A brand "born from water" : storytelling strategies and sustainability narratives in the construction of Biotherm's brand identity

With the rise of the so-called 'blue beauty', many beauty brands have had to adapt to the need to promote narrations and self-narrations that align with the urgency to care for the environment and minimize their impact on ocean health. Among the brands that prominently position themselves as environmentally friendly and ocean-conscious stands Biotherm. Drawing on a theoretical framework of Corporate Storytelling and employing a social semiotic approach to Multimodality, this article aims at analyzing how Biotherm communicates its corporate social responsibility (CSR), leveraging sustainability issues in its Blue Report, a free-toconsult, multimodal document, accessible on the company's website. In particular, the article addresses the interplay between verbal and non-verbal modes in constructing and disseminating Biotherm's brand narrations throughout the Blue Report. By means of multimodal analyses of selected double-spreads from the Blue Report and drawing on Alexandra Georgakopoulou's work on 'small stories' (2007, 2020, 2023), the article shows how 'grand', formal narratives about the company's CSR merge with 'small', semi-formal narratives in the verbal mode. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the extent to which non-verbal modes crucially facilitate the connection between 'grand' and 'small' narratives, enabling the brand to build (and disseminate) its reputation and foster stakeholder engagement around eco-themes like sustainability and the preservation of ocean health.