374: The one marketing communication framework product managers need to know – with J.J. Peterson

How product managers can move their customers to action using the StoryBrand Framework

Today we are talking about how to clearly communicate the value of a product to customers. Specifically, we will learn about a 7-part framework for marketing communications.

Joining us is Dr. J.J. Peterson, whose PhD is specifically about the validity and effectiveness of this framework, which has been used by tens of thousands of organizations. He is also the Chief of Teaching and Facilitation at StoryBrand, a Nashville-based company that helps organizations across the globe clarify their messages so their organizations will grow.

Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers

[2:51] On the StoryBrand website, you say “Even if you have the best product in the marketplace, you will lose to a competitor’s inferior product if they communicate more clearly.” How does the StoryBrand Framework help with this and why does it work so well?

It makes me really angry when people put time and energy into creating great products that never get to people. We’re under this myth that if we build it they will come. In reality, a competitor with an inferior product who communicates more clearly will beat you. Period. That’s not an excuse to not have great products—when you have a great product that solves a customer problem and makes people’s lives better, you need to communicate quickly and clearly in a way that invites people into a beautiful story to do business.

Our brains are designed to keep us alive by looking for information that helps us survive and thrive and conserving thinking calories. If you’re communicating anything that doesn’t contribute to survival and thriving, or if it’s confusing or overwhelming, people’s bodies are designed to tune you out. Most of us daydream about 30% of our day, as a survival mechanism, but when we watch a movie or read a book, it does the daydreaming for us and helps us make sense of the story and of life. Stories help us focus on important information and give us a formulaic way of thinking. The people selling inferior products are able to do it because they communicate in such a way that customers know how the product will help them survive and thrive and can immediately make a decision.

[10:44] Take us through the StoryBrand Framework.

Every good story has seven elements or plot points. These rules go back to Aristotle and Plato, who argued that if you want to move society to action, the best way to do it is through story. Studies have shown that the better the story (meaning the better it follows the rules), the more likely someone will see themselves in the story—that’s called narrative transportation. When an audience experiences narrative transportation, they are more likely to be moved to action.

Here are the seven elements:

* Character want—we need to clearly know early in the story what the hero wants

* Problem—something gets in the way of what the character wants

* Guide—someone with empathy and authority who helps the hero solve the problem

* Plan—the guide gives the hero a clear, simple path to win

* Call to action—a moment when the hero must be in or out; often there’s a timer that limits how much time they have to act

* Failure—we know how this story can end in tragedy

* Success—we know what success would look like

We summarize this as: 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 Success.

[17:48] How do we apply these story elements to marketing?

Position your customer as the hero of the story and your product or business as the guide. If you make your product the hero, and the customer is also positioning themselves as the hero, you’re in competing stories. This communication framework works for marketing...