How to Make Your Customer the HERO
Most marketing fails. Here’s the first step to creating EFFECTIVE marketing.
You’ve got an amazing product lineup, you’re ready to take on the world, taking a dive into the unknown chaotic realm of marketing.
Feeling quite daring, you may have even invested a few hundred dollars into Social Media or Google Advertisements. A-Ha’s “Take on Me” is quite literally your soundtrack for life right now.
I’ve got some bad news for you…
Most marketing is 💩
You’re probably aware, customers don’t just magically appear. Marketing (in one form or another) is the only way you will get customers.
But most marketing fails…and it’s not just you.
30,000 new consumer products are launched annually, 95% of them fail. — Publicity May 3, 2017
Other studies like Neilson show product failure, even within the food industry failing between 70 - 80 percent. Ouch.
Some say the 80% failure is just an urban myth, claiming the fail-rate lands more around 49%. But even the fail-rate-deniers are basically saying your product has a coin-flip chance of success or fail.
Who would be so crazy to create a new product in a market epidemic like this?
Most products are amazing, they solve real problems, and the people who make those products can have the best intentions, completely passion driven, innovative at the core, yet see critical failure because of BAD MARKETING.
The odds aren't looking good.
What if you could tilt the odds in your favor?
Your business doesn’t have to fail because of marketing. I know what it feels like to be over your head and overwhelmed when it comes to both running and marketing your business.
For years I struggled on the never ending marketing treadmill, with small successes coming at the cost of my business. I was full of anxiety and stress just trying to keep things afloat.
But then I discovered a better way, I found the common thread of successful marketing…an 8 step formula that makes marketing clearer, more effective, and easier than ever: creating a customer-centered story.
This tried-and-true 8 step formula (called the Story Circle) has everything you need to tilt the odds in your favor by clarifying your value. In this article I’ll guide you through the first step of the Story Circle.
The First Step of the Story Circle
Welcome to the Story Circle. Starting at the top, we have the very first step of the formula. From the very beginning we’ll define a primary character, and your story will be all about them.
Why do we do this?
Without establishing a primary character, your customer has nothing to connect with. Without anything to connect to, your audience looses interest and moves on.
“The audience is floating freely, like a ghost, until you give them a place to land.”
— Dan Harmon
If your audience is not inside a character, they are not inside the story.
How do you put your audience inside a character?
EASY, show one!
Every business has multiple types of people it impacts.
Some stories, like many businesses, have many different characters with different needs.
We call these groupings of people “Hero Stories” and each one can be represented with their own Story Circle.
Think about who you want your business to attract. These will be clients, customers needing a specific product/service you provide. It’s very possible you have a different customer type for each product you have. If you have a few different products, go ahead and create a Hero for each one you offer.
EXERCISE: who are three different “Heroes” effected by your business/solution?
A lot of Hollywood stories these days have multiple Heroes, especially if its anyway related to the Avengers…there are at least 10 different heroes in those Marvel films. Those stories bounce us from character to character until we land comfortably in the main characters shoes.
Bouncing can work, but it doesn’t work most of the time…think of those other not-so-great superhero gang flicks (Suicide Squad we are looking at you) just like bad marketing, they lack focus.
This is the same for business, if bouncing heroes goes on for more than 25% of your total story, you’re going to lose the audience.
The key is to hone in your focus.
Through the exercise, you should have a few Heroes written down…now I’m going ask you to do something very difficult. As we move forward, in your story we will use a simple story structure selecting a single main character.
It’s tough right? We naturally want to include everyone, we don’t want to hurt feelings or worse yet, loose potential business. Most businesses think and make decisions this way.
What if I told you, this is a huge reason WHY most marketing fails.
The secret to effective marketing is clarity. A clear message is only possible through simplification. We can’t afford bad marketing. Let’s avoid the confusion of hero bouncing, choose one Hero, then tell their story.
Describe a normal day for your Hero
Are they a Mom, a Dad, a child or a grandparent? What would a normal day look like for them? This doesn’t have to be perfect, but its worth the effort to write this out.
This helps give real world context to your product, and will not only provide the backdrop for your marketing, but it will also resonate with your customer.
Mom grabs that new product from a grocery bag with her child, the child’s eyes light up with delight as the product is revealed.
There’s a good reason why food products show a mom in a kitchen with her child. Why?
“Women drive 70–80% of all consumer purchasing, through a combination of their buying power and influence.“ — Forbes
“Influence means that even when a woman isn’t paying for something herself, she is often the influence or veto vote behind someone else’s purchase.” — Forbes, Top 10 Things Everyone Should Know About Women Consumers
Good produce marketers know who’s the person really making those decisions about their canned tomatoes, breakfast cereals…or vitamin gummy bears.
The Hero “Mom” is trying to make the healthiest decision for her child, while simultaneously avoiding a monolithic tantrum.
The kitchen is an emotional war zone…this new product brings peace between peoples.
The secret here is putting your product where it will be naturally used. Context is king.
What does your Hero want?
The core of the first step of the Story Circle is the desire of the Hero. Desire is the motivator of most changes in life, it’s what keeps us going and achieving more in life. In fact, desire is the root cause for both change and the pain the hero will endure.
Shrek doesn’t want to be the hero or save the princess, he just wants the swamp to himself (desire)
To Shrek, the swamp represents a place where he can be himself. In the swamp he can maintain his self acceptance by avoiding the pressures of society. Who knew an animated kids movie could be so deep?!
…so he becomes heroic braving both dungeons and dragons to save a princess.
Desire is a core motivator and the flow of life
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when DESIRE comes, it is a wellspring of life.” — Jewish Proverb
There is something your hero wants that they don’t have. Donald Miller identifies these desires as necessary to survival in his book Building a StoryBrand. Most survival mechanisms fall into the following basic motivators:
- Saving Resources
- Saving Time
- Building Social Connection
- Achieving Status & Self Identity
- Growing Wealth
- Enabled Generosity
What do they really want? What is the before and after effect of using your product? What will they have now if they use your solution?
Exercise: List your primary hero’s core desires that your solution helps fulfill.
By identifying your customer’s desire, you’ll begin to be able to empathize even more with your audience.
Your audience will only trust people who communicate that they understand their situation and can help them survive…everyone else is too risky or just advertising noise.
If you’re audience knows you have their best interest and desires in mind, you’ll begin to have marketing that is engaging and effective.
Conclusion:
Even though most marketing fails, product failure doesn’t need to be the case for you.
A customer-centric story is the best way to clarify your product for your customer, making your marketing efforts super effective. But you need a formula to make it easy.
By focusing on your primary hero, giving context, and identifying what they want (their core desire) you’ll have completed the first step of the tried-and-true Story Circle formula and tilt the odds in your favor.
UP NEXT: Story Circle Step 2 — When you NEED something
