The more simple and predictable the communication, the easier it is for the brain to digest. Story helps because it is a sense-making mechanism. Essentially, story formulas put everything in order so the brain doesn’t have to work to understand what’s going on.

among the million things the brain is good at, the overriding function of the brain is to help an individual survive and thrive. Everything the human brain does, all day, involves helping that person, and the people that person cares about, get ahead in life.

without us knowing it, human beings are constantly scanning their environment (even advertising) for information that is going to help them meet their primitive need to survive. This means that when we ramble on and on about how we have the biggest manufacturing plant on the West Coast, our customers don’t care. Why? Because that information isn’t helping them eat, drink, find a mate, fall in love, build a tribe, experience a deeper sense of meaning, or stockpile weapons in case barbarians start coming over the hill behind our cul-de-sac. So what do customers do when we blast a bunch of noise at them? They ignore us.

The first mistake brands make is they fail to focus on the aspects of their offer that will help people survive and thrive. All great stories are about survival—either physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual. A story about anything else won’t work to captivate an audience. Nobody’s interested. This means that if we position our products and services as anything but an aid in helping people survive, thrive, be accepted, find love, achieve an aspirational identity, or bond with a tribe that will defend them physically and socially, good luck selling anything to anybody. These are the only things people care about.

our brains are constantly sorting through information and so we discard millions of unnecessary facts every day. If we were to spend an hour in a giant ballroom, our brains would never think to count how many chairs are in the room. Meanwhile, we would always know where the exits are. Why? Because our brains don’t need to know how many chairs there are in the room to survive, but knowing where the exits are would be helpful in case there was a fire. Without knowing it, the subconscious is always categorizing and organizing information, and when we talk publicly about our company’s random backstory or internal goals, we’re positioning ourselves as the chairs, not the exits.

When having to process too much seemingly random information, people begin to ignore the source of that useless information in an effort to conserve calories. In other words, there’s a survival mechanism within our customers’ brain that is designed to tune us out should we ever start confusing them.

the most powerful tool we can use to organize information so people don’t have to burn very many calories is story.

story is a sense-making device. It identifies a necessary ambition, defines challenges that are battling to keep us from achieving that ambition, and provides a plan to help us conquer those challenges. When we define the elements of a story as it relates to our brand, we create a map customers can follow to engage our products and services.

What we often call marketing is really just clutter and confusion sprayed all over our websites, e-mails, and commercials.

What we think we are saying to our customers and what our customers actually hear are two different things. And customers make buying decisions not based on what we say but on what they hear.

Apple grew much larger only after Steve Jobs began filtering his message through the lens of story. Transformation in his thinking happened after working with (and partially creating) the genius storytelling factory that is Pixar. When Jobs came back to Apple after being surrounded by professional storytellers, he realized story was everything. Just think about the incredible transformation that took place in Steve’s life and career after Pixar. In 1983, Apple launched their computer Lisa, the last project Jobs worked on before he was let go. Jobs released Lisa with a nine-page ad in the New York Times spelling out the computer’s technical features. It was nine pages of geek talk nobody outside NASA was interested in. The computer bombed. When Jobs returned to the company after running Pixar, Apple became customer-centric, compelling, and clear in their communication. The first campaign he released went from nine pages in the New York Times to just two words on billboards all over America: Think Different.

When Apple began filtering their communication to make it simple and relevant, they actually stopped featuring computers in most of their advertising. Instead, they understood their customers were all living, breathing heroes, and they tapped into their stories. They did this by (1) identifying what their customers wanted (to be seen and heard), (2) defining their customers’ challenge (that people didn’t recognize their hidden genius), and (3) offering their customers a tool they could use to express themselves (computers and smartphones). Each of these realizations are pillars in ancient storytelling and critical for connecting with customers.

the story of Apple isn’t about Apple; it’s about you. You’re the hero in the story, and they play a role more like Q in the James Bond movies. They are the guy you go see when you need a tool to help you win the day. Despite what acolytes of the cult of Mac may say, Apple likely doesn’t make the best computers or phones. “Best” is subjective, of course. Whether Apple has the best technology, though, is debatable. But it doesn’t matter. People don’t buy the best products; they buy the products they can understand the fastest.

At no point should we be able to pause a movie and be unable to answer three questions: 1.What does the hero want? 2.Who or what is opposing the hero getting what she wants? 3.What will the hero’s life look like if she does (or does not) get what she wants?

By talking about the problems our customers face, we deepen their interest in everything we offer. What most brands miss, however, is that there are three levels of problems a customer encounters. In stories, heroes encounter external, internal, and philosophical problems. Why? Because these are the same three levels of problems human beings face in their everyday lives.

Brands that position themselves as heroes unknowingly compete with their potential customers. Every human being wakes up each morning and sees the world through the lens of a protagonist. The world revolves around us, regardless of how altruistic, generous, and selfless a person we may be. Each day is, quite literally, about how we encounter our world. Potential customers feel the same way about themselves. They are the center of their world.

When a brand comes along and positions itself as the hero, customers remain distant. They hear us talking about how great our business is and start wondering if we’re competing with them for scarce resources. Their subconscious thought pattern goes like this: Oh, this is another hero, like me. I wish I had more time to hear their story, but right now I’m busy looking for a guide.

we must show people the cost of not doing business with us. In the eighties, the fast-food chain Wendy’s effectively asked America, “Where’s the beef?” The implication was that their competitors weren’t using enough meat. So what’s at stake for choosing another brand over Wendy’s? We might get stuck with a wimpy sandwich. Likewise, Whole Foods has built an enormous industry helping customers avoid the consequences of overly processed foods, and more recently Trader Joe’s has come along to help customers avoid the consequences of Whole Foods’ prices.

Brands that help customers avoid some kind of negativity in life (and let their customers know what that negativity is) engage customers for the same reason good stories captivate an audience: they define what’s at stake.

the sense of intimidation most people felt about computers. Apple

When you define something your customer wants, the customer is invited to alter their story in your direction. If they see your brand as a trustworthy and reliable guide, they will likely engage.

identifying a potential desire for your customer opens what’s sometimes called a story gap. The idea is that you place a gap between a character and what they want. Moviegoers pay attention when there’s a story gap because they wonder if and how that gap is going to be closed.

The opening and closing of a story gap is a magnetic force that drives much of human behavior.

When we fail to define something our customer wants, we fail to open a story gap. When we don’t open a story gap in our customers’ mind, they have no motivation to engage us, because there is no question that demands resolution. Defining something our customer wants and featuring it in our marketing materials will open a story gap.

OPEN A STORY GAP

PARE DOWN THE CUSTOMER’S AMBITION TO A SINGLE FOCUS

A critical mistake many organizations make in defining something their customers want is they don’t pare down that desire to a single focus. I’ve had countless conversations with frustrated business leaders who push back at this point and say, “Wait, we provide about twenty-seven things our customers want. Can’t we mention all of them?” The answer is no, at least not yet. Until we’ve defined a specific desire and become known for helping people achieve it, we shouldn’t add too many conflicting story gaps

The reality of a diverse brand, though, brings the same challenge many amateur screenwriters succumb to: they clutter the story by diluting their hero’s desire with too many ambitions.

focus on one simple desire and then, as you create campaigns for each division and maybe even each product, you can identify more things your customer wants in the subplots of your overall brand.

At the highest level, the most important challenge for business leaders is to define something simple and relevant their customers want and to become known for delivering on that promise. Everything else is a subplot that, after having delivered on the customer’s basic desire, will only serve to delight and surprise them all the more.

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

HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS’ PROBLEMS

The villain is the number-one device storytellers use to give conflict a clear point of focus.

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.

The villain doesn’t have to be a person, but without question it should have personified characteristics. If we’re selling time-management software, for instance, we might vilify the idea of distractions. Could we offer our product as a weapon customers could use to stop distractions in their tracks?

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.

The Three Levels of Conflict

A villain is the antagonist because the villain causes the hero serious problems. That’s obvious. But what’s less obvious is that in a story, there are three levels of problems that work together to capture a reader’s or a moviegoer’s imagination. The three levels of problems heroes (and customers) face are External Problems Internal Problems Philosophical Problems

These are also the three levels of problems a customer hopes to solve when they buy a product.

EXTERNAL PROBLEMS

what does the existence of an external problem in a story have to do with branding? Well, most of us are in the business of solving external problems. We provide insurance or clothes or soccer balls. If we own a restaurant, the external problem we solve is hunger.

It’s usually pretty obvious. But you’d be wrong to think the reason people call you, walk through your door, or visit your website is limited to the resolution of an external problem. Something else is going on.

INTERNAL PROBLEMS By limiting our marketing messages to only external problems, we neglect a principle that is costing us thousands and potentially millions of dollars. That principle is this: 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?

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 the deeper story they’re actually living. The truth is, the external problems we solve are causing frustrations in their lives and, just like in a story, it’s those frustrations that are motivating them to call you.

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 started selling a resolution to the problem of customer intimidation. Understanding their customers’ internal problem is one of the reasons Apple achieved such growth and created passionate brand evangelists.

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 customers because we’ve positioned ourselves more deeply into their narrative.

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?

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.

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.

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.

This formula works because human beings experience three levels of problems in their everyday lives. They aren’t just looking for a resolution to one level of problem; they’re hoping for a resolution to all three. 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 customer must take to create closure in their story.

Let’s look at how some successful brands we all know about have positioned the purchasing of their products as the resolution to external, internal, and philosophical problems: 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.

EDWARD JONES FINANCIAL PLANNING:         Villain: Financial firms that don’t listen to their customers         External: I need investment help.         Internal: I’m confused about how to do this (especially with all the tech-driven resources out there).         Philosophical: If I’m going to invest my money, I deserve an advisor who will thoughtfully explain things in person.

The Story Is Not About Us The larger point here is simple: the day we stop losing sleep over the success of our business and start losing sleep over the success of our customers is the day our business will start growing again. If we are tempted to position our brand as the hero because heroes are strong and capable and the center of attention, we should take a step back. In stories, the hero is never the strongest character. Heroes are often ill-equipped and filled with self-doubt. They don’t know if they have what it takes. They are often reluctant, being thrown into the story rather than willingly engaging the plot. The guide, however, has already “been there and done that” and has conquered the hero’s challenge in their own backstory. The guide, not the hero, is the one with the most authority. Still, the story is rarely about the guide. The guide simply plays a role. The story must always be focused on the hero, and if a storyteller (or business leader) forgets this, the audience will get confused about who the story is really about and they will lose interest. This is true in business, in politics, and even in your own family. People are looking for a guide to help them, not another hero. Those who realize the epic story of life is not about them but actually about the people around them somehow win in the end. It’s counterintuitive, but it’s true. In fact, leaders who think the story of life is all about them may achieve temporary successes but are usually remembered in history’s narrative as a villain.

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.

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.

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.

The public became nauseated listening to a row of famous, multimillionaire musicians guilt-trip them into paying more for their music. The crucial mistake: Jay Z failed to answer the one question lingering in the subconscious of every hero customer: How are you helping me win the day? Tidal existed to help the artists win the day, not customers. And so it failed.

Simply turning our focus to the customer and offering them a heroic role in a meaningful story is enough to radically change the way we talk about, and even do, business. So what do we have to do to be recognized as the guide in our customers’ lives? The two things a brand must communicate to position themselves as the guide are Empathy Authority

When we empathize with our customers’ dilemma, we create a bond of trust. People trust those who understand them, and they trust brands that understand them too.

Empathetic statements start with words like, “We understand how it feels to . . .” or “Nobody should have to experience . . .” or “Like you, we are frustrated by . . .”

Expressing empathy isn’t difficult. Once we’ve identified our customers’ internal problems, we simply need to let them know we understand and would like to help them find a resolution. Scan your marketing material and make sure you’ve told your customers that you care. Customers won’t know you care until you tell them.

when a customer realizes they have a lot in common with a brand, they fill in all the unknown nuances with trust. Essentially, the customer batches their thinking, meaning they’re thinking in “chunks” rather than details. Commonality, whether taste in music or shared values, is a powerful marketing tool.

characters never take action on their own. They have to be challenged to take action.

The reason characters have to be challenged to take action is because everybody sitting in the dark theater knows human beings do not make major life decisions unless something challenges them to do so.

Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest, and so do customers. Heroes need to be challenged by outside forces.

Your customers are bombarded with more than three thousand commercial messages per day, and unless we are bold in our calls to action, we will be ignored. If our calls to action are soft, they will not be noticed.

SMART BRANDS DEFINE AN ASPIRIATIONAL IDENTITY

Gerber is a knife company out of Portland, Oregon, that makes a range of multipurpose pocketknives. Their commercial campaign, however, offers the buyer a lot more than a knife. They sell something intangible. They sell an identity, and by that I mean they sell a kind of person you and I can become.

Gerber defined an aspirational identity for their customers and they associated their product with that identity. The aspirational identity of a Gerber Knife customer is that they are tough, adventurous, fearless, action oriented, and competent to do a hard job. Epitomized in their advertising campaign “Hello Trouble,” Gerber positioned their customer as the kind of person who sails boats into storms, rides bulls, rescues people from floods, and yes, cuts tangled ropes from boat propellers.

They defined an aspirational identity and invited me to step into it.

The best way to identify an aspirational identity that our customers may be attracted to is to consider how they want their friends to talk about them. Think about it. When others talk about you, what do you want them to say? How we answer that question reveals who it is we’d like to be. It’s the same for our customers. As it relates to your brand, how does your customer want to be perceived by their friends? And can you help them become that kind of person? Can you participate in their identity transformation?

Once we know who our customers want to be, we will have language to use in e-mails, blog posts, and all manner of marketing material.

TASK ONE: CREATE A ONE-LINER FOR YOUR COMPANY

A one-liner is a new and improved way to answer the question “What do you do?” It’s more than a slogan or tagline; it’s a single statement that helps people realize why they need your products or services.

If you use the following four components, you’ll craft a powerful one-liner:        1.  The Character        2.  The Problem        3.  The Plan        4.  The Success Your one-liner doesn’t have to be a single sentence, nor does it need to be four sentences. Think of it more as a statement. You simply want to communicate these four ideas. Who is your customer? What is their problem? What is your plan to help them, and what will their life look like after you do?

Let’s put it all together by crafting a one-liner for soccer moms to see how powerful a one-liner actually is.         •  The Character: Moms         •  The Problem: Busy schedules         •  The Plan: Short, meaningful workouts         •  The Success: Health and renewed energy         •  “We provide busy moms with a short, meaningful workout they can use to stay healthy and have renewed energy.” Contrast that statement with the description most business leaders might give: “I run a gym.” If you’re a busy soccer mom, your ears would perk up because the new one-liner identifies you, helps you overcome your problem, gives you a plan, and promises a better life. A statement like this will invite customers into a better story they can actually live.