Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

by Donald Miller

The goal for our branding should be that every potential customer knows exactly where we want to take them: a luxury resort where they can get some rest, to become the leader ev...

If you randomly asked a potential customer where your brand wants to take them, would they be able to answer? Would they be able to repeat back to you exactly what your brand offers? If not, your brand is suffering the cost of confusion. You can fix this. Define a desire for your custo...

CLARIFY YOUR MESSAGE SO CUSTOMERS LISTEN

Go to mystorybrand.com and either create a StoryBrand BrandScript or log in to your existing BrandScript. • Either alone or with a team, brainstorm what potential desires your customers might have that you can fulfill. • Make a decision. Choose something your customer wants and fill in the “character” module of your StoryBrand BrandScript. • Read the next chapter and repeat this process for the next section of your BrandScript.

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Once you fill out the first module of your StoryBrand BrandScript, you’ll be on your way to inviting customers into an incredible story. At this point, they’re interested in you and what you offer. But what can we do to entice them even further into a story? Let’s move on to part 2 and find out!

StoryBrand Principle Two: Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems.

Now that you’ve entered into your customers’ story, how do you increase their interest in your brand? You borrow another play from the storyteller’s playbook; you start talking about the problems your customers face.

Identifying our customers’ problems deepens their interest in the story we are telling. Every story is about somebody who is trying to solve a problem, so when we identify our customers’ problems, they recognize us as a brand that understands them.

The problem is the “hook” of a story, and if we don’t identify our customers’ problems, the story we are telling will fall flat. As soon as the conflict in a story is resolved, audiences stop paying attention. As the novelist James Scott Bell says, “Re...

If Jason Bourne were to get a call thirty minutes into the first Bourne Identity movie and a gentle, calming voice began to explain who Jason really was, why he’d suffered amnesia, and that the government was offering him a pension along with a house on the coast, then no one would keep watching. The reason to pay attention would be gone.

It bears repeating. The more we talk about the problems our customers experience, the more interest they will have in our brand.

Every Story Needs a Villain The villain is the number one device storytellers use to give conflict a clear point of focus.

Screenwriters and novelists know the stronger, more evil, more dastardly the villain, the more sympathy we will have for the hero and the more the audience will want them to win in the end. This translates into audience engagement.

If we want our customers’ ears to perk up when we talk about our products and services, we should position those products and services as weapons they can use to defeat a villain. And the villain should be dastardly.

The Poker Pros!

Advertisers personify the problems their customers face in order to capture their imagination and give their frustrations a focal point. Fuzzy hairballs with squeaky voices living in your drains, making nests, and clogging up the pipes? Yellow globs of living, breathing, talking plaque vacationing between your teeth? These are all personified versions of conflict. They’re all villains.

1. The villain should be a root source. Frustration, for example, is not a villain; frustration is what a villain makes us feel. High taxes, rather, are a good example of a villain.

2. The villain should be relatable. When people hear us talk about the villain, they should immediately recognize it as something they disdain. 3. The villain should be singular. One villain is enough. A story with too many villains falls apart for lack of clarity. 4. The villain should be real. Never go down the path of being a fearmonger. There are plenty of actual villains out there to fight. Let’s go after them on behalf of our customers.

Is there a villain in your customers’ story? Of course there is. What is the chief source of conflict that your products and services defeat? Talk about this villain. The more you talk about the villain, the more...

Later, when you’re creating your BrandScript, I’ll ask you to brainstorm what kind of villain your customer faces. For now, though, let’s look closely at the kinds of conflict this villain causes. Once we understand our customers’ problems, we’ll hav...

The three levels of problems heroes (and customers) face are External Problems Internal Problems Philosophical Problems

If we own a restaurant, the external problem we solve is hunger. The external problem a plumber fixes might be a leaky pipe, just like a pest-control guy might solve the external problem of termites in the attic.

Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but people buy solutions to internal problems.

In almost every story the hero struggles with the same question: Do I have what it takes? This question can make them feel frustrated, incompetent, and confused. The sense of self-doubt is what makes a movie about baseball relatable to a soccer mom and a romantic comedy relatable to a truck-driving husband.

What stories teach us is that people’s internal desire to resolve a frustration is a greater motivator than their desire to solve an external problem.

This is where most brands make a critical mistake. By assuming our customers only want to resolve external problems, we fail to engage th...

The truth is, the external problems we solve are causing frustrations in their lives and, just like in a story, it’s those frustrations...

After their near collapse, Apple didn’t find their footing until Steve Jobs understood that people felt intimidated (internal problem) by computers and wanted a simpler interface with technology. In one of the most powerful advertising campaigns in history, Apple showed a simple, hip, fun character who just wanted to take photos and listen to music and write books next to a not-so-hip tech nerd who wanted to talk about the inner workings of his operating system. The campaign positioned Apple Computers as the company to go to if you wanted to enjoy life and express yourself but felt intimidated by all the tech talk. What was the internal problem Apple identified? It was the sense of intimidation most people felt about computers. Apple started selling more than computers; they starte...

The only reason our customers buy from us is because the external problem we solve is frustrating them in some way. If we can identify that frustration, put it into words, and offer to resolve it along with the original external problem, something special happens. We bond with our cus...

For example, if we own a house-painting business, our customer’s external problem might be an unsightly home. The internal problem, however, may involve a sense of embarrassment about having the ugliest home on the street. Knowing this, our mar...

Likewise, Starbucks exploded by not just offering customers a cup of coffee but by giving them a comfortable, sophisticated environment in which to relax. Customers felt good about themselves when they walked into a Starbucks. Starbucks was delivering more value than just coffee; they were delivering a sense of sophistication and enthusiasm about life. They were also offering a place for people to meet in which they could experience affiliation and belonging. Starbucks changed American culture from hanging out in diners and bars to hanging out in a local, Italian-style coffee shop.

In understanding how their customers wanted to feel, Starbucks took a product that Americans were used to paying fifty cents for (or drinking for almost free at home or at work) and were able to charge three or four dollars per cup. Starbucks customers are willing to pay more for their coffee because they sense greater value with each cup.

Framing our products as a resolution to both external and internal problems increases the perceived value (and I would argu...

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS The philosophical problem in a story is about something even larger than the story itself. It’s about the question why. Why does this story matter in the overall epic of humanity?

We are changing the world with The Joker Club

A philosophical problem can best be talked about using terms like ought and shouldn’t. “Bad people shouldn’t be allowed to win” or “People ought to be treated fairly.” In the movie The King’s Speech, the external problem is King George’s stutter. This external problem manifests the internal frustration and self-doubt the king struggles with. He simply doesn’t believe he has what it takes to lead his country. Philosophically, though, the stakes are much greater. Because the king must unify his people against the Nazis, the story takes on the philosophical problem of good versus evil. In Jerry Maguire, the philosophical question revolves around whether people are worth more than the money they can bring in. Romeo and Juliet asks whether romantic love is more important than family squabbles and tribal unrest.

What’s the Deeper Meaning? People want to be involved in a story that is larger than themselves. Brands that give customers a voice in a larger narrative add value to their products by giving their customers a deeper sense of meaning.

Before music went digital, Tower Records promoted their chain of record stores using the tagline “No music, no life.” Not only did the tagline help them sell more than a billion dollars in records each year, but they sold thousands of bumper stickers and T-shirts featuring the tagline to fans who wanted to associate with the philosophical belief that music mattered.

Is there a deeper story your brand contributes to? Can your products be positioned as tools your customers can use to fight back against something that ought not be? If so, let’s include some philosophical stakes in our messaging.

Absolutely - People who want to play Poker for fun ought not to be taken advantage of.

The Perfect Brand Promise If we really want to satisfy our customers, we can offer much more than products or services; we can offer to resolve an external, internal, and philosophical problem whenever they engage our business. Storytellers use this formula to endear audiences all the time. When Luke shoots the photon torpedo through the little hole in the Death Star, he actually resolves the external problem of destroying the Death Star, the internal problem that had him wondering whether he had what it took to be a Jedi, and the philosophical problem of good versus evil, all with the press of a button.

When these three levels of problems are resolved in one shot, the audience experiences a sense of pleasure and relief, causing them to love the story. This scene is often called the “climactic” or “obligatory” scene, and it is arguably the most important scene in the movie because every other scene builds toward it in some way. The resolution of the hero’s external, internal, and philosophical problem is the reason we cried when Woody and Buzz were reunited with Andy in Toy Story, and it’s why we felt so deeply when Private Ryan was rescued by Captain John Miller. This formula works because human beings experience th...

If we really want our business to grow, we should position our products as the resolution to an external, internal, and philosophical problem and frame the “Buy Now” button as the action a ...

TESLA MOTOR CARS: Villain: Gas guzzling, inferior technology External: I need a car. Internal: I want to be an early adopter of new technology. Philosophical: My choice of car ought to help save the environment.

NESPRESSO HOME COFFEE MACHINES: Villain: Coffee machines that make bad coffee External: I want better-tasting coffee at home. Internal: I want my home coffee machine to make me feel sophisticated. Philosophical: I shouldn’t have to be a barista to make a gourmet coffee at home.

WHAT CHALLENGES ARE YOU HELPING YOUR CUSTOMER OVERCOME?

A large problem most of our clients face is they want to include three villains and seven external problems and four internal problems, and so on. But, as I’ve already mentioned, stories are best when they are simple and clear. We are going to have to make choices.

Is there a single villain your brand stands against? And what external problem is that villain causing? How is that external problem making your customers feel? And why is it unjust for people to have to suffer at the hands of this villain?

Star - Abosolute Gold

These are the four questions we want to answer in the problem section of our StoryBrand BrandScript, and when we do, the story our brand is telling will take shape because our hero, the customer who wants something, is being challenged. Will they win? Will their problems be resolved? Perhaps. The thing is, they will have to engage your brand to find out.

CLARIFY YOUR MESSAGE SO CUSTOMERS LISTEN • Go to mystorybrand.com and either create a BrandScript or log in to your existing BrandScript. • Either alone or with a team, brainstorm all of the literal and metaphorical villains your brand takes a stand against. • Brainstorm the external problems your brand resolves. Is there one that seems to represent the widest swath of products? • Brainstorm the internal problem (frustration or doubt) your customers are feeling as it relates to your brand. Is there one that stands out as a universal experience for your customers? • Is your brand part of a larger, more important story? Is there a philosophical wrong your brand stands against? • Once you finish your brainstorming session, make the four StoryBrand BrandScript decisions that will allow you to fill out part 2.

Exercise

Just like in stories, human beings wake up every morning self-identifying as a hero. They are troubled by internal, external, and philosophical conflicts, and they know they can’t solve these problems on their own. The fatal mistake some brands make, especially young brands who believe they need to prove themselves, is they position themselves as the hero in the story instead of the guide. As I’ve already mentioned, a brand that positions itself as the hero is destined to lose.

The Fatal Mistake The fatal ramifications of positioning our brand as the hero could be huge. Consider the failure of the music streaming service Tidal. Never heard of it? There’s a good reason. Rapper Jay Z founded the company with a personal investment of a whopping $56 million with a mission to “get everyone to respect music again.”3 Instead of being owned by music studios or tech companies, Tidal would be owned by musicians, allowing them to cut out the middleman and take their products directly to the market. As a result, the artists would pocket more of the profits. Sounds like a great plan. But Jay Z failed to consider the mistake of positioning himself and other artists as the heroes. Were artists going to buy music from each other? No. He needed to position the customer, not the artist, as the hero. In the months leading up to the launch of Tidal, Jay Z recruited sixteen well-known musicians who agreed to release exclusive content on his platform in exchange for a percentage of equity. In their multimillion-dollar rollout, the artists stood shoulder to shoulder at a press conference to explain their mission. Predictably, this is where everything fell apart. If only Jay Z, in other ways a virtual genius, had understood the age-old rules of story, he might have avoided walking into a field of land mines.