Make your brand the guide, not the hero

What's the story? #6 – why storytelling will always be the key to building great brands.

Luke Skywalker. Katnis Everdeen. Marty McFly. Mr. Muscle.

The much-loved heroes and heroines we root for in popular stories who – often despite personal flaws – always save the day, the world, the galaxy. Or maybe just the effort.

So, when we tell stories for brands we want customers to love, we need to make the brands heroes too. Right?

With the possible exception of Mr. Muscle. Wrong.

We love our heroes because they represent archetypes of who we'd like to be. Strong, handsome, beautiful. Successful. They may have special skills or talents, usually along with human weaknesses and moral dilemmas, not always doing the right thing along the way, but overcoming adversity and inner demons to do the right thing in the end.

To escape from our humdrum lives with their usual problems, we project ourselves onto and into them, although we can never be them. But, for a fleeting moment, we get to feel what that might be like. A bit of harmless escapism, with maybe some lessons for everyday life thrown in too if we’re lucky.

So, why shouldn’t we make brands the heroes then?

Because if we do, then the story becomes all about how great the brand is, when what it should be instead is how great it can make you. The hero of your own story.

Stories throughout history, from The Odyssey to The Last Jedi, have many things in common. One of the most significant is that the heroes nearly always have a “guide” or “mentor” – a rock-solid character (or characters) they can turn to for wisdom, guidance and support – who helps dispel self-doubt and gives them the confidence and courage to go on. Need guides, they do. And this is the role that brands need to play.

The story of your brand is how it helps and guides your customers to tell their own stories. It might make them look cooler, feel more comfortable, or able to do their job better. Shine the floor, save money, or even save lives.

This is the key message in Donald Miller’s best-selling book: Building a StoryBrand 2.0.

Taking the example of age-old story structures and archetypes he spells out in detail how you can make the story of your brand, one that consumers want to be part of theirs.

Like so many other books in this genre, it gives you a step-by-step formula for business success. In the same way that thousands of other books with proven formulas to lose weight, learn a language, find the love of your life, or make your hair grow back.

With all of them, I’m highly skeptical that any of these strict formulas are quite as good as they say they are (especially the hair ones) but many of them do contain a central truth.

And the central truth of StoryBrand is making your brand your customer’s guide, not their hero. Even Mr. Muscle. Something they trust to help make their life or business better – or their bathroom cleaner.