Notes on Customer Desire, Story Gaps, and Conflict
Notes from Chapter 4 and 5 of Donald Miller’s Storybrand 2.0:
A story doesn’t begin until the hero wants something.
Once the storyteller defines what the hero wants, the question becomes, Will the hero get what she wants? And it’s this single question that drives narrative traction.
Identifying a potential desire your customer can fulfill opens what, in storyteller terms, is called a story gap. The idea is you place a gap between your hero and what they want.
Attention rises and lowers with the opening and closing of the story gap.
Hunger is the opening of a story gap, and lunch is how we close the gap. A headache is the opening of a story gap, and aspirin is what we take to make it go away. Arousal is the opening of a story gap, and sexual fulfillment brings its closing. There is little action in life that can’t be explained by the opening and closing of various story gaps.
Defining something our customer wants and featuring it in our messaging and marketing will open a story gap that drives engagement and action.
Define a specific desire your customers have and become known for helping people achieve that specific desire.
Choose a desire relevant to the customer’s survival, such as: conserving financial resources, conserving time, building social networks, gaining status, accumulating resources, showing generosity, or desiring meaning.
A goal for your branding should be that every potential customer knows exactly where you will take them: to visit a luxury resort where they can get some rest, to become the leader everybody loves, or to save money and live better.
Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems.
The villain is the number one device storytellers use to give conflict a clear point of focus.
Real threats exist in the world. If your customer wasn’t experiencing some sort of pain or frustration as it relates to your brand, they wouldn’t be seeking your out. Take your custmers’ frustrations seriously. Whether we are talking about artery-blocking cholesterol, money-eating inflation, or sleep-disrupting anxiety, we are naive to assume our customers’ quality of life isn’t under threat. And if our product can protect our customers, we can and should name the villains out to get them.
The only reason our customers buy from us is because their external problem 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, we do more than just sell our customers products; we bond with our customers because we’ve positioned ourselves deeply into their narrative.
A philosophical problem can best be talked about using terms like ought and shouldn’t. For example: “Bad people shouldn’t be allowed to win” and “People ought to be treated fairly.”
“[B]rands that give customers a voice in a larger narrative add value to their products by offering a deeper sense of meaning in their own story.”
For example:
TESLA MOTOR CARS
Villain: Gas-guzzling, inferior technology
External: I need a better car.
Internal: I want to be an early adopter of new technology.
Philosophical: My choice of car out to help save the environment and perform better at the same time.
[Renaissance art style for the blog image, featuring the hero surrounded by shadows]
