Want People To Love Your Brand? Try This Secret! (With Greg Logan)

Key Concepts

• Brand Storytelling: Using narrative techniques to connect with audiences emotionally and build stronger brands.
• Hero's Journey: A universal storytelling pattern with 12 stages, often used in movies and adaptable for brand messaging.
• Quest: A central goal or mission that resonates with the audience and drives engagement.
• Genre Defining: Categorizing brand stories into movie genres to align with audience desires.
• Emotional Connection: Creating empathy and resonance with audiences through storytelling.
• Tone of Voice: The personality and style of communication that reflects a brand's unique identity.
• Corporate Cliches: Overused and generic terms that dilute brand messaging.
• Authenticity: Being genuine and true to a brand's values and identity.

Hollywood's Storytelling Formulas for Brands

Greg Logan, founder of Narrativity, discusses how Hollywood's storytelling formulas can be applied to brand storytelling to create more engaging and emotional connections with audiences. He emphasizes that people make decisions emotionally and then rationalize them later. His book, "Creating a Blockbuster Brand," breaks down these formulas for businesses of all sizes.

The Hero's Journey

The hero's journey is a 12-step storytelling formula that has been used in movies for over 100 years. It involves a hero in their ordinary world, a call to adventure, a mentor, crossing the threshold into a special world, facing allies and enemies, reaching a low point, seizing the sword, and returning home transformed. While brands don't operate in a 2-hour cycle like movies, the hero's journey can be adapted for brand messaging, such as triggering the 12 points on a homepage to keep visitors engaged.

Example: George Lucas, a student of Joseph Campbell, used the hero's journey in Star Wars, making it one of the most popular and enduring franchises.

The Importance of Stories

Stories are crucial because humans are hardwired to love them. Stories trigger all four parts of the brain, creating empathy, dopamine hits, and making messages more memorable. Facts alone only trigger two parts of the brain.

Example: Bill Clinton's use of personal stories during his presidential campaign humanized the issues and helped him connect with the audience.

Applying Storytelling Formulas to Brands

Logan realized that while many experts advocate for brand storytelling, few explain how to do it effectively. He broke down Hollywood's formulas to help brands distance themselves from their own perspectives and tell stories that resonate with their audience.

The formulas include:

1. Genre Defining: Identifying the type of story the brand wants to tell (e.g., comedy, action).
2. Enemy and Superpower: Defining the challenges and unique strengths.
3. Quest: Defining the customer mission.
4. Log Line: Crafting a concise business pitch.
5. Love Story: Developing the main narrative.
6. Controlling Idea: Articulating the customer value proposition.
7. Synopsis: Highlighting key proof points.
8. Backstory: Sharing the brand's origin story.
9. Hero's Journey: Applying the framework to the homepage.

Overcoming Blindness to One's Own Story

Many businesses struggle to tell their story effectively because they are too close to it. Logan helps clients by providing an outside perspective, tough love, and using formulas to guide them. He emphasizes creating the story together with the client, rather than taking a brief and presenting a solution later. He looks for genuine excitement and goosebumps to ensure the story resonates with the client.

The Quest Formula: A Live Demonstration

Logan demonstrates the quest formula, which involves answering three questions:

1. What do you do? (Using an adjective like saving, helping, or creating)
2. Who do you do it for?
3. What value do you add to their lives?

Examples of Movie Quests:

• Lord of the Rings: Save Middle Earth by destroying the one ring.
• Star Wars: Save the galaxy by defeating the evil empire.
• Wizard of Oz: Fulfill new friends' wishes and return home.
• Finding Nemo: Find Nemo (the value is implied in finding Nemo himself).

Examples of Brand Quests:

• Small business lender: Relieving business owners from the pressures they're under.
• Home loan company: Freeing borrowers from the mortgage handcuffs.
• Ethical investment company: Creating a world that's better off.
• Luxury hotel deal suite: Unlocking the secret to holy.
• Bra: Giving women a second skin they feel good in.
• Palliative care: Ensuring people have their best death possible.
• Narrativity: Turning businesses into loved brands.

Logan then works with the interviewer, Chris, to develop a quest for his business, focusing on creative entrepreneurs. They brainstorm and refine the quest, ultimately arriving at:

• Empowering entrepreneurs to express their creative gift.

Avoiding Corporate Cliches

Logan emphasizes the importance of avoiding corporate cliches and marketing jargon. He bans words like "trust," "journey," "innovation," "passion," "customer-focused," "goals," "scalable," "solutions," "value," and "peace of mind." He encourages brands to be distinctive and authentic, rather than conforming to the conventions of their category.

Example: Instead of saying "We have significantly better deals than anyone else online for your weekend getaways. Book now," a luxury hotel deal suite using the tone of voice "pack lightly" might say "Fivestar empty beds. 80% off. Don't overthink it."

Developing a Unique Tone of Voice

Logan helps clients define their tone of voice by identifying three unique personality traits that dimensionalize each other. He then creates a definition that everyone can understand and relate to.

Examples:

• Luxury hotel deals: Worldly, witty, and unfussy. Voice sounds like "we pack lightly."
• Betting agency: Sharp, cheeky, and uncomplicated. Voice speaks "with a wink."
• Quantis airlines: Genuine, helpful, and warm. Voice speaks "like home."

Three Mistakes of Traditional Marketing

1. Talking about yourself: Focus on how you help customers achieve their quests.
2. Being too rational: Start with tension and connect with emotions.
3. Talking like everybody else: Create a different tone of voice and avoid cliches.

Greg Logan's Tone of Voice

Logan describes his own tone of voice as brutally honest, engaging, and (though he initially forgets) kind. His defining phrase is "tell it like it is," which translates to short, sharp, and unafraid to say things others wouldn't. The interviewer suggests "packs a punch" as another fitting description.

Creating a Blockbuster Brand Book and Quiz

Logan's book, "Creating a Blockbuster Brand," breaks down the 11 formulas for brand storytelling and includes examples and QR codes for online videos. He also created a quiz at storytellingquiz.com to help businesses assess their brand messaging and identify areas for improvement. The quiz offers a free chapter from the book on the quest formula.

Synthesis/Conclusion

Greg Logan's approach to brand storytelling emphasizes the power of emotional connection and the importance of adapting Hollywood's successful storytelling formulas for business. By focusing on the customer's quest, avoiding corporate cliches, and developing a unique tone of voice, brands can create more engaging and memorable messages that resonate with their audience and drive results. His book and quiz provide practical tools and frameworks for businesses to improve their brand storytelling and achieve blockbuster results.