Building A StoryBrand
By: Donald Miller
HarperCollins Leadership (October 10, 2017)
240 pages
Building A Storybrand is the book that goes as a companion to Donald Miller’s marketing business, storybrand.com. The firm offers internet courses, blog posts, live seminars, and a podcast helping customers clarify their message. I love the line that Miller hammers home to all business leaders: Customers do not buy the best product – they buy what is easiest to understand. I enjoyed seeing how Donald Trump – knowingly or not – used the StoryBrand framework while campaigning for president. This book was a big change from Miller’s normal memoir format.
Two of my favorite quotes:
In stories, characters never take action on their own. They have to be challenged to take action. Tom Cruise’s character would never have journeyed to pick up his brother in the movie Rain Man unless he’d received a call explaining his father had died. Romeo wouldn’t have climbed into the Capulet courtyard unless he’d fallen sick with love for Juliet. Elle Woods wouldn’t have applied to Harvard unless she’d been dumped by her boyfriend. Liam Neeson’s character wouldn’t have chased the bad guys to Europe unless his daughter had been kidnapped.
Customers don’t generally care about your story; they care about their own. Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand. This is the secret every phenomenally successful business understands.
