Brand Storytelling

In his book The Dream Society, Rolf Jensen makes the case for a shift from an information society to a dream society in which imagination and storytelling become the primary drivers of value. He identifies six emerging emotion-based markets:

1. Adventure
2. Community (togetherness, friendship, and love)
3. Providing and receiving care
4. Self-expression (“Who am I?”)
5. Peace of mind
6. Standing for something (convictions)

Many brands like to tell stories that demonstrate their values or their legendary service. Every brand story requires the following elements:

• Core values that underpin the story
• Moral of the story (central premise)
• Hero (protagonist)
• Villain (antagonist)
• Plot (tension/conflict/resolution)
• “Aha” moment
• Transformation

Here are two other storytelling frameworks that you might find useful.

Mark Lightowler uses a storytelling map that includes the following nine elements:

1. Story setup (the background information the audience needs to know)
2. Protagonist (the hero)
3. Conflict (what stands in the way of the journey’s completion)
4. Outer motivation (protagonist’s motivation)
5. Deep issues (the deeper issues addressed by the story)
6. Opportunity (the protagonist’s inward reward for overcoming the conflict)
7. Arc (how the protagonist grows or changes inwardly over the course of the story)
8. Empathy (what causes the audience to empathize with the protagonist)
9. Tension (the unspoken feeling feeding the conflict)

According to Chris Vogler, the hero’s journey consists of the following steps:

1. The ordinary world
2. The call to adventure
3. Refusal of the call
4. Meeting with the mentor
5. Crossing the first threshold
6. Tests, allies, enemies
7. Approach to the inmost cave
8. The ordeal
9. Reward
10. The road back
11. The resurrection
12. Return with the elixir

Reprinted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here.