Authority From the Field

As Chief Growth Officer at The Nine Digital Agency, I’ve sat in countless rooms with executives determining how to position their brands. Based on interviews with their team and customers, we measure their position in the market.  In one case, a B2B company was doing the work, producing deep insights, but the way those insights were presented felt almost playful, bright colors, nostalgic themes, and overly simple language.

Customers didn’t see authority. 

That was the turning point. It reminded me why my doctoral research at the University of South Alabama focuses on how storytelling cues influence trust. When I looked at this client’s brand through that lens, the disconnect was clear. Their expertise was real, but their brand was not positioned to convey it.

Why Storytelling Signals Matter in B2B

In industries like consulting, technology, and professional services, brands win or lose on whether customers perceive them as credible partners. It’s not enough to be experienced, you have to look and sound experienced in every touchpoint.

What we’ve learned through both agency practice and research is that not all storytelling cues serve credibility equally. When a brand leans on what I call “youthful simplicity,” the cheerful, stripped-down look and feel, it may create approachability, but it also risks signaling a lack of depth. In contrast, storytelling that leans on innovation and design, structured, thoughtfully designed frameworks, and visual systems, makes expertise tangible and reinforces authority.

This distinction is critical, and it’s something we explore often when building out branding and identity systems for our clients. Our team has seen firsthand that credibility is built when a story isn’t designed into every element of the brand experience.

A Division Transformation

Take one division we worked with during a market expansion. They had positioned themselves as “accessible and simple,” hoping this would make them feel modern and approachable. Instead, customers and even sales teams began to subconsciously question their depth of experience.

We stepped in to reframe their storytelling. First, we conducted interviews with executives, customers, and sales teams with methods rooted in organizational identity research to understand how the brand was being perceived. Then, we audited every signal: visuals, tone, messaging, and customer-facing materials.

The findings confirmed what leadership suspected: the story wasn’t matching the reality.

The redesign focused on elevating innovation and design-driven storytelling. We created frameworks and visual systems that turned abstract expertise into practical, usable tools. Sales teams were given new positioning that aligned with how they spoke to customers. Executives were supported with thought-leadership materials that balanced authority with approachability. And for customer-facing touchpoints, we built a clearer, more confident narrative around the division’s value.

The change was clear. Lead regained confidence and quality of market leads increased. Sales teams said they finally had tools that “looked the part.” Customers saw the division as smart, practical, and forward-thinking. Most importantly, the brand’s perceived authority caught up to the reality of its expertise.

The Science Behind the Story

One of the reasons this approach works is because it’s grounded in research. Customers build mental shortcuts, called schemas, to quickly judge if a brand feels credible. When cues don’t align (for example, complex insights delivered with childlike visuals), customers experience cognitive dissonance and withdraw trust. But when cues align, expertise expressed through carefully designed storytelling, trust deepens and engagement increases.

Studies have shown that over 70% of top global brands now use multi-signal storytelling strategies to manage these perceptions. Research also demonstrates that aligned storytelling increases both perceived quality and emotional value for customers. At The Nine, we see this play out daily in our work on brand strategy, content design, and digital experience design, where aligning signals directly influences customer trust and sales outcomes.

What Brand Leaders Can Take Away

The lesson for brand leaders is clear: expertise alone isn’t enough. If your storytelling cues suggest inexperience, customers will believe that story, even if it isn’t true. The good news is that these cues can be audited, redesigned, and aligned.

Start by asking: are there parts of your story that feel too simplistic, too light, or unintentionally youthful? Then, focus on designing your expertise into frameworks, visuals, and systems that prove your authority. This is where our branding services and web design and development solutions help clients translate what they know into experiences that customers trust.

Approachability is valuable, but in B2B markets, it must always be balanced with credibility. Balane here is not guesswork. It’s something both research and practice have proven is achievable when storytelling is treated as a designed system.

Closing Reflection

As both an agency leader and a researcher, I’ve seen how the smallest cues, color choices, tone of voice, the way insights are designed, can shift a brand from being seen as inexperienced to being trusted as an expert. At The Nine, this is the work we do every day: aligning storytelling with strategy to help brands not just grow, but grow with authority.

And that, I believe, is the most important story we can help our clients tell.

About the Author

By Andrya Allen, Chief Growth Officer at The Nine Digital Agency and Doctoral Researcher, University of South Alabama College of Business.

Research publication forthcoming in collaboration with Dr. Robyn Brouer at the University of South Alabama at the Advances Business Management conference.