12 STORYING BRAND COMMUNICATION: PUBLIC RELATIONS AND REMEMBRANCE BERİS ARTAN ÖZORAN Beris Artan Özoran, Assistant Professor, Ankara University Communication Faculty Abstract Stories, which constitute an important part of people's lives, are a means of self-expression for individuals as well as an important tool for brands to express themselves. The importance of storytelling for brands is also increasing in the postmodern period, where individuals make choices not in line with their "needs" but in line with the "meanings" created by brands. Public relations professionals increasingly use stories to strengthen both the images and reputations of brands and the communication between the brand and its stakeholders. The purpose of this article is to reveal the effect of storytelling in public relations on developing thoughts and emotions towards the brand and remembrance. As a result of the research carried out with an experimental research design, it was seen that storytelling in public relations has a positive effect on both memory and developing positive thoughts and feelings about the brand. Introduction Stories cover an important part of our lives. From the moment we are born, we grow up with stories, learn with stories, and make sense of the world and ourselves with stories. Stories are also vital for brands to reveal their own identities and recognize their target audience. Because stories that accurately reflect the brand personality play an important role in the formation of the brand image and identity (Akbayır, 2016, p.68). Stories are effective for individuals to form ideas about a person, product, or organization. It is observed that brands that understand the importance of stories in image management, reputation management, brand management, effective communication with the public, forming and maintaining a relationship with the public, and building trust, frequently use storytelling within the scope of their communication activities. With the development of production, transportation, and communication technologies, the competition between organizations has begun to rise rapidly. Nowadays, there are thousands of organizations, which try to sell similar products or give similar services. Therefore, forming powerful and sustainable relations with the target audience have vital importance for organizations to survive in the competitive business environment. Organizations need to differentiate themselves from others and be more rememberable by creating emotions about their brands. Public relations is an important tool of brands to create meaning in the eyes of the target audience and also form strong and sustainable relations with them. Storytelling is one of the key elements of public relations professional who are called “homo narrans” (Kent, 2015, p.480). Stories are told to create an emotional connection, an intimacy between the teller and the audience (Lambert, 2013, p.7). They are effective ways of getting your message across by creating an emotional resonance (Gitner, 2016, p.379). This power of the stories coincides to create mutual goodwill between the organization and the public, which is the main purpose of public relations. Public relations aims to establish