Book review
Building a Storybrand
These are my detailed notes on Donald Miller’s great marketing and storytelling book Building a StoryBrand.
These are my detailed notes on Donald Miller’s great marketing and storytelling book Building a StoryBrand.
Section 1: Why most marketing is a money pit
- the key to being seen, heard, and understood
- the secret weapon that will grow your business
- the simple SB7 framework
Section 2: Building your StoryBrand
- a character
- has a problem
- and meets a guide
- who gives them a plan
- and calls them to action
- that helps them avoid failure
- and ends in a success
- people want your brand to participate in their transformation
Section 3: Implementing your StoryBrand BrandScript
- building a better website
- using storybrand to transform company culture
Introduction
Customers don’t care about your story: customers care about their own story!
Chapter 1: The key to being seen, heard, and understood
In Miller’s view, attractive websites alone do not sell products; the words explaining the offer matter. Getting a product to market is only part of the task. We also have to explain, simply and predictably, why a customer needs it. Story provides a way to make that message intelligible. The first mistake he identifies is failing to show how the offer helps people survive and thrive.
People notice what seems important for survival: in a room, we register the exits rather than count the chairs. Miller wants brands to tell a story about those “exits”. His second mistake is asking customers to work too hard to understand the message.
Customers may ignore a brand when it gives them too much irrelevant information. The message should connect the offer to something that matters to them without demanding much mental effort. A story gives a character an ambition and a challenge, then offers a plan for overcoming it. That sequence can also guide customers towards a product or service.
Miller develops this movie-like sequence into the StoryBrand framework. Clarity is the test: what does the customer want, what problem do we help solve, and what could life look like after using the offer? A business can create its own noise by adding information that answers none of those questions.
One example in the notes is a company answering a hundred questions its customers had never asked. The message a company thinks it sends can differ from what customers actually hear; their decisions depend on the latter. Good writing therefore requires deciding what to leave out.
Chapter 2: The secret weapon that will grow your business
Story helps a message stand out from noise. Music is memorable partly because its sounds have structure; similarly, branding relies on simple, relevant messages repeated until they “brand” the public consciousness. The notes contrast nine technical pages about Apple’s Lisa with the later two-word “think different” message, which put the audience at the centre.
Miller argues that people buy products they can understand quickly. His basic story has a character who wants something but encounters a problem. At the moment of difficulty, a guide offers a plan and calls the character to act; the action helps avoid failure and reach a successful outcome. The Hunger Games and Star Wars are examples of stories built on this pattern.
Skilled marketers and screenwriters can use that pattern without lapsing into cliché. For a movie, the first two questions are what the hero wants and who or what stands in the way.
The third movie question is what the hero’s life would look like if she did or did not get what she wants. Anything that does not serve the plot can go. For a brand, website or other marketing material, the corresponding first question is what the company offers.
The remaining brand questions are how the offer will improve my life and what I need to do to buy it. Could someone understand the website at a glance? Miller’s online-camera-course example removed jargon and roughly 90% of the copy, focused on those questions, and reportedly increased revenue fivefold.
A good filter removes the material that bores customers and focuses on the parts of a brand that help them survive and thrive.
Chapter 3: The simple SB7 framework
- Principles:
- The customer is the hero, not your brand
- you are the guide (Yoda)
- hero wants something
- Companies sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems
- they want to solve a problem that has disrupted their peaceful life
- Example: lawn not tidy, pension not fixed
- problems are, external, internal (best response), philosophical
- Customers aren’t looking for another hero; customers are looking for a guide
Brands that position themselves as the hero compete with their potential customers.
- Customers trust a guide who has a plan
- remove confusion about how to do business/take next step
- agreement and process plan
- Customers do not take action unless they are challenged to take action
- there needs to be a reason
- characters only take action after they are challenged by an outside force
- A call to action involves communicating a clear and direct step our customers can take to overcome their challenge and return to a peaceful life.
- direct or transitional
- Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending
- what’s at stake/what happens if you don’t take action
- show the cost of not doing business
- brands that help customers avoid some kind of negativity in life, engage customers (they define what’s at stake)
- use this strategically (like salt, so not too much or none at all)
- Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them
- if we don’t tell people where we’re taking them, they will choose another brand
- offer a vision
- The customer is the hero, not your brand
Chapter 4: A character
The customer, rather than the brand, is the hero. First define what that customer wants, so they can see whether the brand can help them get it. One resort in the book shifted its imagery away from itself and towards the luxury its guests would experience.
A hassle-free MBA that can be completed after work is another example of naming the customer’s desire. Giving that desire a clear shape opens a gap between the present and the hoped-for outcome. The notes compare this to Jason Bourne’s amnesia and his drive to learn who he is, including my blunt aside, “Wie ben ik godverdomme…”
Once the desired outcome is clear, pare it down to a single focus. Too many ambitions clutter the customer’s story; subplots can come after the main story is established.
Miller links these desires to survival: safety, health, happiness and strength. They may involve conserving money, as with Walmart, or conserving time, as I thought Queal and cleaning services could do.
Other possible motivations are building a social network, perhaps through work at Coolblue or through Facebook; gaining status, as with Rolex; accumulating resources, as with Vanguard or many business-to-business offers; and being generous, as in effective altruism or volunteer organisations.
The search for meaning may be another motivation. Several motivations can operate together. The branding goal is for each potential customer to understand where the brand promises to take them.
Chapter 5: Has a problem
Companies often sell a solution to an external problem while customers are looking for relief from an internal one. The problem is the hook of the story: discussing what customers experience can make a brand more relevant. Miller also calls for a villain, which need not be a person but should have recognisable characteristics.
For time-management software, distraction could play the villain. The villain should be the root cause, relatable, singular and real.
Miller distinguishes three levels of problem: external, internal and philosophical. An external problem is the practical obstacle between a character and the stability they want.
A ticking time bomb is an external obstacle in a story; a restaurant addresses the external problem of hunger. The external problem matters in part because it creates an internal frustration.
In a film, the internal question might be, “Do I have what it takes?” Apple’s example is feeling intimidated by technology. For Queal, I wondered whether the internal frustration could be an inability to eat well within the limits of time and daily life. A car-rental company might address frustration with having to speak to someone by offering automatic check-in.
For a second-hand car buyer, the external need might be an affordable replacement, while the internal fear is being hustled; clear terms and no sales commission could address the latter. Starbucks may similarly sell a sense of sophistication or belonging as well as coffee. The philosophical level asks why any of this ought to matter.
A philosophical problem asks what should or should not happen in the larger story. The notes use The King’s Speech to distinguish an external challenge of speaking, internal self-doubt and a broader good-versus-evil frame. Miller wants the offer to carry that deeper meaning, with a “buy now” button presented as a step towards resolving the customer’s story.
Tesla is another example in the notes. Gas-guzzling cars and inferior technology play the villain; the external desire is for a car, and the internal desire is to be an early adopter of new technology.
In that example, the philosophical claim is that one’s choice of car ought to help the environment.
Chapter 6: And meets a guide
Customers aren’t looking for another hero; customers are looking for a guide. If a hero solves her own problem in a story, the audience will tune out. A brand that positions itself as a hero is destined to lose. 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.
In stories, the hero is never the strongest character. The guide has been there, done that. The guide is the one with the most authority. The guide is not the centre, he simply plays a role.
The guide’s role is to help others rather than place itself at the centre of the story. Empathy begins with understanding the customer’s struggle and being able to say “I feel your pain”.
A brand should show customers that it cares and that it shares something with them. It also needs to demonstrate competence, giving the customer confidence that the guide can help.
Testimonials let other people attest to that competence; the notes suggest three. Statistics can work when connected to an emotional benefit, and awards can show recognition from outside the company.
For business customers, logos can show other companies served; for consumers, mentions in news outlets can play a similar role. Empathy answers “Can I trust this person?”, while competence answers “Can I respect this person?”.
Chapter 7: Who gives them a plan
Customers are more likely to trust a guide who has a plan. Buying involves risk: the product may fail, or the buyer may feel foolish. A plan can reduce that uncertainty and make the next step more comfortable.
The plan should create clarity and reduce perceived risk. In a story, it gives the hero a “path of hope” towards resolving the problem.
A customer needs more than the instruction to place an order. A process plan shows the steps for buying the product, using it afterwards, or both. Making those steps visible helps answer what the customer should do next.
The notes put a process plan at three to six steps. An agreement plan serves a different purpose: it reassures customers by stating what the business commits to when they work together and which values they share.
An agreement plan often sits in the background. Naming either kind of plan can make it easier to grasp: the notes try 'easy installation plan' and 'your morning plan'.
Titling your plan will frame it in the customer’s mind and increases the perceived value of all that your brand offers.
Chapter 8: And calls them to action
Miller argues that a customer needs a clear call to action; a business cannot assume the customer knows what to do. The guide has to ask for the order or identify another direct next step, just as a hero in a story is challenged to act.
For example, a “buy now” button could recur throughout a website; the StoryBrand site used “register now”. Miller says none of the clients he worked with suffered from too many calls to action, and argues that selling too passively can make a brand seem unsure of its own product.
The guide must be direct with the hero about what they want them to do.
- Direct call to action (buy now, make appointment)
- Transitional call to action (download pdf, webinar, usually free)
- Stake a claim to your territory (show that you’re the leader in the industry)
- Create reciprocity (give away free info)
- Position yourself as the guide
- Examples: Free information, Testimonials, Samples, Free trail
Repeated invitations can work, provided they do not become a nuisance. The website should still have one obvious direct action.
Chapter 9: That helps them avoid failure
A story gives the hero something to lose. A brand can answer the customer’s “so what?” question by showing what may happen if they do not act. The notes use Allstate’s insurance advertising as an example: it foreshadows a potential loss and offers protection, opening and then closing a story loop.
Miller frames this as establishing stakes, rather than simply frightening people. The notes connect that idea to loss aversion in Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.
The termite example moves through four steps: show the reader a possible threat, illustrated by the claim that 30% of homes have termites; explain that the risk can be reduced; offer a home treatment; and invite the customer to call to schedule it. The figure belongs to the example and has not been verified here.
Use fear like salt, just a pinch. What negative consequences are you helping your customer avoid?
Chapter 10: And ends in a success
Do not assume customers can picture the difference a brand might make; show them. The notes put this as “People want to be taken somewhere” and call for “A compelling image of an achievable future”. Miller argues that a brand without a vision of success risks losing its audience.
The resolution should be specific enough for customers to know what they can hope for. Show people enjoying the product, then describe the possible future in external terms, in internal feelings and in the philosophical meaning attached to it.
- Winning power and position (need for status)
- Offer access (e.g. Starbucks membership)
- Create scarcity (e.g. limited number of an item)
- Offer a premium (e.g. Emerald club of car rental company)
- Offer identity association (e.g. Mercedes, Rolex)
- Union that makes the hero whole (need for something external to create completeness)
- story: resolve a deficiency (e.g. marriage, learn new skill)
- reduce anxiety (e.g. cleaning stuff, closure of clean home)
- reduce workload (e.g. software, fishing rod, thing to make you superhuman)
- more time (fit it all in
- Ultimate self-realisation/acceptance (need to reach our potential)
- the desire for self-acceptance
- inspiration (e.g. red bull, HBR, under armour)
- acceptance (e.g. Dove)
- transcendence (e.g. Tom’s Shoes)
A picture can close the loop without much explanation: a rug in a pleasant living room or camping equipment shown as part of an adventure are the examples in my notes.
Chapter 11: People want your brand to participate in their transformation
Miller says people want to transform, and that a brand involved in a customer’s change of identity can develop passionate advocates. In his framework, the hero changes over the course of the story, so a brand should name the identity its customers aspire to.
The brand can then associate itself with that identity. A knife company might appeal to someone who wants to seem tough and adventurous, though my note says “hello trouble”. The question is how customers would like others to describe them.
I wondered how Queal could use this idea and whether there was something to learn from peanut butter or other apparently “boring” products. The notes contrast a financial adviser’s client moving from confused and ill-equipped to competent and smart, and a shampoo customer moving from anxious and glum to carefree and radiant.
The aim is to help customers transform as well as help them achieve an immediate win.
Chapter 12: Building a better website
- A great digital presence starts with a clear and effective website.
- When a customer gets to your website, their “hopes need to be confirmed”, and they need to be convinced we have a solution to their problem.
- Keep it simple. Like an elevator pitch.
- A website full of noise can kill potential sales.
- The 5 basics you need/must have:
- An offer above the fold. (e.g. we will make you a pro in the kitchen)
- customers need to know what’s in it for them right when they read the text
- E.g. We help you make beautiful websites (Sqaurespace)
- Promise an aspirational identity
- Promise to solve a problem
- State exactly what you do
- Queal: We take the hassle out of getting a good meal. We make complete meals.!!!
- Obvious call to action
- Order Now (duh)
- Placement tips: top right! (Highlight shop more!!! and/or put it in button-style, to the right?), and center (instead of left).
- Eyes move in Z pattern
- Buttons should look exactly the same!!!
- If you have a transitional CTA, show it but less prominent
- Images of success
- Smiling, happy people, emotional destination.
- A bite-sized breakdown of your revenue streams
- find an overall umbrella message that unifies your various streams
- once you have the umbrella, the different product-pages (with their own BrandScripts) can shine there
- Very few words
- People don’t read websites anymore, they scan them.
- Write in morse-code (brief, punchy, relevant to customers)
- The fewer words you use, the more likely it is that people will read them
- An offer above the fold. (e.g. we will make you a pro in the kitchen)
- Stay on script, everything should be a logical conclusion from the BrandScript