My niece’s 3rd birthday party was quite strange. 

There was a lot of blue and white. Kids and adults were not dressed in what you would call ‘a normal birthday attire’. Instead, all I could see were princesses and snow. What was happening? 

It took me a while to realize that they were following a pattern. The birthday party was inspired by the movie – Frozen. The birthday party was based on a theme.

It’s not just the movies.

Brand stories have a theme too.

You can use these themes to build a brand story that attracts the right audience. 

Here are the 3 themes that we will explore today – 

  1. Good vs. Evil
  2. Counter-intuitive thinking
  3. Expert view

1. Good vs. Evil

Good vs. Evil is perhaps the simplest of them all. We see it everywhere. Its most commonly seen in fiction – Books and Movies. People love a hero… but more importantly, they love a villain. 

Here are a few examples of fiction that embody this theme – 

  • Harry Potter vs. Lord Voldemort
  • Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader
  • Frodo vs. Sauron

Brands can use this theme by defining an enemy that it’s fighting The Hero in this case is the Customer and the villain is the status quo that your brand is helping the customer fight. People love to cheer a hero. And hence, this theme works. 

Let’s see how a few brands that have adopted the Good vs. Evil theme

  1. Andre Chaperon fights short-term, spammy, mass marketing.
  2. Louis Grenier fights ‘Marketing Bullshit’
  3. Upekkha fights Vanity Saas and helps Saas brands in India grow by helping them embrace Value Saas. 

(I need to put a giant asterisk here and mention that the brand is never the Hero of the story. The Buyer is the Hero. Always!)

2. Counter-intuitive thinking

As the name suggests, this theme is all about going against the conventional point of view that exists in the market. 

If everyone is zigging, you zag.

If the conventional point of view in your market says that “You need more Traffic” then the Counter-Intuitive point of view would be – “You don’t need more traffic. You can create a profitable business with a tiny amount of traffic.

Counter-intuitive thinking grabs attention for the simple reason that it’s unexpected. And as Heath and Dan Chip have pointed out in their legendary book ‘Made to Stick’, ‘unexpectedness’ is one element that makes a story memorable.

Here are examples of how brands have used Counter-Intuitive thinking to create their story – 

  1. In his book ‘The Company of One’, Paul Jarvis argues that business owners can be happier if they choose to keep their business small. Relentless focus on growth is not always the best strategy. This advice flies in the face of the conventional advice that says – “Grow at any cost”.
  2. How do creative agencies usually get clients? The traditional process looks something like this – Spend a considerable amount of time creating a pitch, give free ideas to the prospect, and hopefully by the end of it, the prospect becomes a client. Blair Enns was fed up. He wanted to change this process. He started “Win Without Pitching” to help creative agencies get clients, without going through this traditional, grueling process. 

3. Expert/Insider view

If you have been in the industry for a long time and have accumulated enough expertise, you are the insider, who has an expert view… a unique take on things.

You have been there. And you have done that.

You can use this expertise to create a story for your brand. 

Example –

  1. Michael Hauge is a story consultant, and for years he has been teaching the craft of storytelling to authors, screenplay writers, and so on.

But isn’t Good vs. Evil very similar to Counter-Intuitive thinking?

It is and it is not. The intention here is not to treat this as a mathematical formula that you can use. It’s quite possible that one theme has overlapping elements with the other… and that’s okay. Play around with this. Get creative. These themes are just starting points. And it may happen that your story theme doesn’t fit precisely into what we just described. And that’s okay. 

To summarize, successful brands have a compelling brand story that pulls a few people. This story plays a crucial role in creating your 1000 true fans. To get started you can choose from these 3 themes –

1. Good vs. Evil

2. Counter-intuitive thinking

3. Expert view

So now tell me, what is your story?

My niece’s 3rd birthday party was quite strange. 

There was a lot of blue and white. Kids and adults were not dressed in what you would call ‘a normal birthday attire’. Instead, all I could see were princesses and snow. What was happening? 

It took me a while to realize that they were following a pattern. The birthday party was inspired by the movie – Frozen. The birthday party was based on a theme.

It’s not just the movies.

Brand stories have a theme too.

You can use these themes to build a brand story that attracts the right audience. 

Here are the 3 themes that we will explore today – 

  1. Good vs. Evil
  2. Counter-intuitive thinking
  3. Expert view

1. Good vs. Evil

Good vs. Evil is perhaps the simplest of them all. We see it everywhere. Its most commonly seen in fiction – Books and Movies. People love a hero… but more importantly, they love a villain. 

Here are a few examples of fiction that embody this theme – 

  • Harry Potter vs. Lord Voldemort
  • Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader
  • Frodo vs. Sauron

Brands can use this theme by defining an enemy that it’s fighting The Hero in this case is the Customer and the villain is the status quo that your brand is helping the customer fight. People love to cheer a hero. And hence, this theme works. 

Let’s see how a few brands that have adopted the Good vs. Evil theme

  1. Andre Chaperon fights short-term, spammy, mass marketing.
  2. Louis Grenier fights ‘Marketing Bullshit’
  3. Upekkha fights Vanity Saas and helps Saas brands in India grow by helping them embrace Value Saas. 

(I need to put a giant asterisk here and mention that the brand is never the Hero of the story. The Buyer is the Hero. Always!)

2. Counter-intuitive thinking

As the name suggests, this theme is all about going against the conventional point of view that exists in the market. 

If everyone is zigging, you zag.

If the conventional point of view in your market says that “You need more Traffic” then the Counter-Intuitive point of view would be – “You don’t need more traffic. You can create a profitable business with a tiny amount of traffic.

Counter-intuitive thinking grabs attention for the simple reason that it’s unexpected. And as Heath and Dan Chip have pointed out in their legendary book ‘Made to Stick’, ‘unexpectedness’ is one element that makes a story memorable.

Here are examples of how brands have used Counter-Intuitive thinking to create their story – 

  1. In his book ‘The Company of One’, Paul Jarvis argues that business owners can be happier if they choose to keep their business small. Relentless focus on growth is not always the best strategy. This advice flies in the face of the conventional advice that says – “Grow at any cost”.
  2. How do creative agencies usually get clients? The traditional process looks something like this – Spend a considerable amount of time creating a pitch, give free ideas to the prospect, and hopefully by the end of it, the prospect becomes a client. Blair Enns was fed up. He wanted to change this process. He started “Win Without Pitching” to help creative agencies get clients, without going through this traditional, grueling process. 

3. Expert/Insider view

If you have been in the industry for a long time and have accumulated enough expertise, you are the insider, who has an expert view… a unique take on things.

You have been there. And you have done that.

You can use this expertise to create a story for your brand. 

Example –

  1. Michael Hauge is a story consultant, and for years he has been teaching the craft of storytelling to authors, screenplay writers, and so on.

But isn’t Good vs. Evil very similar to Counter-Intuitive thinking?

It is and it is not. The intention here is not to treat this as a mathematical formula that you can use. It’s quite possible that one theme has overlapping elements with the other… and that’s okay. Play around with this. Get creative. These themes are just starting points. And it may happen that your story theme doesn’t fit precisely into what we just described. And that’s okay. 

To summarize, successful brands have a compelling brand story that pulls a few people. This story plays a crucial role in creating your 1000 true fans. To get started you can choose from these 3 themes –

1. Good vs. Evil

2. Counter-intuitive thinking

3. Expert view

So now tell me, what is your story?