­formed their rela­tion­ship to exer­cise.”

In a Nut­shell: Find your Soul.

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: The com­pa­ny announced its intent to go pub­lic in July 2015. It report­ed­ly plans to raise up to $100 mil­lion. And, as of Sep­tem­ber 30, the self-pro­claimed lifestyle brand says it has over 383,000 rid­ers in 48 U.S. stu­dios.

Why it Works: Soul­Cy­cle has rede­fined the exer­cise expe­ri­ence and whole­heart­ed­ly embraced its com­mu­ni­ty of super­fans.

“It’s expen­sive, it’s cult-like and if you’ve ever been, you know it’s absolute­ly unques­tion­ably over the top. And it’s unapolo­getic in its extrem­i­ty,” said 180LA Exec­u­tive Strat­e­gy Direc­tor Kasi Bruno. “Instruc­tors swear, sweat and whip their hair back and forth…and they charge you a for­tune to live that with them. But for every Soul­Cy­cle zealot there are dozens more who count them­selves out.”

And, accord­ing to Bruno, that’s okay.

“The best brand sto­ries repel more peo­ple than they attract. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly mag­net­ic and uncom­fort­able, strong brand nar­ra­tives act as a ral­ly­ing cry for some, but as a snub for most,” she said. “And it works like a charm. Brands that tell a good sto­ry do three things real­ly well: they’re unapolo­getic about their point of view, they craft sto­ries that are strong enough to repel peo­ple, and they immerse believ­ers in the nar­ra­tive.”

 

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Chipotle

Brand Sto­ry: Chipo­tle says it is in the busi­ness of good food. It seeks to use high-qual­i­ty raw ingre­di­ents, clas­sic cook­ing tech­niques and dis­tinc­tive inte­ri­or design to bring ele­ments of fine din­ing to quick-ser­vice restau­rants. At the same time, Chipo­tle also says it seeks to cul­ti­vate a bet­ter world with respect for ani­mals, farm­ers and the envi­ron­ment.

In a Nut­shell: Food with Integri­ty.

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: It’s TBD in this par­tic­u­lar case. After head­lines about E. coli, the brand, which oper­ates more than 1900 restau­rants, is host­ing a nation­al employ­ee meet­ing on Feb­ru­ary 8 – and will close its loca­tions for four hours that day. In a state­ment, founder Steve Ells said the brand’s new enhanced food safe­ty plan “will estab­lish Chipo­tle as an indus­try leader in food safe­ty.”

Why it Works: Chipo­tle trans­formed the idea of what was pos­si­ble with fast food, doing good for both con­sumers and farm­ers, total­ly redefin­ing the expe­ri­ence in the process. The result has been an enthu­si­as­tic fan base. And the founder is a vis­i­ble pres­ence in the brand’s cur­rent cri­sis.

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Uber

Brand Sto­ry: Uber says it is evolv­ing the way the world moves.

“By seam­less­ly con­nect­ing rid­ers to dri­vers through our apps, we make cities more acces­si­ble, open­ing up more pos­si­bil­i­ties for rid­ers and more busi­ness for dri­vers,” the brand adds.

In a Nut­shell: Your Ride, On Demand.

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: The brand recent­ly cel­e­brat­ed its bil­lionth Uber trip and, accord­ing to Busi­ness Insid­er, it is worth more than $62.5 bil­lion and is rais­ing $2 bil­lion in fund­ing.

Why it Works: Uber is the rebel­lious taxi alter­na­tive that has rede­fined trans­porta­tion.

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Airbnb

Brand Sto­ry: Airbnb says it is a trust­ed com­mu­ni­ty mar­ket­place for con­sumers to list, dis­cov­er, and book unique accom­mo­da­tions for unique trav­el expe­ri­ences.

In a Nut­shell: Wel­come home.

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: The brand pro­ject­ed more than one mil­lion peo­ple would stay in an Airbnb on New Year’s Eve 2015. It offers accom­mo­da­tions in more than 34,000 cities and 190 coun­tries.

Why it Works: Again, Airbnb has chal­lenged the hotel indus­try and total­ly rede­fined an expe­ri­ence. As a result, as not­ed in its brand sto­ry, it boasts a com­mu­ni­ty of loy­al users.

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Under Armour

Brand Sto­ry: Under Armour calls itself the orig­i­na­tor of per­for­mance appar­el, or ath­let­ic gear designed to keep ath­letes “cool, dry and light through­out the course of a game, prac­tice or work­out.”

Fur­ther, the brand notes its mis­sion orig­i­nat­ed in the pur­suit of a t‑shirt that pro­vid­ed com­pres­sion and wicked per­spi­ra­tion off skin, reg­u­lat­ing tem­per­a­ture and enhanc­ing per­for­mance. Under Armour now says it seeks to make all ath­letes bet­ter through pas­sion, design and the relent­less pur­suit of inno­va­tion.

In a Nut­shell: Pro­tect This House. Mea­sure of Suc­cess: The brand most recent­ly part­nered with actor/wrestler Dwayne John­son and, at CES, debuted what it calls a con­nect­ed fit­ness prod­uct port­fo­lio includ­ing fit­ness sys­tem UA Health­Box, a smart shoe and two mod­els of wire­less head­phones, all of which are pow­ered by health and fit­ness plat­form UA Record. In Octo­ber, the com­pa­ny announced third quar­ter rev­enue of $1.2 bil­lion.

Why it Works: The U in UA might as well stand for “Under­dog.” But the Lit­tle Per­for­mance Appar­el Com­pa­ny That Could solved a unique prob­lem. Under Armour has also real­ly per­fect­ed its voice and how to com­mu­ni­cate with its legion of devo­tees.

 

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Beats

Brand Sto­ry: Beats says it brings the ener­gy, emo­tion and excite­ment of play­back in the record­ing stu­dio back to the lis­ten­ing expe­ri­ence and it has intro­duced a new gen­er­a­tion to the pos­si­bil­i­ties of pre­mi­um sound enter­tain­ment.

In a Nut­shell: Beats By Dre

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: Apple acquired Beats in 2014 for $3 bil­lion.

Why it Works: The vis­i­ble founder, Dr. Dre him­self, tack­led the prob­lem of sub­par head­phones and, as a result, rede­fined the way con­sumers lis­ten to music and found an incred­i­ble mar­ket, includ­ing no short­age of celebri­ty clien­tele.

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Virgin America

Brand Sto­ry: Vir­gin Amer­i­ca says its mis­sion is to make fly­ing good again, with new planes, attrac­tive fares, top-notch ser­vice and a host of ameni­ties that rein­vent domes­tic air trav­el.

“The Vir­gin Amer­i­ca expe­ri­ence is unlike any oth­er in the skies, fea­tur­ing mood-lit cab­ins with WiFi, cus­tom-designed leather seats, pow­er out­lets and a video touch-screen at every seat­back offer­ing guests on-demand menus and count­less enter­tain­ment options,” the brand adds.

In a Nut­shell: Make fly­ing good again.

Mea­sure of Suc­cess: In 2015, the brand launched an inte­gra­tion with Google Street View that allows con­sumers to tour plane cab­ins, as well as a part­ner­ship with Net­flix, which enables pas­sen­gers to stream con­tent in flight. It also announced net income of $73 mil­lion for the third quar­ter of 2015.

Why it Works: Vir­gin Amer­i­ca has tack­led the prob­lem of domes­tic air trav­el and refined the typ­i­cal­ly dull and some­times painful expe­ri­ence in the process, includ­ing every­thing from its catchy in-flight safe­ty video, which as more than 11 mil­lion views to date, to its near­ly six-hour video repli­cat­ing the expe­ri­ence of fly­ing on oth­er air­lines. It not only knows its voice and clear­ly com­mu­ni­cates its mes­sage through­out, it prac­tices what it preach­es.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtyfiPIHsIg

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What’s your favorite brand sto­ry? Why?