Badass Branding: The Art of Authenticity featuring Quentin Tarantino

By Samuel White

When it comes to consistency, it’s hard to question the creative efforts of Quentin Tarantino. The Oscar-wining storyteller has never had a problem putting his own spin on reality and staying on brand. His nonlinear narrative style that meanders through plots, paired with his macabre sense of humor, both contribute to Tarantino’s unique brand.

Much like a brand trying to amplify its uniqueness in a saturated industry, Tarantino consistently demonstrates what makes his brand so unique within the dramatic genre. Throughout his portfolio of films, his storytelling never fails to amaze, shock, and tickle your brain.

Audiences will be talking about Tarantino movies forever; these three practices, demonstrated time and time again in Tarantino films, have the potential to make your brand just as iconic.

[1] Express Yourself; Impress Your Audience

A trademark of Tarantino’s unique style is attention to detail. He doesn’t waste a single second of screen time. Every object, person, sound, or dialogue that graces the final edits of his films are purposely featured— meant to reveal underlying details such as unique characters virtues and vices. Through meticulous attention to detail, he evokes emotion in every scene.

In the same way, brands should not be wasting any of their marketing efforts. Petty off-brand social posts, irrelevant article curating, and neglecting to express the values of your brand are all too common practices in modern marketing. A skilled brand manager should always be looking for opportunities so tell the company’s story in a way that offers something of value to the audience. Keeping content on-brand is always up to the person behind the curtain.

A common practice of content curators is to copy and paste a few lines from the first paragraph of the article as a social summary, but this usually only reveals a basic premise of the article as a whole.

Next time you write social posts (or any copy on behalf of your brand), ask yourself how you can offer value to your audience or express the authentic values of your brand. And if you can truly think like Tarantino, do both.

[2] Embrace the Medium

When you experience a Tarantino film, you not only receive a brilliantly scripted story, you receive a Hollywood blockbuster, full of stunts, action, promiscuity, and most notoriously, violence. Tarantino does not just tell stories — he makes movies.

Too often, movies do a great job immersing the audience in the most real-life experiences possible. This is not Tarantino’s style, and arguably what makes his brand so incredibly authentic. He gets away with showing morbid realities for the simple reason that movies are not reality.

In the same way that Tarantino exploits his platform to drive excitement and demonstrate his style, brands can do the same with their social platforms. For example, Snapchat allows users to draw and place emojis over pictures. This could open up a world of visual opportunity for showing an alternative reality.

Branding efforts shouldn’t only exist to tell your story, but to make your brand. Various social platforms have dissimilar atmospheres, each of which present opportunities to reveal your brand or express its values in different contexts.

So when it comes to using Internet-based platforms, try thinking outside of reality. Be hyperbolic. Push the limits of your creative efforts. As the saying goes, set your image on fire and people will come from everywhere to watch it burn.

[3] Stay True to Your Story’s Style

Tarantino is widely known for his nonlinear storytelling style. What makes each chapter of his films so suspenseful, and Tarantino’s style so iconic, is that the plots are always moving and growing in one direction or another.

Throughout his films, Tarantino features vignettes to further expose the characters to his audience. Using discourse that reveals the motivations, intentions, values, and vices of his characters, Tarantino develops each individual’s personality through storytelling within his films’ overarching plots. His style of writing is like watching a blank canvas become a painting. While it may seem like a mess of different concepts and stories at first, the finished product is a masterfully assembled expression of the human experience. Life is sporadic and spontaneous, yet ambiguously connected, characteristics that Tarantino beautifully demonstrates in his films.

Brands can tell stories through social platforms by using the same revealing yet enthusiastic and strong-willed voice that Tarantino uses to in his writing.

For example, responding to national events can demonstrate transparency and honesty as a brand to your audience. Using seasons, holidays, or even Internet trends, you can reveal the authentic values that your brand holds.

Why is it important to stay on brand? Because humans love authenticity, they love uniqueness, they love consistency, and yet they love to be surprised. By keeping a consistent and constant voice, you make your brand an independent variable. How your brand responds and reacts to the outside world via your creative efforts over social platforms is the dependent variable.

By never wasting a single second of the audience’s attention, embracing his medium of choice, and always telling a story, Tarantino demonstrates how attention to detail and being consistent can lead to a brand that is authentic, entertaining, and easy to love.

Your brand is your movie, so treat it like every second counts. Always seek to add value to your audience or your brand. Don’t forget that the Internet is not reality, so embrace your medium and test its boundaries. Most importantly, don’t ever let your followers forget who you are and what you stand for. So before you begin to develop your unique voice or brand, ask yourself “English, Motherfucker, do you speak it?!”

Samuel White is an Associate at Woden. Whatever your storytelling needs may be, let Woden help. Read our free Storytelling Blueprint, or send us an email at connect@wodenworks.com to discuss how we can help tell your story.