Strong brands don’t just happen by accident. They don’t win trust and loyalty overnight; branding takes years and years, if not decades.
Brands are built brick by brick, through cultivating stories that resonate emotionally as much as they do theoretically. When we think of the most famous clothing brands or jewelry brands, we often quickly come up with word associations that speak to how they make us feel. “Elegance” or “ruggedness” are just two examples.
That’s where public relations plays its most powerful role: telling stories that get people to know, like (or love) and trust a brand with their hard-earned dollars. It’s like the famous quote often attributed to Maya Angelou: “People will never forget how you made them feel.”
The Power of Inherited Brand Loyalty
Some of the brands that mean the most to me aren’t just the makers of products I buy regularly. In a sense, I inherited them over the course of decades and generations. One example is Crane Stationery, which is well-known for personalized cards and invitations. My mother loved Crane. She believed deeply in handwritten notes, personal correspondence and doing things the “right” way. Crane wasn’t just paper to her; it was a sign of care and quality.
As a result, I grew up associating the brand with time-tested tradition. Because Crane passed the test for my mom, it passed my own. Today, I have several boxes of personalized Crane stationery, and I love each and every one of them. Everything about the experience reinforces Crane’s brand promise—from the weight of the paper to the elegant typography and the logo wrapped around the envelopes.
That is branding, but it is also PR. When you think about it, I inherited a story. And Crane’s story is “timeless refinement” (the company’s words, not mine) that has served customers like royal family members or my mom for over two centuries.
Why Public Relations Matters to Brand Building
Brands like Crane understand that PR is not a one-time announcement or a single press release. It is a long-term commitment to storytelling across earned media opportunities, social media platforms and in-person experiences. From news stories to Instagram posts and pop-up events, these stories are told over and over again.
Beloved brands succeed in large part because they consistently tell stories about places, people and purpose. They build something called “emotional equity,” or the communal affection that keeps customers loyal even when there are cheaper or trendier alternatives.
When news outlets tell a brand’s origin story, profile the leadership in charge or highlight monthly events, the media gives that brand a form of third-party credibility that goes much further than traditional pay-to-play advertising. From articles to interviews, the brand earns “organic” legitimacy. But it isn’t really organic because PR is behind these efforts to gain credibility and legitimacy. Positive PR isn’t just random; it takes a whole lot of strategic pitching by agencies like mine.
Telling a Brand’s Origin Story
The best place to start is to remember a brand’s origin story—where it was in the beginning and how those origins shape the present day. After all, every brand has a beginning. Media outlets are drawn to stories about how and why a company was founded—especially when family history is involved—and where its initial values manifest today. A brand’s evolution can be really interesting content in text, audio or video formats.
Thought Leadership and Long-Term Results
However, the key is to pitch not only products but also thought leadership. PR professionals are equipped to identify where a brand has a real competitive advantage and home in on that selling point. We position company leaders as subject matter experts through op-ed placements, Q&A-style interviews, speaking engagements and other earned media opportunities. We also find brand ambassadors, especially passionate customers, who can serve as a brand’s top marketers. The best brands feature their customers in their storytelling, since they are living testaments to the brand story in the first place.
This is a long game. Stories are pitched and read and heard time and time again until they finally resonate. As long as brands are ready to leverage public relations and stay patient as the results become reality, the stories won’t fall on deaf ears. They will keep brands alive for years and decades to come.
This article originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice in January 2026.
